corner
corner
APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 96 » Issue 22
< Previous Article | Next Article >

Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 221303 (2006) [4 pages]

Background Independent Duals of the Harmonic Oscillator

Abstract
References
No Citing Articles
Download: PDF (88 kB) Buy this article Export: BibTeX or EndNote (RIS)

Viqar Husain*
Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, 31 Caroline St. N, Waterloo ON, Canada N2L 2Y5
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada E3B 5A3

Received 7 March 2006; published 7 June 2006

We show that a class of topological field theories are quantum duals of the harmonic oscillator. This is demonstrated by establishing a correspondence between the creation and annihilation operators and nonlocal gauge invariant observables of the topological field theory. The example is used to discuss some issues concerning background independence and the relation of vacuum energy to the problem of time in quantum gravity.

© 2006 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.221303
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.221303
PACS:
04.60.Ds

*Electronic address: vhusain@perimeterinstitute.ca

 
< Previous Article | Next Article >