L-functionals: Applications to QED, Gravity and Disordered Systems

Explore a physics seminar from the Institute for Advanced Study where Professor Albert Schwarz from UC Davis delves into the applications of L-functionals across quantum electrodynamics (QED), gravity, and disordered systems. Learn about the quantization of classical systems through Hilbert spaces with canonical commutation relations (CCR) representations, and discover why infinite degrees of freedom necessitate non-standard Fock representations. Understand how L-functionals serve as effective tools for representing states in any CCR or CAR representation, offering advantages over traditional Hilbert space formalism. Examine the relationship between inclusive scattering matrices and cross sections, while investigating practical applications in systems with quenched disorder, QED infrared problems, and linearized gravity challenges.