Quantized generalized Causality for locally covariant quantum field theories

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Let ∗-Alg{*}\text{-}\mathfrak{Alg} be the category of non-commutative, associative, ∗*-algebras, and let Bkgrc\mathfrak{Bkgr}_c and SpBkgrc\mathfrak{SpBkgr}_c be the categories of spacetime manifolds with admissible background fields, respectively with and without globally hyperbolic spacelike cone bundles. Let F^H ⁣:Bkgrc→∗-Alg\hat{\mathcal{F}}_H\colon\mathfrak{Bkgr}_c\to {*}\text{-}\mathfrak{Alg} be a covariant functor and suppose there is a functor F^ ⁣:SpBkgrc→∗-Alg\hat{\mathcal{F}}\colon\mathfrak{SpBkgr}_c\to {*}\text{-}\mathfrak{Alg} fitting into the stated commutative diagram and satisfying

FH(M,B)=lim←⁡F(M,B),\mathcal{F}_H(M,\mathcal{B})=\varprojlim \mathscr{F}(M,\mathcal{B}),

where the limit is indexed by SpBkgrc(M,B)⊆SpBkgrc\mathfrak{SpBkgr}_c(M,\mathcal{B})\subseteq\mathfrak{SpBkgr}_c, whose objects are M=(M,C\first,B)\mathcal{M}=(M,C^\first,\mathcal{B}). Quantized generalized Causality conjecture. Whenever the specified Cauchy-pushout diagram exists in SpBkgrc\mathfrak{SpBkgr}_c, the corresponding diagram with arrows induced by F^\hat{\mathcal{F}} exists in ∗-Alg{*}\text{-}\mathfrak{Alg}, with the spacelike separated disjoint union replaced by the independent subsystems tensor product F^(M1)⊗F^(M2)\hat{\mathcal{F}}(\mathcal{M}_1)\otimes\hat{\mathcal{F}}(\mathcal{M}_2). This proposes that the generalized classical Causality construction survives perturbative quantization; no resolution is supplied.

References

Primary source

Igor Khavkine, “Characteristics, Conal Geometry and Causality in Locally Covariant Field Theory”, arXiv:1211.1914 (2012).

Progress summary

Refreshed
Open

The conjecture that quantization preserves generalized causality has no recorded proof or counterexample.

The conjecture asks whether the generalized causality construction for locally covariant quantum field theories survives perturbative quantization. The catalogued 2012 source reports no resolution.

Current status (as of August 2026): No verified proof, disproof, or substantive advance is recorded; the conjecture remains open.

Sources

Solutions 0

No solutions have been posted yet.