On the equivalence of AQFTs and prefactorization algebras
Marco Benini, Victor Carmona, Alastair Grant-Stuart, Alexander Schenkel
December 10, 2024
This paper revisits the equivalence problem between algebraic quantum field
theories and prefactorization algebras defined over globally hyperbolic
Lorentzian manifolds. We develop a radically new approach whose main innovative
features are 1.) a structural implementation of the additivity property used in
earlier approaches and 2.) a reduction of the global equivalence problem to a
family of simpler spacetime-wise problems. When applied to the case where the
target category is a symmetric monoidal $1$-category, this yields a
generalization of the equivalence theorem from [Commun. Math. Phys. 377, 971
(2019)]. In the case where the target is the symmetric monoidal
$\infty$-category of cochain complexes, we obtain a reduction of the global
$\infty$-categorical equivalence problem to simpler, but still challenging,
spacetime-wise problems. The latter would be solved by showing that certain
functors between $1$-categories exhibit $\infty$-localizations, however the
available detection criteria are inconclusive in our case.
Keywords:
algebraic quantum field theory, factorization algebras, homotopical algebra, operads, localizations, Lorentzian geometry