This volume deals with canonical quantization, Feynman rules and renormalization of Yang-Mills theories in algebraic non-covariant gauges (typically axial and light-cone gauges). The material is self-contained and presented in a basic manner according to a personal style representative of a long lasting activity in the field. Emphasis is always placed on the underlying basic concepts of Quantum Field Theory, even when particular examples are treated, details and the related difficulties are thoroughly discussed. The value of the book goes beyond the specificity of its subject.

Some of the most effective gauges in field theory are noncovariant gauges of the axial kind, such as the light-cone gauge and the temporal gauge. The principal advantage of these gauges stems from the decoupling of the fictitious particles in the theory. The purpose of this volume is to give a clear and readable account of the basic features and mathematical subtleties of these ghost-free gauges, and of their truly enormous range of applicability.In addition to explicit one-loop computations in Yang-Mills and Chern-Simons theory, the book contains detailed analysis of the unifield-gauge formalism and of the renormalization of Yang-Mills theory in the presence of nonlocal terms.

This volume is a natural continuation of the book Algebraic Renormalization, Perturbative Renormalization, Symmetries and Anomalies, by O Piguet and S P Sorella, with the aim of applying the algebraic renormalization procedure to gauge field models quantized in nonstandard gauges. The main ingredient of the algebraic renormalization program is the quantum action principle, which allows one to control in a unique manner the breaking of a symmetry induced by a noninvariant subtraction scheme. In particular, the volume studies in-depth the following quantized gauge field models: QED, Yang-Mills theories and topological models (the Chern-Simons and the BF model) in the context of axial-like gauges.

Some of the most effective gauges in field theory are noncovariant gauges of the axial kind, such as the light-cone gauge and the temporal gauge. The principal advantage of these gauges stems from the decoupling of the fictitious particles in the theory. The purpose of this volume is to give a clear and readable account of the basic features and mathematical subtleties of these ghost-free gauges, and of their truly enormous range of applicability.In addition to explicit one-loop computations in Yang-Mills and Chern-Simons theory, the book contains detailed analysis of the unifield-gauge formalism and of the renormalization of Yang-Mills theory in the presence of nonlocal terms.

During the course of this century, gauge invariance has slowly emerged from being an incidental symmetry of electromagnetism to being a fundamental geometrical principle underlying the four known fundamental physical interactions. The development has been in two stages. In the first stage (1916-1956) the geometrical significance of gauge-invariance gradually came to be appreciated and the original abelian gauge-invariance of electromagnetism was generalized to non-abelian gauge invariance. In the second stage (1960-1975) it was found that, contrary to first appearances, the non-abelian gauge-theories provided exactly the framework that was needed to describe the nuclear interactions (both weak and strong) and thus provided a universal framework for describing all known fundamental interactions. In this work, Lochlainn O'Raifeartaigh describes the former phase. O'Raifeartaigh first illustrates how gravitational theory and quantum mechanics played crucial roles in the reassessment of gauge theory as a geometric principle and as a framework for describing both electromagnetism and gravitation. He then describes how the abelian electromagnetic gauge-theory was generalized to its present non-abelian form. The development is illustrated by including a selection of relevant articles, many of them appearing here for the first time in English, notably by Weyl, Schrodinger, Klein, and London in the pre-war years, and by Pauli, Shaw, Yang-Mills, and Utiyama after the war. The articles illustrate that the reassessment of gauge-theory, due in a large measure to Weyl, constituted a major philosophical as well as technical advance.

This latest edition enhances the material of the first edition with a derivation of the value of the action for each of the Harrington–Shepard calorons/anticalorons that are relevant for the emergence of the thermal ground state. Also included are discussions of the caloron center versus its periphery, the role of the thermal ground state in U(1) wave propagation, photonic particle–wave duality, and calculational intricacies and book-keeping related to one-loop scattering of massless modes in the deconfining phase of an SU(2) Yang–Mills theory. Moreover, a derivation of the temperature–redshift relation of the CMB in deconfining SU(2) Yang–Mills thermodynamics and its application to explaining an apparent early re-ionization of the Universe are given. Finally, a mechanism of mass generation for cosmic neutrinos is proposed. Contents: Theory:The Classical Yang–Mills ActionThe Perturbative Approach at Zero TemperatureAspects of Finite-Temperature Field TheorySelfdual Field ConfigurationsThe Deconfining PhaseThe Preconfining PhaseThe Confining PhaseApplications:The Approach of Thermal Lattice Gauge TheoryBlack-Body AnomalyAstrophysical and Cosmological Implications of SU(2)CMB Readership: Advanced students, postdocs and researchers in theoretical physics and mathematics, as well as experimentalists.

The book discusses fundamental aspects of Quantum Field Theory and of Gauge theories, with attention to mathematical consistency. Basic issues of the standard model of elementary particles (Higgs mechanism and chiral symmetry breaking in quantum Chromodynamics) are treated without relying on the perturbative expansion and on instanton calculus.

The idea of this book originated from two series of lectures given by us at the Physics Department of the Catholic University of Petr6polis, in Brazil. Its aim is to present an introduction to the "algebraic" method in the perturbative renormalization of relativistic quantum field theory. Although this approach goes back to the pioneering works of Symanzik in the early 1970s and was systematized by Becchi, Rouet and Stora as early as 1972-1974, its full value has not yet been widely appreciated by the practitioners of quantum field theory. Becchi, Rouet and Stora have, however, shown it to be a powerful tool for proving the renormalizability of theories with (broken) symmetries and of gauge theories. We have thus found it pertinent to collect in a self-contained manner the available information on algebraic renormalization, which was previously scattered in many original papers and in a few older review articles. Although we have taken care to adapt the level of this book to that of a po- graduate (Ph. D. ) course, more advanced researchers will also certainly find it useful. The deeper knowledge of renormalization theory we hope readers will acquire should help them to face the difficult problems of quantum field theory. It should also be very helpful to the more phenomenology oriented readers who want to famili- ize themselves with the formalism of renormalization theory, a necessity in view of the sophisticated perturbative calculations currently being done, in particular in the standard model of particle interactions.

The book gives an introduction to Weyl non-regular quantization suitable for the description of physically interesting quantum systems, where the traditional Dirac-Heisenberg quantization is not applicable. The latter implicitly assumes that the canonical variables describe observables, entailing necessarily the regularity of their exponentials (Weyl operators). However, in physically interesting cases -- typically in the presence of a gauge symmetry -- non-observable canonical variables are introduced for the description of the states, namely of the relevant representations of the observable algebra. In general, a gauge invariant ground state defines a non-regular representation of the gauge dependent Weyl operators, providing a mathematically consistent treatment of familiar quantum systems -- such as the electron in a periodic potential (Bloch electron), the Quantum Hall electron, or the quantum particle on a circle -- where the gauge transformations are, respectively, the lattice translations, the magnetic translations and the rotations of 2π. Relevant examples are also provided by quantum gauge field theory models, in particular by the temporal gauge of Quantum Electrodynamics, avoiding the conflict between the Gauss law constraint and the Dirac-Heisenberg canonical quantization. The same applies to Quantum Chromodynamics, where the non-regular quantization of the temporal gauge provides a simple solution of the U(1) problem and a simple link between the vacuum structure and the topology of the gauge group. Last but not least, Weyl non-regular quantization is briefly discussed from the perspective of the so-called polymer representations proposed for Loop Quantum Gravity in connection with diffeomorphism invariant vacuum states.

This book provides a thorough description of the manifestly covariant canonical formalism of the abelian and non-abelian gauge theories and quantum gravity. The emphasis is on its non-perturbative nature and the non-use of the path-integral approach. The formalism presented here is extremely beautiful and transparent.