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The notion of formal deformation quantization (often taken to be the default notion of deformation quantization) is one formalization of the general idea of quantization of a classical mechanical system/classical field theory to a quantum mechanical system/quantum field theory, at least perturbatively in small (really: infinitesimal) values of Planck's constant .
Formal deformation quantization focuses on the algebras of observables of a physical system (hence on the Heisenberg picture): it provides rules for how to deform the commutative algebra of classical observables to a non-commutative algebra of quantum observables. (This is in contrast to geometric quantization, which focuses on the spaces of states and hence on the Schrödinger picture.)
Usually and traditionally, deformation quantization refers to (just) formal deformations, in the sense that it produces formal power series expansions in a formal parameter (physically: Planck's constant) of the product in the deformed algebra of observables.
classical mechanics | semiclassical approximation | … | formal deformation quantization | quantum mechanics |
---|---|---|---|---|
(This is related to perturbation theory, which is about formal power series in coupling constants, instead of in Planck's constant.)
But there are refinements of this to C-star algebraic deformation quantization which studies the proper deformation to a genuine C-star algebra of observables. (This in turn is related to genuine geometric quantization via the notion of geometric quantization of symplectic groupoids.)
One can, therefore, argue that only strict deformation quantization is genuine quantization. For instance in (Gukov-Witten 09, section 1.4) it says
Generally speaking, physics is based on strict quantization, rather than formal deformation quantization, although conventional quantization sometimes leads to problems that can be treated by deformation quantization.
As other methods of quantization, deformation quantization has as input a description of a classical mechanical system, which is in this case most often a smooth Poisson manifold. The deformation quantization replaces the algebra of smooth functions on the Poisson manifold with the same vector space, but equipped with new noncommutative associative unital product whose commutator agrees, up to order , with the underlying Poisson bracket. Of course the proper study of quantization of Poisson manifolds studied the appropriate notion at the level of sheaves of algebras. Gluing local solutions to the quantization problem furthermore involves stacks and specifically gerbes.
If the result of deformation quantization is an algebra over the power series ring of a formal parameter (thought of as Planck's constant) such that the limit reproduces the starting point of the deformation, then one speaks of
In much of the literature this is regarded as the default meaning of “deformation quantization”. But this is really the case corresponding to perturbation theory in quantum field theory. A “genuine” or “strict” deformation quantization
is supposed to result in a non-formal deformation, which in terms of the above formal power series at least means that one can set such that all expressions in converge, but which in general is taken to mean something stronger, such as that there is a continuous field of C-star algebraic deformation quantization.
We first give the traditional
of a Poisson manifold/Poisson algebra. Thought of in terms of physics this describes a quantization of a system of quantum mechanics, as opposed to full quantum field theory.
More abstractly, this may be formulated and generalized in terms of lifts of algebras over an operad over a P-n operad? to a BD-n operad? and hence an E-n operad, for . This we discuss in
In this formulation one sees that for genral the construction applies to -dimensional quantum field theory (with quantum mechanics for be 1-dimensional quantum field theory, for instance the sigma-model “on the worldline” of a particle). A formulation of deformation quantization to local quantum field theory formulated in terms of factorization algebras of observables over spacetime/worldvolume is indicated in (Costello-Gwilliam, chapter 5).
Let be a Poisson manifold and let be the Poisson algebra of smooth functions.
A -product (star product) on is a product on the power series that is (1) bilinear over , (2) associative, and (3) for it can be written out as a formal power series
where are bilinear maps on such that .
A (formal) deformation quantization of is a star product on such that the Poisson bracket for ; by bilinearity over , this characterizes it.
(…)
(Costello-Gwilliam, section 2.3, 2.4)
(…)
algebraic deformation quantization
dimension | classical field theory | Lagrangian BV quantum field theory | factorization algebra of observables |
---|---|---|---|
general | P-n algebra | BD-n algebra? | E-n algebra |
Poisson 0-algebra | BD-0 algebra? = BD algebra | E-0 algebra? = pointed space | |
P-1 algebra = Poisson algebra | BD-1 algebra? | E-1 algebra? = A-∞ algebra |
Deformation quantization in perturbative quantum field theory is discussed for free field theory via Moyal deformation quantization yielding Wick algebras in (Dütsch-Fredenhagen 00, Hirschfeld-Henselder 02), and for interacting perturbative quantum field theory (perturbative AQFT) via Fedosov deformation quantization in (Collini 16), see also (Hawkins-Rejzner 16).
(…) C-star algebraic deformation quantization (…)
Vladimir Drinfel'd has sketched a proof (and gave main ingredients) to show that every Poisson Lie group can be deformation quantized to a Hopf algebra; this proof has been completed by Etingof and Kazhdan. Maxim Kontsevich proved a certain formality theorem (formality is here in the sense of formal dg-algebra in rational homotopy theory) whose main corollary (and motivation) was the statement that every Poisson manifold has a deformation quantization (Kontsevich 97).
For symplectic manifolds and those Poisson manifolds that have a regular foliation by symplectic leafs, the theory of deformation quantization is much simpler; Boris Fedosov gave a construction of star products on symplectic manifolds using symplectic connections on smooth manifolds (Fedosov 94), see at Fedosov's deformation quantization. An analogous argument was given by Roman Bezrukavnikov and Dmitry Kaledin in the context of an algebraic symplectic form (BK 04).
Caution: the following are rough notes from a talk by J.D.S. Jones (Cambridge, 8.1.2013); there are probably many typos and sign errors.
(Kontsevich). Every Poisson manifold has a (formal) deformation quantization.
This was shown in (Kontsevich 97). There the deformed product is constructed by a kind of Feynman diagram perturbation series. Later this was identified as the perturbation series of the Poisson sigma-model for the given Poisson manifold. See there for more details.
(Not from the notes of J.D.S. Jones)
Let be a smooth algebraic variety over a field of characteristic . The analogue of the HKR Theorem here is this:
(Swan, Yekutieli). There is a canonical isomorphism
Here is the tangent sheaf of , and is embedded diagonally in .
This is a consequence of the following result. Let be the sheaf of continuous Hochschild cochains of . It is a bounded below complex of quasi-coherent -modules.
(Yekutieli).
There is a canonical isomorphism
in the derived category of -modules.
There is a canonical quasi-isomorphism of complexes of -modules
Therefore there is a canonical isomorphism
in the derived category of -modules.
The relation to deformation quantization is this: is a shift by of the sheaf of of polydifferential operators (viewed only as a complex of quasi-coherent -modules). Similarly, is the shift by of the sheaf of polyvector fields. Thus item 2 in the theorem above says that there is a canonical -linear quasi-isomorphism
Trying to replicate the global formality theorem of Kontsevich, one would like to upgrade this to an quasi-isomorphism. However, it seems that in general this cannot be done directly, but only after a suitable resolution.
Here is the result. (See also Van den Bergh.) Any quasi-coherent sheaf on admits a canonical flasque resolution called the mixed resolution:
This “mixes” the jet resolution with the Cech resolution (corresponding to an affine open covering of that we suppress). In particular there are quasi-isomorphisms of sheaves of DG Lie algebras
and
(Yekutieli). There is an quasi-isomorphism
whose -st order term commutes with the HKR quasi-isomorphism above. It is independent of choices up to quasi-isomorphism.
A Poisson deformation of is a sheaf of Poisson -algebras on , with an isomorphism called an augmentation. Likewise an associative deformation of is a sheaf of associative unital (but noncommutative) -algebras on , with an augmentation to .
Theorem 4 implies:
(Yekutieli). Assume that the cohomology groups and vanish. Then there is a canonical bijection
called quantization. It preserves first order brackets.
When is affine this is Theorem 0.1 of this paper. For the full statement see Corollary 11.2 of this paper.
For twisted (or stacky) deformations there is a corresponding (but much more difficult to state and prove). See the paper and the survey.
Let be a -vector space and consider . We define a “circle operator” as follows: for and , we define as the map
For , let . (This is graded symmetric.) It follows that the commutator of is given by
where when . This defines a graded Lie bracket of degree -1.
Let (). Note that is associative iff iff . Let be defined by . We have so becomes a differential graded algebra. In fact this is the Hochschild cochain complex of the associative algebra .
Apply this example to the construction of deformation quantization. The star product is uniquely determined by given by . What we want is that
write this out and we get the equation
or ; this is the Maurer-Cartan equation. Hence we are looking for solutions of the M-C equation but in the Hochschild complex . One should note that is actually a derivation of the Lie bracket, hence we have a dg-Lie algebra.
(HKR theorem). .
(Note that should be interpreted as .) Under this isomorphism the Poisson bracket is mapped to the Poisson tensor:
The bracket in Hochschild cohomology (Gerstenhaber bracket) goes to the Schouten bracket:
For vector fields and , the Schouten bracket satisfies (1) (the Lie bracket), and (2) ; note that this completely determines it (everything is locally given by wedges…).
In the Hochschild cohomology of , and , so we have a solution to M-C in .
Let and be differential graded Lie algebras (dgL). A quasi-isomorphism is a homomorphism of dgLs that induces an isomorphism on homology. and are quasi-isomorphic if there exists with quasi-isomorphisms . It can be verified that this is an equivalence relation.
(Kontsevich). If is quasi-isomorphic to then there is a solution to the M-C equation in iff there is a solution to the M-C equation in .
(Kontsevich formality). is quasi-isomorphic to . ()
Hence there is a solution to M-C in , and hence there is a deformation quantization (!).
We have , the Gerstenhaber bracket, and we also have a cup product
for , ; this satisfies also . The Deligne conjecture gives a relationship between these things.
In , we have:
Such a thing is called a Gerstenhaber algebra. Note that we do not have these relations in , they are only true modulo boundaries.
(Deligne conjecture). is a -algebra, which is a Gerstenhaber algebra up to coherent homotopy.
It is a classical fact [Gutt 1983, §4 (4.2), cf. Gutt 2011, §2.2] that the universal enveloping algebra of a Lie algebra provides a deformation quantization of the corresponding Lie-Poisson structure (example below). Remarkably, this statement generalizes to more general polynomial Poisson algebras (def. below) for a suitable generalized concept of universal enveloping algebra (def. below): it is always true up to third order in , and sometimes to higher order (Penkava-Vanhaecke 00, theorem 3.2, prop. below). In particular it also holds true for restrictions of Poisson bracket Lie algebras to their Heisenberg Lie algebras (example below).
A Poisson algebra is called a polynomial Poisson algebra if the underlying commutative algebra is a polynomial algebra, hence a symmetric algebra
on some vector space . Here
denotes the tensor algebra of . We write
for the canonical projection map (which is an algebra homomorphism) and
for its linear inverse (symmetrization, which is not in general an algebra homomorphism).
Notice that by its bi-derivation property the Poisson bracket on a polynomial Poisson algebra is fixed by its restriction to linear elements
(polynomial Lie-Poisson structure)
Let be a Poisson manifold whose underlying manifold is a Cartesian space . Then the restriction of its Poisson algebra to the polynomial functions is a polynomial Poisson algebra according to def. .
In particular if is a Lie algebra and the corresponding Lie-Poisson manifold, then the corresponding polynomial Poisson algebra is where the restriction of the Poisson bracket to linear polynomial elements coincides with the Lie bracket:
(universal enveloping algebra of polynomial Poisson algebra)
Given a polynomial Poisson algebra (def. ), say that its universal enveloping algebra is the associative algebra which is the quotient of the tensor algebra of with a formal variable adjoined by the two-sided ideal which is generated by the the -Poisson bracket relation on linear elements:
This comes with the quotient projection linear map which we denote by
(Penkava-Vanhaecke 00, def. 3.1)
(universal enveloping algebra of Lie algebra)
In the case of a polynomial Lie-Poisson structure (example ) the universal enveloping algebra from def. (for ) coincides with the standard universal enveloping algebra of the Lie algebra .
The combined linear projection maps from def. and def. we denote by
(universal enveloping algebra provides formal deformation quantization at least up to order 3)
Let be a polynomial Poisson algebra (def. ) such that the canonical linear map to its universal enveloping algebra (def. ) is injective up to order
Then the restriction of the product on to is a formal deformation quantization of to order (hence a genuine deformation quantization in the case that ).
Moreover, this is always the case for , hence for every polynomial Poisson algebra its universal enveloping algebra always provides a deformation quantization of order in .
(Penkava-Vanhaecke 00, theorem 3.2 with section 2)
(formal deformation quantization of Lie-Poisson structures by universal enveloping algebras)
In the following cases the map in prop. is injective to arbitrary order, hence in these cases the universal enveloping algebra provides a genuine formal deformation quantization:
The case that the Poisson bracket is linear in that it restricts as
This is the case of the Lie-Poisson structure from example and the universal enveloping algebra that provides its deformation quantization is the standard one (example ).
More generally, the case that the Poisson bracket restricted to linear elements has linear and constant contribution in that it restricts as
This includes notably the Poisson structures induced by symplectic vector spaces, in which case the restriction
is the Lie bracket of the associated Heisenberg Lie algebra.
This is Penkava & Vanhaecke 2000, p. 26. The first statement in itself is a classical fact (reviewed e.g. in Gutt 2011).
In (Kontsevich 99) it was indicated that a quotient group of the motivic Galois group apparently equivalent to the Grothendieck-Teichmüller group naturally acts on the space of formal deformation quantizations of a finite dimensional manifold. See also at cosmic Galois group.
This has been formalized as follows. The formal deformation quantization of (Kontsevich 97) is all induced by the Kontsevich formality theorem, which states that over suitable manifolds/varieties there is an equivalence of L-∞ algebras
identifying the multivector fields on with the Hochschild cohomology complex (of its function algebra). Every choice of such an equivalence induces one formal deformation quantization of a Poisson manifold , and the two quantizations induced by two equivalent (homotopic) equivalences are in turn equivalent.
Therefore one may regard the ∞-groupoid as the “space of formal deformation quantizations” of .
In (Dolgushev 1109, theorem 6.2, Dolgushev 1111, theorem 3.1) it is shown that the set of connected components of this space is, up to a choice of basepoint, the Grothendieck-Teichmüller group, hence is a torsor over that group.
(This is based on identifications of the GRT Lie algebra with the degree-0 chain cohomology of the graph complex, due to Thomas Willwacher. See at Grothendieck-Teichmüller group – relation to the graph complex.
Aspects of the generalization of this statement to more general spaces then are discussed in Dolgushev-Rogers-Willwacher 12.
For discussion of motivic structures in geometric quantization see at motivic quantization.
deformation quantization, geometric quantization
duality between algebra and geometry
in physics:
Examples of sequences of local structures
The concept of formal deformation quantization originates with:
François Bayen, Moshé Flato, Christian Fronsdal, André Lichnerowicz, Daniel Sternheimer, Deformation theory and quantization. I. Deformations of symplectic structures., Annals of Physics 111 1 (1978) 61-110 [doi:10.1016/0003-4916(78)90224-5]
François Bayen, Moshé Flato, Christian Fronsdal, André Lichnerowicz, Daniel Sternheimer, Deformation theory and quantization. II. Physical applications, Annals of Physics 111 1 (1978) 111-151 [doi:10.1016/0003-4916(78)90225-7]
Review:
Alan Weinstein, Deformation quantization, Séminaire Bourbaki volume 1993/94, exposés 775-789, Astérisque, no. 227 (1995), Talk no. 789 [numdam:SB_1993-1994__36__389_0]
Daniel Sternheimer, Deformation Quantization: Twenty Years After, AIP Conf. Proc. 453 (1998) 107-145 [arXiv:math/9809056]
See also:
Simone Gutt, An explicit -product on the cotangent bundle of a Lie group, Letters in Mathematical Physics 7 (1983) 249–258 [doi:10.1007/BF00400441]
Simone Gutt, Deformation quantization of Poisson manifolds, Geometry and Topology Monographs 17 (2011) 171-220 [gtm:17, pdf, arXiv:math/0003107]
Monographs:
The Fedosov deformation quantization prescription for deformation quantization of symplectic manifolds and varieties and also of Poisson manifolds that have a regular foliation by symplectic leaves is discussed in
Boris Fedosov, Formal quantization, Some Topics of Modern Mathematics and their Applications to Problems of Mathematical Physics (in Russian), Moscow (1985), 129-136.
Boris Fedosov, Index theorem in the algebra of quantum observables, Sov. Phys. Dokl. 34 (1989), 318-321.
Boris Fedosov, A simple geometrical construction of deformation quantization J. Differential Geom. Volume 40, Number 2 (1994), 213-238. (EUCLID)
For algebraic forms this is discussed in
More discussion of this approach is in
A direct and general formula for the deformation quantization of any Poisson manifold was given in
see also
Peter Banks, Erik Panzer, Brent Pym, Multiple zeta values in deformation quantization (arXiv:1812.11649)
Kelvin Ritland: Deformation quantization generates all multiple zeta values [arXiv:2409.18450]
This secretly uses the Poisson sigma-model (see there for more details) induced by the given target Poisson Lie algebroid.
A popular exposition of formal deformation quantization with emphasis of the stringy Poisson sigma-model-construction:
The classification of the space of such formal deformation quantization is discussed in
Vasily Dolgushev, Stable Formality Quasi-isomorphisms for Hochschild Cochains I (arXiv:1109.6031)
Vasily Dolgushev, Exhausting formal quantization procedures (arXiv:1111.2797)
Vasily Dolgushev, Christopher Rogers, Thomas Willwacher, Kontsevich’s graph complex, GRT, and the deformation complex of the sheaf of polyvector fields (arXiv:1211.4230)
Deformation quantization of polynomial Poisson algebras via universal enveloping algebra (generalizing that of Lie-Poisson structures) is discussed in
Deformation quantization of algebraic varieties is in
Erratum: Advances in Mathematics 217 (2008) 2897-2906.
See also
Deformation quantization in perturbative quantum field theory is discussed for free field theory is due to
and further expanded on in
Michael Dütsch, Klaus Fredenhagen, section 5.1 of Algebraic Quantum Field Theory, Perturbation Theory, and the Loop Expansion, Commun.Math.Phys. 219 (2001) 5-30 (arXiv:hep-th/0001129)
Michael Dütsch, Klaus Fredenhagen, Perturbative algebraic quantum field theory and deformation quantization, Proceedings of the Conference on Mathematical Physics in Mathematics and Physics, Siena June 20-25 (2000) (arXiv:hep-th/0101079)
A. C. Hirshfeld, P. Henselder, Star Products and Perturbative Quantum Field Theory, Annals Phys. 298 (2002) 382-393 (arXiv:hep-th/0208194)
and for interacting perturbative quantum field theory (perturbative AQFT) in
Giovanni Collini, Fedosov Quantization and Perturbative Quantum Field Theory (arXiv:1603.09626)
Eli Hawkins, Kasia Rejzner, The Star Product in Interacting Quantum Field Theory (arXiv:1612.09157)
The relation to geometric quantization is discussed in
Eli Hawkins, The Correspondence between Geometric Quantization and Formal Deformation Quantization (arXiv:math/9811049)
Christoph Nölle, Geometric and deformation quantization (arXiv:0903.5336)
and some remarks on the relation are also in section 1.4 of
which is about quantization via the A-model.
The formulation of deformation quantization as lifts from P-n operads? over BD-n operads? to E-n operads is discussed in section 2.3 and 2.4 of
See also
F. Bayen, M. Flato, C. Fronsdal, A. Lichnerowicz, D. Sternheimer, Quantum mechanics as a deformation of classical mechanics, Lett. Math. Phys. 1 (1975/77), MR674337, doi; Deformation theory and quantization. I. Deformations of symplectic structures, Ann. Physics 111 (1978), no. 1, 61–110, MR496157; Deformation theory and quantization. II. Physical applications, Ann. Physics 111 (1978), no. 1, 111–151, MR496158
M. Flato, A. Lichnerowicz, D. Sternheimer, Deformations of Poisson brackets, Dirac brackets and applications, J. Math. Phys. 17 (1976), no. 9, 1754–1762, MR420723, doi
D. Arnal, J.-C. Cortet, -products in the method of orbits for nilpotent groups, J. Geom. Phys. 2 (1985), no. 2, 83–116, doi
On the stack of deformation quantizations:
Maxim Kontsevich, Deformation quantization of algebraic varieties (arXiv:math/0106006)
Pietro Polesello, Pierre Schapira, Stacks of quantization-deformation modules on complex symplectic manifolds (arXiv:math/0305171)
Amnon Yekutieli, Twisted Deformation Quantization of Algebraic Varieties ,
The action of a motivic Galois group (“cosmic Galois group”) on the space of deformation quantization was observed in
See also at motives in physics.
Last revised on September 30, 2024 at 05:52:45. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.