Is a master formula for the scattering amplitudes possible?

Marko Manninen asked whether TGD can in some sense be reduced to a single equation or principle is very interesting. My basic answer is that one could reduce TGD to a handful of basic principles. However, at the level of classical physics, one could perhaps say that general coordinate invariance → holography ← 4-D generalization of holomorphy reduce the representations of preferred extremals as analogs of Bohr orbits for particles as 3-surfaces to a representation analogous to that of a holomorphic function.

Can one hope something analogous to happen at the level of scattering amplitudes? Is some kind of a master formula possible? I have considered many options, even replacing the S-matrix with the Kähler metric in the fermionic degrees of freedom (see this). The motivation was that the rows of the matrix defining Kähler metric define unit vectors allowing interpretation in terms of probability conservation. However, it seems that the concept of zero energy state alone makes the definition unambiguous and unitarity is possible without additional assumptions.

1. In standard quantum field theory, correlation functions for quantum fields give rise to scattering amplitudes. In TGD, the fields are replaced by the spinor fields of the "world of classical worlds" (WCW) which can regarded as superpositions of pairs of multi-fermion states restricted at the 3-D surfaces at the ends of the 4-D Bohr orbits at the boundaries of CD.

   These 3-surfaces are extremely strongly but not completely correlated by holography implied by 4-D general coordinate invariance. The modes of WCW spinor fields at the 3-D surfaces correspond to irreducible unitary representations of various symmetries, which include supersymplectic symmetries of WCW and Kac-Moody type symmetries. Hence the inner product is unitary.

2. Whatever the detailed form of the 3-D parts of the modes of WCW spinor fields at the boundaries of CD is, they can be constructed from ordinary many fermion states. These many-fermion state correspond in the number theoretic vision of TGD to Galois singlets, which are states constructed at the level of M⁸ from fermion with momenta whose components are possibly complex algebraic integers in the algebraic extension of rational defining the 4-D region of M⁸ mapped to H by M⁸-H duality. Complex momentum means that the corresponding state decomposes to plane waves with a continuum of momenta.

   Galois confined states have momenta, whose components are integers in the momentum scale defined by the causal diamond (CD). Galois confinement defines a universal mechanism for the formation of bound states. The induced spinor fields are second quantized free spinor fields in H and their Dirac propagators are therefore fixed. This means an enormou calculational simplification.

3. The inner products of these WCW spinor fields restricted to 3-surfaces determine the scattering amplitudes. They are non-trivial since the modes of WCW spinor fields are located at opposite boundaries of CD. These inner products define the zero energy state identifiable as such as scattering amplitudes. This is the case also in wave mechanics and quantum TGD is indeed wave mechanics for particles identified as 3-surfaces.
4. There is also a functional integral of these amplitudes over the WCW, i.e. over the 4-D Bohr orbits. This defines a unitary inner product. The functional integral replaces the path integral of field theory and is mathematically well-defined since the Kähler function, appearing in the exponent defining vacuum functional, is a non-local function of the 3-surface so that standard local divergences due to the point-like nature of particles disappear. Also the standard problems due to the presence of a Hessian coming from a Gaussian determinant is canceled by the square foot of the determinant of the Kähler metric appearing in the integration measure.
5. The restriction of the second quantized spinor fields to 4-surfaces and zero-energy ontology are absolutely essential. Induction turns free fermion fields into interacting ones. The spinor fields of H are free and define a trivial field theory in H. The restriction to space-time surfaces changes the situation. Non-trivial scattering amplitudes are obtained since the fermionic propagators restricted to the space-time surface are not anymore free propagators in H. Therefore the restriction of WCW spinors to the boundaries of CD makes the fermions interact in exactly the same way as it makes the induced spinor connection and the metric dynamical.

There are a lot of details involved that I don't understand, but it would seem that a simple "master formula" is possible. Nothing essentially new seems to be needed. There is however one more important "but".

Are pair production and boson emission possible?

The question that I have pondered a lot is whether the pair production and emission of bosons are possible in this picture. In this process the fermion number is conserved, but fermion and antifermion numbers are not conserved separately. In free field theories they are, and in the interacting quantum field theories, the introduction of boson fermion interaction vertices is necessary. This brings infinities into the theory.

1. In TGD, the second quantized fermions in H are free and the boson fields are not included as primary fields but are bound states of fermions and antifermions. Is it possible to produce pairs at all and therefore also bosons? For example, is the emission of a photon from an electron possible? If a photon is a fermion-antifermion pair, then the fermion and antifermion numbers cannot be preserved separately. How to achieve this?
2. If fundamental fermions correspond to light-like curves at light-like orbit of partonic 2-surfaces, pair creation requires that that fermion trajectory turns in time direction. At this point velocity is infinite and this looks like a causal anomaly. There are two options: the fermion changes the sign of its energy or transforms to antiferion with the same sign of energy.

   Different signs of energy is not possible since the annihilation operator creating the fermion with opposite energy would annihilate either the final state or some fermion in the final state so that both fermion and antifermion numbers of the final state would be the same as those of the initial state.

   On the other hand, it can be said that positive energy antifermions propagate backwards in time because in the free fermion field since the terms proportional to fermion creation operators and antifermion annihilation operators appear in the expression of the field as sum of spinor modes.

   Therefore a fermion-antifermion pair with positive energies can be created and corresponds to a pair of creation operators. It could also correspond to a boson emission and to a field theory vertex, in which the fermion, antifermion and boson occur. In TGD, however, the boson fields are not included as primary fields. Is such a "vertex without a vertex" possible at all?

3. Can one find an interpretation for this creation of a couple that is in harmony with the standard view. Space-time surfaces are associated with induced classical gauge potentials. In standard field theory, they couple to fermion-antifermion pairs, and pairs can be created in classical fields. The modified Dirac equation and the Dirac equation in H also have such a coupling. Now the modified Dirac equation holds true at the fermion lines at the light-like orbits of the partonic 2-surface. Does the creation of pairs happen in this way? It might do so: also in the path integral formalism of field theories, bosons basically correspond to classical fields and the vertex is just this except that in TGD fermions are restricted to 1-D lines.

Fundamental fermion pair creation vertices as local defects of the standard smooth structure of the space-time surface?

Here comes the possible connection with a very general mathematical problem of general relativity that I have discussed here.

1. Causal anomalies as time loops that break causality are more the rule than an exception in general relativity the essence of the causal anomaly is the reversal of the arrow of time. Causal anomalies correspond to exotic diffeo-structures that are possible only in dimension D=4! Their number is infinite.
2. Quite generally, the exotic diffeo-structures reduce to local point-like defects of the usual differentiable structure. Exotic differentiable structures are also possible in TGD, and I have proposed that the associated defects correspond to a creation of fermion-fermion pairs for emission of fermion pairs of of gauge bosons and Higgs particle identified in TGD as bound states of fermion-antifermion pairs. This picture generalizes also to the case of gravitons, which would involve a pair of vertices of this kind. The presence of 2 vertices might relate to the weakness of the gravitational interaction.

   The reversal of the fermion line in time direction would correspond to a creation of a fermion-antifermion pair: fermion and antiferion would have the same sign of energy. This would be a causal anomaly in the sense that the time direction of the fermion line is reversed so that it becomes an antifermion.

   I have proposed that this causal anomaly is identifiable as an anomaly of differentiable structure so that emission of bosons and fermion pairs would only be possible in dimension 4: the space-time dimension would be unique!

3. But why would a point-like local defect of the differentiable structure correspond to a fermion pair creation vertex. In TGD, the point-like fermions correspond to 1-D light-like curves at the light-like orbit of the partonic 2-surface.

   In the pair creation vertex in presence of classical induced gauge potentials, one would have a V-shaped world line of fermion turning backwards in time meaning that antifermion is transformed to fermion. The antifermion and fermion numbers are not separately conserved although the total fermion number is. If one assumes that the modified Dirac equation holds true along the entire fermion worldline, there would be no pair creation.

   If it holds true only outside the V-shaped vertex the modified Dirac action for the V-shaped fermion libe can be transformed to a difference of antifermion number equal to the discontinuity of the antifermion part of the fermion current identified as an operator at the vertex. This would give rise to a non-trivial vertex and the modified gamma matrices would code information about classical bosonic action.

See the article Exotic smooth structures at space-time surfaces and master formula for scattering amplitudes in TGD} , the earlier article Intersection form for 4-manifolds, knots and 2-knots, smooth exotics, and TGD or the chapter Does M⁸ H duality reduce classical TGD to octonionic algebraic geometry?: Part II .

For a summary of earlier postings see Latest progress in TGD.