Lessons from discrete light-cone quantization for physics at null infinity: Bosons in two dimensions

Authors:
  • GBGlenn Barnich
    Glenn Barnich
  • SMSucheta Majumdar
    Sucheta Majumdar
  • SSSimone Speziale
    Simone Speziale
  • WTWen-Di Tan
    Wen-Di Tan
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Abstract
Motivated by issues in the context of asymptotically flat spacetimes at null infinity, we discuss in the simplest example of a massless scalar field in two dimensions several subtleties that arise when setting up the canonical formulation on a single or on two intersecting null hyperplanes with a special emphasis on the infinite-dimensional global and conformal symmetries and their canonical generators, the free data, a consistent treatment of zero modes, matching conditions, and implications for quantization of massless versus massive fields.