Theory Working Group

Symmetries under reflecting temperature to negative values

by David McGady (NBI, Copenhagen)

Europe/Stockholm
Nordita east wing 132:028

Nordita east wing 132:028

Description
Partition functions' convergence in e.g. statistical mechanics seem deeply tied to temperature's positivity. Surprisingly, one can explicitly check that many model partition functions are invariant under reflecting their temperature-parameter to negative values (T-reflection). Demanding this invariance selects a unique vacuum energy of the system. Finite temperatures in relativistic quantum field theory are introduced through putting the theory on a circle of radius 1/T; T-reflection seems deeply tied to a redundancy in the geometry of this so-called thermal circle. It has already revealed both two-dimensional structures governing four-dimensional physics, and new aspects of deep theorems in modern mathematics.