Quantum symmetry in quantum theory

Symmetry concepts have always been of great importance for physical problems like explicit calculations, classification or model building. More recently, new 'quantum symmetries' ((quasi) quantum groups) attracted much interest in quantum theory. It is shown that all these quantum symmetries permit a conventional formulation as symmetry in quantum mechanics. Symmetry transformations can act on the Hilbert space H of physical states such that the ground state is invariant and field operators transform covariantly. Models show that one must allow for 'truncation' in the tensor product of representations of a quantum symmetry. This means that the dimension of the tensor product of two representations of dimension #sigma#_1 and #sigma#_2 may be strictly smaller than #sigma#_1#sigma#_2. Consistency of the transformation law of field operators local braid relations leads us to expect, that (weak) quasi quantum groups are the most general symmetries in local quantum theory. The elements of the R-matrix which appears in these local braid relations turn out to be operators on H in general. It will be explained in detail how examples of field algebras with weak quasi quantum group symmetry can be obtained. Given a set of observable field with a finite number of superselection sectors, a quantum symmetry together with a complete set of covariant field operators which obey local braid relations are constructed. A covariant transformation law for adjoint fields is not automatic but will follow when the existence of an appropriate antipode is assumed. At the example of the chiral critical Ising model, non-uniqueness of the quantum symmetry will be demonstrated. Generalized quantum symmetries yield examples of gauge symmetries in non-commutative geometry. In the case of (weak) quasi quantum groups which are only quasi-co-associative rather than co-associative, a quasi-associative generalization of non-commutative differential geometry appears naturally. Quasi-quantum planes are introduced as the simplest examples of quasi-associative differential geometry. (Weak) quasi quantum groups can act on them by generalized derivations much as quantum groups do in non-commutative (differential-) geometry. (orig.)Available from TIB Hannover: RA 2999(93-018) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekSIGLEDEGerman