Constructing Hamiltonian quantum theories from path integrals in a diffeomorphism invariant context

Abstract

Osterwalder and Schrader introduced a procedure to obtain a (Lorentzian) Hamiltonian quantum theory starting from a measure on the space of (Euclidean) histories of a scalar quantum field. In this paper, we extend that construction to more general theories which do not refer to any background, space-time metric (and in which the space of histories does not admit a natural linear structure). Examples include certain gauge theories, topological field theories and relativistic gravitational theories. The treatment is self-contained in the sense that an a priori knowledge of the Osterwalder-Schrader theorem is not assumed.