Ervin Goldfain. Ghost-free Quantization of Gauge Theory on Minimal Fractal Manifolds: Part I
Natural Sciences / Physics / Quantum field theory
Submitted on: Aug 12, 2015, 13:28:17
Description: It is known that quantization of massless spin-1 particles runs into several related complications such as the redundancy of gauge orbits, the presence of extra degrees of freedom and the need to introduce EghostE fields. The textbook interpretation of quantum gauge theory is that EghostsE are unphysical objects whose function is to preserve Lorentz covariance and unitarity. In particular, Faddeev-Popov EghostsE (FPG) violate the spin-statistics theorem and are devoid of measurable properties. FPG are shown to decouple from the spectrum of observable states, yet it remains unclear how their presence in loop diagrams and their interaction with gauge fields is even possible in the absence of any physical attributes. The first part of this report is a brief pedagogical review of gauge field quantization. The second part builds up on the idea that, at least in principle, the concept of spacetime endowed with minimal fractality enables a EghostE-free formulation of quantum gauge theory. An added benefit of this insight is that it sets the stage for a non-perturbative understanding of vacuum polarization in Quantum Electrodynamics.