2012/10/08 by Gerald V. Dunne, Mithat Ünsal, Mithat Unsal · 5 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Field (mathematics) #Geology #Mathematical physics #Mathematics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Pure mathematics #Quantum #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum field theory #Quantum mechanics #Series (stratigraphy) #hep-lat #hep-th #math-ph #math.MP
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/jhep11(2012)170
published as JHEP 1211 (2012) 170 · 89 pages; 13 figures
arxiv created 2012/10/08 · openalex publication_date 2012/11/01 · arxiv updated 2013/06/06 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
This work is a step towards a non-perturbative continuum definition of quantum field theory (QFT), beginning with asymptotically free two dimensional non-linear sigma-models, using recent ideas from mathematics and QFT. The ideas from mathematics are resurgence theory, the trans-series framework, and Borel-Ecalle resummation. The ideas from QFT use continuity on R1 x S1L, i.e, the absence of any phase transition as N → infinity, or rapid-crossovers for finite-N, and the small-L weak coupling limit to render the semi-classical sector well-defined and calculable. We classify semi-classical configurations with actions 1/N (kink-instantons), 2/N (bions and bi-kinks), in units where the 2d instanton action is normalized to one. Perturbation theory possesses the IR-renormalon ambiguity that arises due to non-Borel summability of the large-orders perturbation series (of Gevrey-1 type), for which a microscopic cancellation mechanism was unknown. This divergence must be present because the corresponding expansion is on a singular Stokes ray in the complexified coupling constant plane, and the sum exhibits the Stokes phenomenon crossing the ray. We show that there is also a non-perturbative ambiguity inherent to certain neutral topological molecules (neutral bions and bion-anti-bions) in the semiclassical expansion. We find a set of "confluence equations" that encode the exact cancellation of the two different type of ambiguities. We show that a new notion of "graded resurgence triangle" is necessary to capture the path integral approach to resurgence, and that graded resurgence underlies a potentially rigorous definition of general QFTs. The mass gap and the Theta angle dependence of vacuum energy are calculated from first principles, and are in accord with large-N and lattice results.