Euclidean Fermi fields with a hermitean Feynman-Kac-Nelson formula. I

Abstract

We construct free, Euclidean, spin one-half, quantum fields with the following properties: (i) CAR; (ii) Symanzik positivity; (iii) Osterwalder-Schrader positivity; (iv) no doubling of particle or spin states. They admit the recovery of the relativistic Dirac field by the Osterwalder-Schrader technique. We then formally parametrize interacting theories by a natural class of Hermitean, Euclidean actions, and obtain a simple, Hermitean, Feynman-Kac-Nelson formula. The interacting theory formally obeys all the properties (i)–(iv), and admits the reconstruction of a physical Hilbert space, including a Hermitean, contraction semigroup for the Wick rotated time evolution. We propose a system of axioms for the interacting theory.