In part I of the thesis, a new class of duality symmetries amongst quantum field theories is introduced. The new class is based upon global spacetime symmetries, such as Poincare invariance and supersymmetry, in the same way as the existing duality transformations are based on global internal symmetries. An interesting feature of the new duality transformations is that they can lead to fermions as the new dual variables. Illustrations of the new duality transformations offered in the case of scalar and spin-half field theories in 1+1 space-time dimensions, as well as (1,1) and (2, 2) supersymmetric models. For (2, 2) models the new duality transformations can change whether a chiral multiplet is twisted or not. / In part II of the thesis, closed forms are derived for the effective actions for free, massive fields in anti-de-Sitter space-times in arbitrary dimensions. The results have simple expressions in terms of elementary functions (for odd dimensions) or multiple Gamma functions (for even dimensions). In the case of scalar fields in two dimensional anti de-Sitter space-time, the effective action is used to argue against the quantum validity of a recently proposed classical duality relating such theories with differing masses.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.36619 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| Creators | Kamela, Martin J. |
| Contributors | Burgess, C P. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Physics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001744943, proquestno: NQ64585, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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