In Search of the Quantum Oneness

Ignazio Licata
ISEM, Inst. For Scientific Methodology, Palermo, Italy
Ignazio.licata@ejtp.info

Quantum Field Theory and Its Macroscopic Manifestations: Boson Condensation, Ordered Patterns
and Topological Defects by Massimo Blasone, Petr Jizba & Giuseppe Vitiello, London, Imperial
College Press (World Scientific), 2011, 544pp. + 18pp., £105.00, (Hardback) 978-1-84816-280-8

Quantum Field Theory (QFT) has experienced a rather strange historical destiny. It can be said that
its “ad usum particellarum” successes, based upon a “local” perturbational approach, have for the
most part obscured the philosophical possibilities of appreciating, beyond any specific “technical”
problems, the robust unitary conceptual fabric of its theoretical structure and the possibility of
presenting itself as an “effective” Theory of Everything – the only one which can still boast a direct
and natural connection with experiment and offer a general vision of the physical world, as long as
it is “read” in the broadest sense as is generally the case for those who use it in the field of particle
physics. Here lies the revolutionary programme, the innovative route, which this book intends to
explore, and which is already on the road towards becoming an “evergreen” like its ideal
predecessor, the classic by Hiroomi Umezawa, Advanced Field Theory: Micro, Macro, and
Thermal Physics, American Institute of Physics, 1993, Springer-Verlag GmbH, 1995. For the
historical details of the intellectual genealogy between the great Japanese theoretician and one of
the authors of this book (Giuseppe Vitiello) see “Hiroomi Umezawa and Quantum Field Theory” by
G. Vitiello in NeuroQuantology, Vol. 9, issue 3, pp. 402-412.

A formidable series of theorems, from the work of Von Hove in the early 1950s, followed by Haag
in 1961 and up to that of Hepp in 1971, placed doubt upon that which seemed to be the reassuring
cornerstone of the theory: the possibility of a clear and univocal perturbative mapping between the
free Hamiltonian H0 of a system and the fully perturbed Hamiltonian H. In reality, these were the
first signs of a diverse enrichment of the theory. The Lehman-Szymanzik-Zimmermann (LSZ)
formalism states that every field theory must be readable in terms of asymptotic states with a well-
defined quantum number (“particles”). In an unpublished note from 1964 [one of the historical
treasures revealed in this book] Dell’Antonio and Umezawa established that the map between
Heisenberg fields, which determine the dynamics, and asymptotic fields which define the
observables, is a “weak map”. In other words, the constructive richness of the quantum vacuum
began to reveal itself, being linked precisely to the existence of an infinite number of different
possible representations of the same system which are not physically equivalent to each other [for a
discussion upon the methodological consequences of these theorems see Anderson, 1985;
Arageorgis, 2002; Licata, 2010].

Each of these representations can be interpreted as a particular “phase” of the system considered.
This fact suggests that QFT constitutes an ideal framework for building a general theory of phase
transitions and emergence which can connect in a non-trivial manner the microscopic structure of a
system, its complex vicissitudes in its mesoscopic “middle way” and its observable macroscopic
manifestations. Of course, in order to fully implement such a programme, one must build a suitable
generalisation of QFT which can offer full citizenship not only to "events" (the asymptotic states
which are so important in particle physics) but also to "processes", i.e., vast networks of
configurations of non-local correlations in situations far from equilibrium within a dynamic
interplay between system and environment, where noise has a decisive role. In principle, such a
theory could include a vast number of phenomena which not only "traditionally" belong to “hard”
physics (such as superconductors, ferromagnets, crystals and solitons, with scales ranging from
neutrino physics to cosmology), but also a wide range of biological, economic and social processes
whose structural dynamics could fall within this "extended syntax" of QFT and which could
therefore be described in terms of symmetry breaking and emergence of condensed states with long-
range correlations, a development foreshadowed in part by the theory of complex networks whose
points of contact with QFT are continually increasing. The earliest examples of this new
interdisciplinary phase of QFT include work on Brain Dynamics by G. Vitiello and W. Freeman
and that on the formation of coherence domains in biological matters by G. Vitiello, E. del Giudice
and G. Preparata. An approach implementing a global description of system-environment relations
without changing too much the traditional framework of TQC (Theory of Quantum Systems and
Complex Systems) is dissipative field theory, which is generally followed in this book.

In the case of the simplest interaction, a dissipative environment absorbs all the energy lost by the
system, both being then unified into a larger system, in which energy is globally conserved. This
allows the use of the traditional mechanisms of TQC, whilst bearing in mind that every system, in
the presence of dissipation, is closely associated with its double, that is with another system, a
verified copy of that studied, which absorbs exactly the quantity of energy lost by the system being
studied. The 'double' is not an objective representation of its environment, it is simply how the
environment appears to the system, when considered only in terms of energy. Obviously the system
and its double interact, and since this interaction conserves the overall energy, standard methods of
TQC can be used without problems to describe the evolution of a system in the presence of
dissipation. An extension of this approach to study the interaction of a system with any kind of
environment obviously presents technical problems, which represent the immediate future of this
"systemic" direction of QFT. The conceptually important point to understand is that the existence of
unitarily inequivalent representations finds its natural physical meaning in the fact that isolated
systems do not exist, and therefore QFT is intrinsically a thermal theory where the ability to define
coherence, decoherence, and entropy depends upon the nature of the system and of its "double", that
which we identify as "environment" [Koksma et al., 2010]. Another frontier issue concerns what
may be called quantum frozen accidents, situations in which classical behaviors coexist with
quantum field dynamics - for example, topological defects and fractal structures – which can limit a
finite number of degrees of freedom and thus "drive" processes of morphogenesis towards the
meso- and macroscopic ranges.

This book explores the state of the art of dissipative QFT (using operator and functional formalism,
depending upon the emphasis placed respectively on the process dynamics or the rearrangement of
underlying symmetries), and does so with remarkable elegance, developing a rich landscape with a
strong unitary outlook based upon the themes of collective behavior, condensation, dissipation and
symmetry breaking. Thus it shows convincingly that QFT is a powerful key to understanding in a
systemic way the multifarious nature of the manifestations of functional complexity. It is impossible
to enumerate in detail the various topics, but here, as we have taken an "epistemological" approach,
at least one other consequence of fundamental interest derived from this approach must be cited,
that of the relationship between QM and QFT.

It is often noted in this book that not only is QFT not "just" QM extended to an infinite number of
degrees of freedom, but rather it is precisely the famous von Neumann theorem, on the unitary
equivalence of irreducible representations of the canonical commutation - thus a similar and
opposite role to the Haag theorem in QFT - which makes QM structurally inadequate to
characterize the variety of non-equivalent phases of a system, a question now coming increasingly
to the fore through the difficult paths being taken towards the construction of a quantum biology
[Arndt et al . 2009]. Rather, the opposite way should be followed, that of obtaining the semi-
classical language of QM (waves and particles!) from QFT (neither waves nor particles, but
dynamical generation of collective field modes). Moving in completely the opposite direction to
that of the still thriving and often self-referential business of "interpretations of QM", the authors
clearly align themselves with the late G. Preparata, who saw QFT as the only possible "realist
reading" of QM:
"There is only one reason for the unacceptable subjectivism which permeates the generally
accepted interpretation of quantum mechanics, based upon the ideas of Niels Bohr and the School
of Copenhagen: quantum mechanics is not a complete theory of reality (...) For its completion it
must be abandoned accepting that Quantum Field Theory (QFT) is the only description of reality,
for which quantum mechanics is merely an approximation, being limited to the analysis of quantum
processes in space-time regions where there is a good chance of finding a single quantum of the
relative wave field. Preparata, 2002]. In agreement with Cini and Preparata, the recent experiment
by Afshar [Afshar, 2006] does not "demolish" or "bypass" Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, but
rather frames it within its "natural" QFT version, which links number of quanta with field phase. All
of this strikes a blow against a purely atomistic vision of the physical world - "although necessary",
the authors stress - which should be completed and integrated with a more complex relationship
between structure and dynamics, intimately connected to the very structure of QFT, an issue which
re-proposes the problematics associated with the concept of "particle" [Colosi & Rovelli, 2008;
Pessa, 2011].
Some comments on the structure and contents of the book. The dominant key is the existence of
infinitely many unitarily inequivalent representations which make possible to introduce in a natural
way the phase of a quantum system as the expression of a symmetry breaking process of the
Heisenberg fields (many grounded vacuum states) in their dynamic realization (observables) under
suitable boundary conditions (for ex. a parameter variation). In other words, thermodynamics comes
into play as a characterization of the vacuum rich “constructive ability”! The first three chapters can
be considered as a complete and elegant exploration of the theoretical bases (Weyl –Heisenberg
Algebra and its deformation, Dynamical Maps, Goldstone Theorem and Symmetry Breaking,
generalized Coherent States). As for the Fock-Bargman representation, the introducing of a self-
similarity theory and fractals is particularly interesting. This allows the development of meta-stable
and stable macroscopic manifestations in QFT as Dynamical Rearrangement by Nambu Goldstone
condensation phenomena out of fluctuating quantum fields. There follows seven dense chapters
with many appendices and selected topics, which are mostly inspired by the author’s latest research
(Boson Condensation, Group Contraction, Collective Behaviours, Trajectories in the Representation
Space, Geometric facets in Thermal Field Theory, Topological Defects, Solitons). The essential
idea is that the macroscopic systems around us are not quantum ones because they are made of
quantum components (the naïve idea of an “infinitely small”!), but because their origin, evolution
and structure cannot be understood without taking into consideration the subtle interweaving
between local and not-local which only a Quantum Field Theory can fully account of. The future
quantum biology will have to be based on dissipative QFT and not on QM! The excellent chapter
on “Dissipation and Quantization” deserves a separate note. There, the structure of non-
commutative geometries meets the physic reasons of dissipation, in a synthesis ranging from
Neutrino mixing to Dissipative Quantum Brain. Lately such theory – which extends the classical
and, we dare say, paradigmatic approach to the application of Umezawa Many Body Physics
[Ricciardi & Umezawa,1967]- has been developed in a dissipative context by G. Vitiello and W.
Freeman who have made cogent the comparison between the theory and the observational data in
neurosciences [Freeman & Vitiello, 2006; 2008].
You come to the end of the book with the idea that the power and elegance of QFT make it the ideal
candidate for the converging – still far, but rich of stimulating possibilities - between TOE
(Theories of Everything) and TOO ( Theories of Organization), the overcoming of the dichotomies
between micro/macro (by an exemplar treating of the meso domain all the physicists of complexity
should take as an inspiration [Licata, 2010]), quantum/classics, and finally between “fundamental”
and “phenomenological”, in a quantum oneness able to comprehend in a new synthesis both the old
“bricks of the world” and the enormous variety of its emergences.
A note on style. There are standard textbooks and extremely specialised books. The authors have
managed to avoid the Pillars of Hercules publishing a book which combines rigour, charm and
passion without losing the unity of the issues covered, despite the large number of topics gathered
here together for the first time. Mario Rasetti, one of the fathers of the dissipative quantum field,
wrote that a book "can at the same time be used as a textbook and as a book of dreams". And
although there is still some way to go to reach the dream of a quantum oneness, this book definitely
indicates the right direction towards it.

Acknowledgement
To our friend Emilio Del Giudice (1940–2014).

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"This is an Author’s Accepted Manuscript of an article published in [Contemporary Physics] [12

May 2014], available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/[DOI: 10.1080/00107514.2014.915239]."