A new approach to the construction of interacting quantum field theories on two-dimensional Minkowski space is discussed. In this program, models are obtained from a prescribed factorizing S-matrix in two steps. At first, quantum fields which are localized in infinitely extended, wedge-shaped regions of Minkowski space are constructed explicitly. In the second step, local observables are analyzed with operator-algebraic techniques, in particular by using the modular nuclearity condition of Buchholz, d'Antoni and Longo.Besides a model-independent result regarding the Reeh-Schlieder property of the vacuum in this framework, an infinite class of quantum field theoretic models with non-trivial interaction is constructed. This construction completes a program initiated by Schroer in a large family of theories, a particular example being the Sinh-Gordon model. The crucial problem of establishing the existence of local observables in these models is solved by verifying the modular nuclearity condition, which here amounts to a condition on analytic properties of form factors of observables localized in wedge regions.It is shown that the constructed models solve the inverse scattering problem for the considered class of S-matrices. Moreover, a proof of asymptotic completeness is obtained by explicitly computing total sets of scattering states. The structure of these collision states is found to be in agreement with the heuristic formulae underlying the Zamolodchikov-Faddeev algebra.

Warped convolutions of operators were recently introduced in the algebraic framework of quantum physics as a new constructive tool. It is shown here that these convolutions provide isometric representations of Rieffel's strict deformations of C * -dynamical systems with automorphic actions of R n , whenever the latter are presented in a covariant representation. Moreover, the device can be used for the deformation of relativistic quantum field theories by adjusting the convolutions to the geometry of Minkowski space. The resulting deformed theories still comply with pertinent physical principles and their Tomita-Takesaki modular data coincide with those of the undeformed theory; but they are in general inequivalent to the undeformed theory and exhibit different physical interpretations.

Within the setting of a recently proposed model of quantum fields on noncommutative Minkowski space, the consequences of the consistent application of the proper, untwisted Poincaré group as the symmetry group are investigated. The emergent model contains an infinite family of fields which are labelled by different noncommutativity parameters, and related to each other by Lorentz transformations. The relative localization properties of these fields are investigated, and it is shown that to each field one can assign a wedge-shaped localization region in Minkowski space. This assignment is consistent with the principles of covariance and locality, i.e. fields localized in spacelike separated wedges commute. Regarding the model as a non-local, but wedge-local, quantum field theory on ordinary (commutative) Minkowski spacetime, it is possible to determine two-particle S-matrix elements, which turn out to be non-trivial. Some partial negative results concerning the existence of observables with sharper localization properties are also obtained.

Within the algebraic setting of quantum field theory, a condition is given which implies that the intersection of algebras generated by field operators localized in wedge--shaped regions of two--dimensional Minkowski space is non--trivial; in particular, there exist compactly localized operators in such theories which can be interpreted as local observables. The condition is based on spectral (nuclearity) properties of the modular operators affiliated with wedge algebras and the vacuum state and is of interest in the algebraic approach to the formfactor program, initiated by Schroer. It is illustrated here in a simple class of examples.Comment: 14 pages, no figure

Deformations of quantum field theories which preserve Poincaré covariance and localization in wedges are a novel tool in the analysis and construction of model theories. Here a general scenario for such deformations is discussed, and an infinite class of explicit examples is constructed on the Borchers-Uhlmann algebra underlying Wightman quantum field theory. These deformations exist independently of the space-time dimension, and contain the recently studied warped convolution deformation as a special case. In the special case of two-dimensional Minkowski space, they can be used to deform free field theories to integrable models with non-trivial S-matrix.