On the spectral analysis of quantum field Hamiltonians

We define C∗-algebras on a Fock space such that the Hamiltonians of quantum field models with positive mass are affiliated to them. We describe the quotient of such algebras with respect to the ideal of compact operators and deduce consequences in the spectral theory of these Hamiltonians: we compute their essential spectrum and give a systematic procedure for proving the Mourre estimate. © 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.