Renormalization and motivic Galois theory

We investigate the nature of divergences in quantum field theory, showing that they are organized in the structure of a certain “motivic Galois group” U*, which is uniquely determined and universal with respect to the set of physical theories. The renormalization group can be identified canonically with a one-parameter subgroup of U*. The group U* arises through a Riemann-Hilbert correspondence. Its representations classify equisingular flat vector bundles, where the equisingularity condition is a geometric formulation of the fact that in quantum field theory the counterterms are independent of the choice of a unit of mass. As an algebraic group scheme, U* is a semidirect product by the multiplicative group$\mathbb{G}_m$ of a prounipotent group scheme whose Lie algebra is freely generated by one generator in each positive integer degree. There is a universal singular frame in which all divergences disappear. When computed as iterated integrals, its coefficients are certain rational numbers that appear in the local index formula of Connes-Moscovici. When working with formal Laurent series over ℚ, the data of equisingular flat vector bundles define a Tannakian category whose properties are reminiscent of a category of mixed Tate motives.