Longitudinal electric corner modes in continuum quantum gauge theory with matter

Abstract

Subregions in gauge theories give rise to edge modes and corner charges supported on their boundaries. While this is well-established classically and in quantum lattice gauge theories, the fate of corner modes remains poorly understood in continuum quantum field theories owing to their distributional nature. In this paper, we revisit this challenge and propose a new corner operator for a regional Cauchy slice algebra generated by local gauge-invariant observables of scalar QED in Minkowski spacetime. The corner mode is given by the longitudinal electric field sourced by the matter outside the subregion and thus constitutes a centre for the regional algebra. Our main goal is to show that there exists a perturbative GNS state on this algebra that quantises this mode. Pulling back the Fock vacuum to the slice, we construct this state by renormalising the divergences arising from the lack of temporal smearing. We clarify that the inclusion of the new centre mode necessitates a further renormalisation on the corner of the region, thereby physically distinguishing it and breaking the translation invariance of the state. Our work shows how the requirements of locality, renormalisability, and positivity together put strong constraints on the existence of a continuum quantum field theory which supports corner modes as genuine quantum operators. We finish with comments about the von Neumann completion of the regional algebra, as well as possible physical interpretations of the renormalised vacuum state.