Reviews in Mathematical Physics

Decay of various quantities (return or survival probability, correlation functions) in time are the basis of a multitude of important and interesting phenomena in quantum physics, ranging from spectral properties, resonances, return and approach to equilibrium, to dynamical stability properties and irreversibility and the "arrow of time" in [Asymptotic Time Decay in Quantum Physics (World Scientific, 2013)].

In this review, we study several types of decay — decay in the average, decay in the L^p-sense, and pointwise decay — of the Fourier–Stieltjes transform of a measure, usually identified with the spectral measure, which appear naturally in different mathematical and physical settings. In particular, decay in the L^p-sense is related both to pointwise decay and to decay in the average and, from a physical standpoint, relates to a rigorous form of the time-energy uncertainty relation. Both decay on the average and in the L^p-sense are related to spectral properties, in particular, absolute continuity of the spectral measure. The study of pointwise decay for singular continuous measures (Rajchman measures) provides a bridge between ergodic theory, number theory and analysis, including the method of stationary phase. The theory is illustrated by some new results in the theory of sparse models.

Using the framework of rigorous algebraic quantum statistical mechanics, we construct the unique nonequilibrium steady state in the isotropic XY chain in which a sample of arbitrary finite size is coupled by a bond coupling perturbation of arbitrary strength to two infinitely extended thermal reservoirs, and we prove that this state is thermodynamically nontrivial. Moreover, extracting the leading second-order contribution to its microscopic entropy production and deriving its entropy production in the van Hove weak coupling regime, we prove that, in the mathematically and physically important XY chain, the van Hove regime reproduces the leading order contribution to the microscopic regime.

In the framework of locally covariant quantum field theory, a theory is described as a functor from a category of spacetimes to a category of *-algebras. It is proposed that the global gauge group of such a theory can be identified as the group of automorphisms of the defining functor. Consequently, multiplets of fields may be identified at the functorial level. It is shown that locally covariant theories that obey standard assumptions in Minkowski space, including energy compactness, have no proper endomorphisms (i.e. all endomorphisms are automorphisms) and have a compact automorphism group. Further, it is shown how the endomorphisms and automorphisms of a locally covariant theory may, in principle, be classified in any single spacetime. As an example, the endomorphisms and automorphisms of a system of finitely many free scalar fields are completely classified.

Using non-canonical braidings, we first introduce a notion of symmetric tensors and corresponding Hodge operators on a class of left-covariant 3d differential calculi over SU_q(2), then we induce Hodge operators on the left-covariant 2d exterior algebra over the Podles quantum sphere.