Reflection Positivity in Free Fermionic Theories

Abstract

Reflection positivity is one of the Osterwalder--Schrader axioms for Euclidean quantum field theory, ensuring that the reconstructed relativistic Hilbert space carries a positive-definite inner product. For free fermionic theories whose covariance is a real rational function of the Dirac operator, we prove that reflection positivity holds if and only if all poles are real, simple, and carry non-negative residues. We also explicitly show the failure of reflection positivity for covariances with exponential regulators.