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Light-Cone Quantization: Foundations and Applications

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arxiv hep-th/0008096 v2 pith:OAFHHIU7 submitted 2000-08-11 hep-th hep-ph

classification hep-thhep-ph
keywords light-conequantizationpionapplicationsfieldschroedingersomedynamics
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
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These lecture notes review the foundations and some applications of light-cone quantization. First I explain how to choose a time in special relativity. Inclusion of Poincare invariance naturally leads to Dirac's forms of relativistic dynamics. Among these, the front form, being the basis for light-cone quantization, is my main focus. I explain a few of its peculiar features such as boost and Galilei invariance or separation of relative and center-of-mass motion. Combining light-cone dynamics and field quantization results in light-cone quantum field theory. As the latter represents a first-order system, quantization is somewhat nonstandard. I address this issue using Schwinger's quantum action principle, the method of Faddeev and Jackiw, and the functional Schroedinger picture. A finite-volume formulation, discretized light-cone quantization, is analysed in detail. I point out some problems with causality, which are absent in infinite volume. Finally, the triviality of the light-cone vacuum is established. Coming to applications, I introduce the notion of light-cone wave functions as the solutions of the light-cone Schroedinger equation. I discuss some examples, among them nonrelativistic Coulomb systems and model field theories in two dimensions. Vacuum properties (like chiral condensates) are reconstructed from the particle spectrum obtained by solving the light-cone Schroedinger equation. In a last application, I make contact with phenomenology by calculating the pion wave function within the Nambu and Jona-Lasinio model. I am thus able to predict a number of observables like the pion charge and core radius, the r.m.s. transverse momentum, the pion structure function and the pion distribution amplitude. The latter turns out to be the asymptotic one.

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Cited by 6 Pith papers

Reviewed papers in the Pith corpus that reference this work. Sorted by Pith novelty score. OpenAlex reports about 42 citations worldwide. Full citation record

  1. Light-Front approach to $4d$ massless Higher-Spin interactions

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    Solving Poincaré-algebra closure at quartic order yields infinitely many local 4d massless higher-spin theories (finite or infinite spectra), classifies chiral one-/two-derivative models, and determines all local unit...

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    A light-front quartic-constraint analysis classifies local massless higher-spin vertices and amplitudes, yielding no-go results for unitary theories and new quasi-chiral higher-spin sectors.

  3. Quantum entanglement within quarkonium

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    Quark-antiquark entanglement entropy in quarkonium is derived from light-front wave functions, reduces to the Shannon entropy of TMDs, and shows strong polarization dependence for spin-1 mesons.

  4. An algebra of proper observables at null infinity: Dirac brackets, Memory and Goldstone probes

    hep-th 2026-05 unverdicted novelty 6.0 of 10

    The algebra of proper observables at null infinity admits Goldstone probes that measure the memory mode, but none can be built from shear or news alone, and the Dirac brackets acquire non-local corrections.

  5. Quantum entanglement between partons in a strongly coupled quantum field theory

    hep-ph 2025-12 unverdicted novelty 6.0 of 10

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    hep-ph 2025-01 conditional novelty 6.0 of 10

    Adding an antinucleon Fock component, even at only ~2% probability, dramatically reduces the frame dependence of the charge form factor in strongly coupled scalar Yukawa theory on the light front.

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