Regularization and renormalization of gauge theories

Thesis/Dissertation · Thu Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1987

OSTI ID:5595319

Warr, B J

The method of effective Lagrangian flow provides the most physically illuminating discussion of renormalization theory. At distance scales much larger than some physical cutoff, the physics is described by a small number of parameters, which can be identified purely by dimensional analysis. For scalar theories a rigorous yet simple proof of renormalisability, based on this concept, was given by Polchinski, and this work forms the bedrock of this thesis. For gauge theories there is the extra issue of the unitarity of the renormalized S-matrix, which can only be guaranteed by proving renormalized Ward identities, and this is what is carried out for all cases of interest in d = 4. In particular the case of N = 1 super Yang-Mills is covered. It is proven that the cancellation of anomalies at the one-loop level is a sufficient as well as necessary condition for a theory to be perturbatively quantizable, and hence that there are no higher-loop anomalies.

• Research Organization: California Inst. of Tech., Pasadena, CA (USA)
• OSTI ID: 5595319
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

645400* -- High Energy Physics-- Field Theory
72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
FOUR-DIMENSIONAL CALCULATIONS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MATRICES
PARTICLE MODELS
PERTURBATION THEORY
RENORMALIZATION
S MATRIX
SCALARS
UNIFIED GAUGE MODELS
WARD IDENTITY
YANG-MILLS THEORY