Osterwalder-Schrader Axioms for the Gaussian Free Field
We construct the massive Gaussian Free Field (GFF) in four spacetime dimensions as a probability measure on the space of tempered distributions S'(ℝ⁴), and prove that it satisfies all five Osterwalder-Schrader axioms for a Euclidean quantum field theory. The construction and proofs are formalized in Lean 4 / Mathlib, following the conventions and methods of proof in Glimm and Jaffe, Quantum Physics: A Functional Integral Point of View (Springer, 1987).
Master Theorem
theorem gaussianFreeField_satisfies_all_OS_axioms (m : ℝ) [Fact (0 < m)] :
OS0_Analyticity (μ_GFF m) ∧
OS1_Regularity (μ_GFF m) ∧
OS2_EuclideanInvariance (μ_GFF m) ∧
OS3_ReflectionPositivity (μ_GFF m) ∧
OS4_Clustering (μ_GFF m) ∧
OS4_Ergodicity (μ_GFF m)
Status: Version 2.0, March 2026. 0 sorries, 0 axioms, ~32,000 lines of Lean across 47 files.
All results are fully proved — no assumed axioms. Nuclear space structure and the Minlos theorem are provided by the external libraries bochner and gaussian-field, which are themselves axiom-free. The Minlos proof uses the external library kolmogorov_extension4.
Project Structure
The 47 library files are organized into 6 layers, with imports flowing from earlier to later sections. See docs/architecture.md for dependency structure, design choices, and proof outlines. The dependency graph is in dependency/import_graph.svg.
1. General Mathematics — OSforGFF/General/
Pure extensions of Mathlib with no project-specific definitions.
2. Spacetime — OSforGFF/Spacetime/
Test functions, symmetries, and integration infrastructure.
3. Schwinger — OSforGFF/Schwinger/
Generating functionals and correlation functions.
4. Covariance — OSforGFF/Covariance/
The free scalar field propagator C(x,y) = (m/4π²|x−y|) K₁(m|x−y|) and its properties.
5. Measure — OSforGFF/Measure/
Construction of the GFF probability measure via the Minlos theorem.
Note: IsGaussian imports OS0_Analyticity because it uses the proved analyticity of
Z[z₀f + z₁g] to identify S₂(f,g) = C(f,g) via the identity theorem. The dependency
is on the OS0 result, not on OS0-specific infrastructure.
6. OS Axioms — OSforGFF/OS/
Axiom definitions, individual proofs, and master theorem.
External Libraries
We depend on three auxiliary Lean libraries for nuclear space theory and measure construction. All are axiom-free.
bochner (BochnerMinlos)
| Module | What we use | Imported by |
|---|---|---|
Minlos.Main | minlos_theorem — existence and uniqueness of probability measures from characteristic functionals on nuclear spaces | Minlos |
Minlos.NuclearSpace | IsHilbertNuclear typeclass; MeasurableSpace (WeakDual ℝ E) cylinder σ-algebra instance | Basic, NuclearSpace |
Minlos.PietschBridge | isHilbertNuclear_of_nuclear — bridge from Pietsch to Hilbert-Schmidt characterization | NuclearSpace |
Bochner.PositiveDefinite | IsPositiveDefinite structure for characteristic functionals | Minlos |
gaussian-field (GaussianField)
| Module | What we use | Imported by |
|---|---|---|
SchwartzNuclear.HermiteNuclear | schwartz_separableSpace — Schwartz space is separable (via Hermite basis) | NuclearSpace |
Nuclear.NuclearSpace | DyninMityaginSpace → NuclearSpace — proves Schwartz space is nuclear | NuclearSpace |
kolmogorov_extension4 (transitive, via bochner)
| Module | What we use | Imported by |
|---|---|---|
KolmogorovExtension4.KolmogorovExtension | projectiveLimit — Kolmogorov extension theorem: constructs a measure on the infinite product from a consistent projective family of finite-dimensional measures | bochner's Minlos.ProjectiveFamily |
Dependencies and Cross-Cutting Concerns
The import graph (dependency/import_graph.svg) is mostly layered, with one
cross-cutting dependency:
- IsGaussian → OS0_Analyticity: Gaussianity verification uses the OS0 analyticity result to identify S₂(f,g) = C(f,g) via the identity theorem (see Section 5 note)
This prevents a perfectly linear ordering but does not create a circular dependency.
Building
lake build
Requires Lean 4 and Mathlib (pinned via lake-manifest.json).
Related Work
- or4nge19/OSforGFF — A fork by Matteo Cipollina pursuing a different measure construction pipeline: finite-dimensional Gaussians → Kolmogorov extension on test functions → nuclear support → pushforward to distribution space, avoiding the Minlos theorem. Develops coordinate-free Euclidean time-direction and dimension-agnostic Hermite APIs.
Planned Generalizations
- Other spacetime dimensions, as discussed in docs/dimension_dependence.md
Explicit construction of the measure not using Minlos— Done. The Minlos theorem and Kolmogorov extension are now fully proved in bochner and kolmogorov_extension4.
Authors
Michael R. Douglas, Sarah Hoback, Anna Mei, Ron Nissim
Coding Assistance
Claude Opus 4.6, Gemini 3 Pro, GPT-5.2 Codex
License
This project is licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See LICENSE for details.
References
- Glimm, Jaffe: Quantum Physics (Springer, 1987), pp. 89–90
- Osterwalder, Schrader: Axioms for Euclidean Green's functions I & II (1973, 1975)
- Gel'fand, Vilenkin: Generalized Functions, Vol. 4 (Academic Press, 1964)
- Reed, Simon: Methods of Modern Mathematical Physics, Vol. II (1975)
- Degenne, Pfaffelhuber: Formalizing the Kolmogorov Extension Theorem in Lean (kolmogorov_extension4)