Temperature as Order Parameter of Broken Scale Invariance

Abstract

In algebraic quantum field theory the (inverse) temperature is shown to be a macroscopic order parameter to parametrize mutually disjoint thermal sectors arising from the broken scale invariance under renormalization-group transformations.

This is accomplished in a mathematical formalism for the consistent treatment of explicitly broken symmetries such as broken scale invariance, on the basis of a clearcut criterion for the symmetry breakdown in a unified scheme for sectors proposed recently by the author.