Chris Fewster
The Coleman--Mandula (CM) theorem states that the Poincaré and internal symmetries of a Minkowski spacetime quantum field theory cannot combine nontrivially in an extended symmetry group. In this talk I will describe some of the background to the CM theorem and then establish an analogous result for a general class of quantum field theories in curved spacetimes. Unlike the CM theorem, our result is valid in dimensions n>=2 and for free or interacting theories. It makes use of a general analysis of symmetries induced by the action of a group G on the category of spacetimes. Such symmetries are shown to be canonically associated with a cohomology class in the second degree nonabelian cohomology of G with coefficients in the global gauge group of the theory. The main result proves that the cohomology class is trivial if G is the universal cover S of the restricted Lorentz group. Among other consequences, it follows that the extended symmetry group is a direct product of the global gauge group and S, all fields transform in multiplets of S, fields of different spin do not mix under the extended group, and the occurrence of noninteger spin is controlled by the centre of the global gauge group.
