This is a heuristic explanation of Witten's statement, without going into the subtleties of axiomatic quantum field theory issues, such as vacuum polarization or renormalization.
A particle is characterized by a definite momentum plus possible other quantum numbers. Thus, one particle states are by definition states with a definite eigenvalues of the momentum operator, they can have further quantum numbers. These states should exist even in an interactiong field theory, describing a single particle away from any interaction.
In a local quantum field theory, these states are associated with local field operators:
$$| p, \sigma \rangle = \int e^{ipx} \psi_{\sigma}^{\dagger}(x) |0\rangle d^4x$$
Where $\psi $ is the field corresponding to the particle and $\sigma$ describes the set of other quantum numbers additional to the momentum.
A symmetry generator $Q$ being the integral of a charge density according to the Noether's theorem
$$Q = \int j_0(x') d^3x'$$
should generate a local field when it acts on a local field:
$[Q, \psi_1(x)] = \psi_2(x)$
(In the case of internal symmetries $\psi_2$ depends linearly on the components of $\psi_1(x)$, in the case of space time symmetries it depends on the derivatives of the components of $\psi_1(x)$)
Thus in general:
$$[Q, \psi_{\sigma}(x)] = \sum_{\sigma'} C_{\sigma\sigma'}(i\nabla)\psi_{\sigma'}(x)])$$
Where the dependence of the coefficients $ C_{\sigma\sigma'}$ on the momentum operator $\nabla$ is due to the possibility that $Q$ contains a space-time symmetry.
Thus for an operator $Q$ satisfying $Q|0\rangle = 0$, we have
$$ Q | p, \sigma \rangle = \int e^{ipx} Q \psi_{\sigma}^{\dagger}(x) |0\rangle d^4x = \int e^{ipx} [Q , \psi_{\sigma}^{\dagger}(x)] |0\rangle d^4x = \int e^{ipx} \sum_{\sigma'} C_{\sigma\sigma'}(i\nabla)\psi_{\sigma'}(x) |0\rangle d^4x = \sum_{\sigma'} C_{\sigma\sigma'}(p) \int e^{ipx} \psi_{\sigma'}^{\dagger}(x) |0\rangle d^4x = \sum_{\sigma'} C_{\sigma\sigma'}(p) | p, \sigma' \rangle $$
Thus the action of the operator $Q$ is a representation in the one particle states.
The fact that $Q$ commutes with the Hamiltonian is responsible for the energy degeneracy of its action, i.e., the states $| p, \sigma \rangle$ and $Q| p, \sigma \rangle$ have the same energy.
This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2015-06-16 14:50 (UTC), posted by SE-user David Bar Moshe