Resolving the Weinberg paradox with topology
Creators
- 1. University of California, Center for Quantum Mathematics and Physics (QMAP), Department of Physics (United States)
Description
Long ago Weinberg showed, from first principles, that the amplitude for a single photon exchange between an electric current and a magnetic current violates Lorentz invariance. The obvious conclusion at the time was that monopoles were not allowed in quantum field theory. Since the discovery of topological monopoles there has thus been a paradox. On the one hand, topological monopoles are constructed in Lorentz invariant quantum field theories, while on the other hand, the low-energy effective theory for such monopoles will reproduce Weinberg's result. We examine a toy model where both electric and magnetic charges are perturbatively coupled and show how soft-photon resummation for hard scattering exponentiates the Lorentz violating pieces to a phase that is the covariant form of the Aharonov-Bohm phase due to the Dirac string. The modulus of the scattering amplitudes (and hence observables) are Lorentz invariant, and when Dirac charge quantization is imposed the amplitude itself is also Lorentz invariant. For closed paths there is a topological component of the phase that relates to aspects of 4D topological quantum field theory.
Additional details
Identifiers
Publishing Information
- Journal Title
- Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)
- Journal Volume
- 2019
- Journal Issue
- 3
- Journal Page Range
- p. 1-25
- ISSN
- 1029-8479
INIS
- Country of Publication
- Germany
- Country of Input or Organization
- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
- INIS RN
- 54067734
- Subject category
- S72: PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS; S71: CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSICS;
- Descriptors DEI
- AHARONOV-BOHM EFFECT; ELECTRIC CURRENTS; GAUGE INVARIANCE; INSTANTONS; LORENTZ INVARIANCE; MONOPOLES; PHOTONS; QUANTIZATION; QUANTUM FIELD THEORY; SCATTERING AMPLITUDES; SOLITONS; TOPOLOGY
- Descriptors DEC
- AMPLITUDES; BOSONS; CURRENTS; ELEMENTARY PARTICLES; FIELD THEORIES; INVARIANCE PRINCIPLES; MASSLESS PARTICLES; MATHEMATICS; QUASI PARTICLES
Optional Information
- Copyright
- Copyright (c) 2019 The Author(s)