As a follow up to my previous question (How does Constructive Quantum Field Theory work?), I was wondering what difficulties physicists have had constructing 4d axiomatic qfts. Why has CQFT's success in 2 and 3d spaces not been extended to 4 dimensions? Once again, any level of answer is okay, but technical is preferable.
[Math] 4d Constructive Quantum Field Theory
mp.mathematical-physicsquantum-field-theory
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I don't know anything about the space of all distributions dual to smooth test functions, but do know a fair bit about computable measure theory (from a certain perspective).
First, you mention that you have a computable algorithm which generates a probability distribution. I believe you are saying that you have a computable algorithm from $[0,1]$ (or technically the space of infinite binary sequences) to some set $U$ where $U$ is the space of distributions of some type.
Say your map is $f$. How are you describing the element $f(x) \in U$? In computable analysis, there is a standard way to talk about these things. We can describe each element of $U$ with an infinite code (although each element has more than one code). Then $f$ works as follows: It reads the bits of $x$; from those bits, it starts to write out the code for the $f(x)$. The more bits of $x$ known, the more bits of the code for $f(x)$ known.
(Note, not every space has such a nice encoding. If the space isn't separable, there isn't a good way to describe each object while still preserving the important properties, namely the topology. Is say, in your example above, the space of distributions that are dual to smooth test functions, is it a separable space--maybe in a weak topology? Does the encoding you use for elements of $U$ generate the same topology?)
The important property of such a computable map is that it must be continuous (in the topology generated by the encoding, but these usually coincide with the topology of the space). Since $f$ is continuous, we know we can induce a Borel measure on $U$ as follows. If $S$ is an open set then $f^{-1}(S)$ is open and $\mu(f^{-1}(S))$ is known. Similarly, with any Borel sets, hence you have a Borel measure.
Borel measures are sufficient for most applications I can think of (you can integrate continuous functions and from them, define and integrate the L^p functions), but once again, I don't know anything about your applications.
Also, if the function $f$ doesn't always converge to a point in $U$, but only does so almost everywhere, the function $f$ is not continuous, but it is still fairly nice and I believe stuff can be said about the measure, although I need to think about it.
Update: If $f$ converges with probability one, then the set of input points that $f$ converges on is a measure one $G_{\delta}$ set, in particular it is Borel. The function remains continuous on that domain (in the restricted topology). Hence there is still an induced Borel measure on the target space. (Take a Borel set; map it back. It is Borel on the restricted domain, and hence Borel on [0,1]).
Update: Also, I am assuming that your algorithm directly computes the output from the input. I will give an example what I mean. Say one want to compute a real number. To compute it directly, I should be able to ask the algorithm to give me that number within $n$ decimal places with an error bound of $1/10^n$. An indirect algorithm works as follows: The computer just gives me a sequence of approximations that converge to the number. The computer may say $0,0,0,...$ so I think it converges to 0, but at some point it starts to change to $1,1,1,...$. I can never be sure if my approximation is close to the final answer. Even if your algorithm is of the indirect type, it doesn't matter for your applications. It will still generate a Borel map, albeit a more complex one than continuous, and hence it will generate a Borel measure on the target space. (The almost everywhere concerns are similar; they also go up in complexity, but are still Borel.) Without knowing more about your application it is difficult for me to say much specific to your case.
Am I correct in my understanding of your construction, especially the computable side of it? For example, is this the way you describe the computable map from $[0,1]$ to $U$?
On a more general note, much of measure theory has been developed in a set theoretic framework. This isn't very helpful with computable concerns. But using various other definitions of measures, one is able to once again talk about measure theory with an eye to what can and cannot be computed.
I hope this helps, and that I didn't just trivialize your question.
If I read your updated question correctly, you are asking whether people have considered non-linear modifications of quantum mechanics in order to accommodate interacting QFTs. I'm sure someone, somewhere has, but that's certainly not mainstream thought in QFT research, either on the mathematics or theoretical physics sides. Consider the analogous question in the quantum mechanics of particles: do non-linear equations of motion require a non-linear modification of quantum mechanics? The answer is most certainly No.
Without going into generalities, the Hydrogen atom and the double-well potential are prominent examples of systems with non-linear (Heisenberg) equations of motion that live perfectly well within the standard quantum formalism (states form a linear Hilbert space, observables are linear operators on states, time evolution is unitary on states in the Schroedinger picture and conjugation by unitary operators in the Heisenberg picture). When going from particle mechanics to field theory, what changes is the number of space-time dimensions, not the type of non-linearities in the equations of motion. So there is no mathematical reason to expect a non-linear modification of quantum mechanics in the transition.
Now, a few words about your intuition regarding states as solutions to the equations of motion. Unfortunately, it is somewhat off the mark. As you should be aware, relativistic QFT is usually discussed in the Heisenberg picture. This means that it is the field operators $\hat{\phi}(t,x)$ that obey the possibly non-linear equations of motion. For example, $\square\hat{\phi}(t,x) - \lambda{:}\hat{\phi}^3(t,x){:}=0$, where $\square$ is the wave operator and the colons denote normal ordering. On the other hand, states are just elements $|\Psi\rangle$ of an abstract Hilbert space (with the vacuum state $|0\rangle$ singled out by Poincaré invariance), entirely independent of spacetime coordinates. At this point, it should be clear why states have nothing to do with the equations of motion.
Your intuition is not entirely without basis, though. Spelling it out, also shows how the standard formalism of QFT (Wightman or any related one) already accommodates non-linear interactions. One can define the following hierarchy of $n$-point functions (sometimes called Wightman functions): \begin{align} W^0_\Psi &= \langle 0|\Psi\rangle \\ W^1_\Psi(t_1,x_1) &= \langle 0|\hat{\phi}(t_1,x_1)|\Psi\rangle \\ W^2_\Psi(t_1,x_1;t_2,x_2) &= \langle 0|\hat{\phi}(t_1,x_1)\hat{\phi}(t_2,x_2)|\Psi\rangle \\ & \cdots \end{align} It is a fundamental result in QFT (known under different names, such as the Wightman reconstruction theorem, multiparticle representation of states, or simply second quantization) that knowledge of all the $W^n_\Psi$ is completely equivalent to the knowledge of $|\Psi\rangle$.
These Wightman functions, by virtue of the Heisenberg equations of motion, satisfy the following infinite dimensional hierarchical system of equations \begin{align} \square_{t,x} W^1_\Psi(t,x) &= \lambda W^3_\Psi(t,x;t,x;t,x) + \text{(n-ord)} \\ \square_{t,x} W^2_\Psi(t,x;t_1,x_1) &= \lambda W^4_\Psi(t,x;t,x;t,x;t_1,x_1) + \text{(n-ord)} \\ \square_{t,x} W^2_\Psi(t_1,x_1;t,x) &= \lambda W^4_\Psi(t_1,x_1;t,x;t,x;t,x) + \text{(n-ord)} \\ & \cdots \end{align} I'm being a bit sloppy with coincidence limits here. The Wightman functions are singular if any two spacetime points in their arguments coincide, the terms labeled (n-ord) represent the necessary regulating subtractions to make this limit finite. This necessary regularization also explains why the non-linear terms in the equations of motion needed normal ordering.
If $\lambda=0$, the theory is non-interacting, then each of the above equations for the $W^n_\Psi$ becomes self-contained (independent of $n$-point functions of different order) and identical to the now linear equations of motion. At this point it should be clear how your intuition does in fact apply to the states of a non-interacting QFT. States $|\Psi\rangle$ can be put into correspondence with multiparticle "wave functions" solving the linear equations of motion (which are actually the Wightman functions $W^n_\Psi$).
Finally, when it comes to trying to construct models of QFT, people usually just concentrate on the Wightman functions associated to the vacuum state, $W^n_0 = \langle 0|\cdots|0\rangle$, which are sufficient to reconstruct the corresponding $n$-point functions for all other states. In short, the standard approaches to constructive QFT already incorporate non-linear interactions in a natural way. And non-linear modifications to the quantum mechanical formalism are simply a whole different, independent topic.
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Modern constructive field theory is based on rigorous implementations of the renormalization group (RG) approach. To get an idea of what this is about see this short introductory paper. The RG is an infinite dimensional dynamical system and constructing a QFT essentially means constructing an orbit which typically joins two fixed points. So first you need a fixed point (for instance the massless Gaussian field) and you need it to have an unstable manifold which is not entirely made of Gaussian measures (trivial QFTs). In 4d the only fixed point we have at our disposal is the Gaussian one and at least at the level of perturbation theory one has strong indications that for models like phi-four and even much more complicated generalizations, the corresponding unstable manifold is Gaussian. The only models in 4d known not to suffer from this problem are non-Abelian gauge theories and their construction (in infinite volume) is a difficult question (one of the 7 Clay Millennium Problems).
The main technical obstacles for having good candidates to even consider constructing are stability (being in the region of positive coupling constant) and Osterwalder-Schrader positivity. In 4d one should be able to construct a phi-four model with fractional propagator $1/p^{\alpha}$ with $\alpha$ slightly bigger than 2 (the standard propagator). There are partial rigorous results in this direction by Brydges, Dimock and Hurd: "A non-Gaussian fixed point for $\varphi^4$ in $4−\varepsilon$ dimensions". Unfortunately, such a model would most likely not satisfy OS positivity.