Examples of reflection positive field theories

Abstract

The requirement of reflection positivity (RP) for Euclidean field theories is considered. This is done for the cases of a scalar field, a higher derivative scalar field theory and the scalar field theory defined on a non-integer dimensional space (NIDS). It is shown that regarding RP, the analytical structure of the corresponding Schwinger functions plays an important role. For the higher derivative scalar field theory, RP does not hold. However for the scalar field theory on a NIDS, RP holds in a certain range of dimensions where the corresponding Minkowskian field is defined on a Hilbert space with a positive definite scalar product that provides a unitary representation of the Poincaré group. In addition, and motivated by the last example, it is shown that, under certain conditions, one can construct non-local reflection positive Euclidean field theories starting from the corrected two point functions of interacting local field theories.