Observations on non-commutative field theories in coordinate space

Abstract

We discuss non-commutative field theories in coordinate space. To do so we introduce pseudo-localized operators that represent interesting position dependent (gauge invariant) observables. The formalism may be applied to arbitrary field theories, with or without supersymmetry. The formalism has a number of intuitive advantages. First it makes clear the appearance of new degrees of freedom in the infrared. Second, it allows for a study of correlation functions of (composite) operators. Thus we calculate the two point function in position space of the insertion of certain composite operators. We demonstrate that, even at tree level, many of the by now familiar properties of non-commutative field theories are manifest and have simple interpretations. The form of correlation functions are such that certain singularities may be interpreted in terms of dimensional reduction along the non-commutative directions: this comes about because these are theories of fundamental dipoles.