A Unified Scheme for Generalized Sectors Based on Selection Criteria: Order Parameters of Symmetries and of Thermality and Physical Meanings of Adjunctions

A unified scheme for treating generalized superselection sectors is proposed on the basis of the notion of selection criteria to characterize states of relevance to each specific domain in quantum physics, ranging from the relativistic quantum fields in the vacuum situations with unbroken and spontaneously broken internal symmetries, through equilibrium and non-equilibrium states to some basic aspects in measurement processes. This is achieved by the help of c q and q c channels: the former determines the states to be selected and to be parameterized by the order parameters, and the latter provides the physical interpretations of selected states in terms of order parameters. This formulation extends the traditional range of applicability of the Doplicher-Roberts construction method for recovering the field algebra and the gauge group (of the first kind) from the data of group invariant observables to the situations with spontaneous symmetry breakdown: in use of the machinery proposed, the physical and mathematical meaning of basic structural ingredients associated with the spontaneously broken symmetry are re-examined, such as the degenerate vacua parameterized by the variables belonging to the relevant homogeneous space, the Goldstone modes and condensates, etc. The geometrical meaning of the space of order parameters is naturally understood in relation with the adjunction as the classifying space of a sector structure. As further examples of applications, some basic notions arising in the mathematical framework of quantum theory are reformulated and examined in connection with control theory.