Carrollian quantum states and flat space holography
Stefan Fredenhagen, Stefan Prohazka, Robert Tiefenbacher
TLDR
This paper studies Carrollian quantum field theories algebraically, analyzing their states and implications for flat space holography, highlighting infrared degrees of freedom.
Key contributions
- Studies free Carrollian QFTs from an algebraic perspective for flat space holography.
- Constructs and analyzes electric and magnetic Carrollian Weyl algebras and their states.
- Finds regular vacuum/thermal states for massive theories, but subtleties for massless ones.
- Constructs a quasifree state for Carrollian holography, highlighting infrared degrees of freedom.
Why it matters
This work provides a foundational algebraic analysis of Carrollian quantum field theories, which are crucial for understanding flat space holography. By detailing the nature of their quantum states, particularly the role of infrared degrees of freedom, it advances our theoretical framework for gravity in flat spacetimes.
Original Abstract
We study free Carrollian quantum field theories from an algebraic perspective and explore their implications for flat space holography. As explicit examples, we construct the electric and magnetic Carrollian Weyl algebras obtained from Carroll limits of the relativistic scalar field and analyze their states, including vacuum and thermal configurations. For the massive electric theory, we find a regular Carroll-invariant vacuum state and a regular KMS state, yielding a consistent Carrollian thermodynamic system. By contrast, the massless electric and magnetic theories are more subtle: depending on the quantization, they admit either no regular distinguished vacuum or only nonregular Carroll-invariant ground states, while still supporting nonregular thermal states. We further analyze alternative classes of states in the massless electric theory, including spatially homogeneous quasifree pure states and Sorkin--Johnston states.Motivated by these results, we discuss consequences for flat space holography. We construct a well-defined quasifree state relevant for Carrollian holography whose Hilbert-space representation factorizes into a standard Fock sector and a nonseparable zero-mode sector, thereby highlighting the role of infrared degrees of freedom in the boundary theory.
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