The pure phases, the irreducible quantum fields, and dynamical symmetry breaking in Symanzik--Nelson positive quantum field theories

We prove that a Symanzik--Nelson positive quantum field theory, i.e., a quantum field theory derived from a Euclidean field theory, has a unique decomposition into pure phases which preserves Symanzik--Nelson positivity and Poincare covariance. We derive useful sufficient conditions for the breakdown of an internal symmetry of such a theory in its pure phases, for the self-adjointness and nontrivially (in the sense of Borchers classes) of its quantum fields, and the existence of time-ordered and retarded products. All these general results are then applied to the P (phi)2 and the phi34 quantum field models