This first volume develops factorization algebras with a focus upon examples exhibiting their use in field theory, which will be useful for researchers and graduates.

Factorization algebras are local-to-global objects that play a role in classical and quantum field theory which is similar to the role of sheaves in geometry: they conveniently organize complicated information. Their local structure encompasses examples like associative and vertex algebras; in these examples, their global structure encompasses Hochschild homology and conformal blocks. In this first volume, the authors develop the theory of factorization algebras in depth, but with a focus upon examples exhibiting their use in field theory, such as the recovery of a vertex algebra from a chiral conformal field theory and a quantum group from Abelian Chern-Simons theory. Expositions of the relevant background in homological algebra, sheaves and functional analysis are also included, thus making this book ideal for researchers and graduates working at the interface between mathematics and physics.

Factorization algebras are local-to-global objects that play a role in classical and quantum field theory that is similar to the role of sheaves in geometry: they conveniently organize complicated information. Their local structure encompasses examples like associative and vertex algebras; in these examples, their global structure encompasses Hochschild homology and conformal blocks. In this second volume, the authors show how factorization algebras arise from interacting field theories, both classical and quantum, and how they encode essential information such as operator product expansions, Noether currents, and anomalies. Along with a systematic reworking of the Batalin–Vilkovisky formalism via derived geometry and factorization algebras, this book offers concrete examples from physics, ranging from angular momentum and Virasoro symmetries to a five-dimensional gauge theory.

This second volume shows how factorization algebras arise from interacting field theories, both classical and quantum.

The monograph summarizes recent achievements in the calculation of matrix elements of local operators (form factors) for completely integrable models. Particularly, it deals with sine-Gordon, chiral Gross-Neven and O(3) nonlinear s models. General requirements on form factors are formulated and explicit formulas for form factors of most fundamental local operators are presented for the above mentioned models.

This book introduces the factorization method in quantum mechanics at an advanced level, with the aim of putting mathematical and physical concepts and techniques like the factorization method, Lie algebras, matrix elements and quantum control at the reader’s disposal. For this purpose, the text provides a comprehensive description of the factorization method and its wide applications in quantum mechanics which complements the traditional coverage found in quantum mechanics textbooks.

This book provides an informal and geodesic introduction to factorization homology, focusing on providing intuition through simple examples. Along the way, the reader is also introduced to modern ideas in homotopy theory and category theory, particularly as it relates to the use of infinity-categories. As with the original lectures, the text is meant to be a leisurely read suitable for advanced graduate students and interested researchers in topology and adjacent fields.

This book provides a general and powerful definition of homotopy algebraic quantum field theory and homotopy prefactorization algebra using a new coend definition of the Boardman-Vogt construction for a colored operad. All of their homotopy coherent structures are explained in details, along with a comparison between the two approaches at the operad level. With chapters on basic category theory, trees, and operads, this book is self-contained and is accessible to graduate students.

This volume contains the proceedings of the NSF-CBMS Regional Conference on Topological and Geometric Methods in QFT, held from July 31–August 4, 2017, at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. In recent decades, there has been a movement to axiomatize quantum field theory into a mathematical structure. In a different direction, one can ask to test these axiom systems against physics. Can they be used to rederive known facts about quantum theories or, better yet, be the framework in which to solve open problems? Recently, Freed and Hopkins have provided a solution to a classification problem in condensed matter theory, which is ultimately based on the field theory axioms of Graeme Segal. Papers contained in this volume amplify various aspects of the Freed–Hopkins program, develop some category theory, which lies behind the cobordism hypothesis, the major structure theorem for topological field theories, and relate to Costello's approach to perturbative quantum field theory. Two papers on the latter use this framework to recover fundamental results about some physical theories: two-dimensional sigma-models and the bosonic string. Perhaps it is surprising that such sparse axiom systems encode enough structure to prove important results in physics. These successes can be taken as encouragement that the axiom systems are at least on the right track toward articulating what a quantum field theory is.

Corina Keller studies non-perturbative facets of abelian Chern-Simons theories. This is a refinement of the entirely perturbative approach to classical Chern-Simons theory via homotopy factorization algebras of observables that arise from the associated formal moduli problem describing deformations of flat principal bundles with connections over the spacetime manifold. The author shows that for theories with abelian group structure, this factorization algebra of classical observables comes naturally equipped with an action of the gauge group, which allows to encode non-perturbative effects in the classical observables. About the Author: Corina Keller currently is a doctoral student in the research group of Prof. Dr. Damien Calaque at the Université Montpellier, France. She is mostly interested in the mathematical study of field theories. Her master’s thesis was supervised by PD Dr. Alessandro Valentino and Prof. Dr. Alberto Cattaneo at Zurich University, Switzerland.