Pure Point Spectrum of the Floquet Hamiltonian for the Quantum Harmonic Oscillator Under Time Quasi-Periodic Perturbations

We prove that the 1-d quantum harmonic oscillator is stable under spatially localized, time quasi-periodic perturbations on a set of Diophantine frequencies of positive measure. This proves a conjecture raised by Enss-Veselic in their 1983 paper [EV] in the general quasi-periodic setting. The motivation of the present paper also comes from construction of quasi-periodic solutions for the corresponding nonlinear equation. Partially supported by NSF grant DMS-05-03563.     

The Power of Quantum Systems on a Line

We study the computational strength of quantum particles (each of finite dimensionality) arranged on a line. First, we prove that it is possible to perform universal adiabatic quantum computation using a one-dimensional quantum system (with 9 states per particle). This might have practical implications for experimentalists interested in constructing an adiabatic quantum computer. Building on the same construction, but with some additional technical effort and 12 states per particle, we show that the problem of approximating the ground state energy of a system composed of a line of quantum particles is QMA-complete; QMA is a quantum analogue of NP. This is in striking contrast to the fact that the analogous classical problem, namely, one-dimensional MAX-2-SAT with nearest neighbor constraints, is in P. The proof of the QMA-completeness result requires an additional idea beyond the usual techniques in the area: Not all illegal configurations can be ruled out by local checks, so instead we rule out such illegal configurations because they would, in the future, evolve into a state which can be seen locally to be illegal. Our construction implies (assuming the quantum Church-Turing thesis and that quantum computers cannot efficiently solve QMA-complete problems) that there are one-dimensional systems which take an exponential time to relax to their ground states at any temperature, making them candidates for being one-dimensional spin glasses. Supported by Israel Science Foundation grant number 039-7549, Binational Science Foundation grant number 037-8404, and US Army Research Office grant number 030-7790. Supported by CIFAR, by the Government of Canada through NSERC, and by the Province of Ontario through MRI. Partially supported by NSF Grant CCR-0514082. This work was mainly done while the author was at CNRS and LRI, University of Paris-Sud, Orsay, France. Partially supported by the European Commission under the Integrated Project Qubit Applications (QAP) funded by the IST directorate as Contract Number 015848, by an ANR AlgoQP grant of the French Research Ministry, by an Alon Fellowship of the Israeli Higher Council of Academic Research, by an Individual Research grant of the ISF, and by a European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant.     

N=2 super Yang-Mills theory in projective superspace

We constructN=2 Yang-Mills theory in projective superspace by exploiting the analogy to Ward's twistor construction of self-dual Yang-Mills fields.Work supported in part by NSF grant No. PHY 85-07627     

Chern-Simons solitons,Toda theories and the chiral model

The two-dimensional self-dual Chern-Simons equations are equivalent to the conditions for static, zero-energy solutions of the (2+1)-dimensional gauged nonlinear Schrödinger equation with Chern-Simons matter-gauge dynamics. In this paper we classify all finite chargeSU(N) solutions by first transforming the self-dual Chern-Simons equations into the two-dimensional chiral model (or harmonic map) equations, and then using the Uhlenbeck-Wood classification of harmonic maps into the unitary groups. This construction also leads to a new relationship between theSU(N) Toda andSU(N) chiral model solutions.This work is supported in part by funds provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (D.O.E.) under contract #DE-AC02-76ER03069, and NSF grant #87-08447     

The large time stability of sound waves

We demonstrate the existence of solutions to the full 3×3 system of compressible Euler equations in one space dimension, up to an arbitrary timeT>0, in the case when the initial data has arbitrarily large total variation, and sufficiently small supnorm. The result applies to periodic solutions of the Euler equations, a nonlinear model for sound wave propagation in gas dynamics. Our analysis establishes a growth rate for the total variation that depends on a new length scaled that we identify in the problem. This length scale plays no role in 2×2 systems, (or any system possessing a full set of Riemann coordinates), nor in the small total variation problem forn×n systems, the cases originally addressed by Glimm in 1965. Recent work by a number of authors has demonstrated that when the total variation is sufficiently large, solutions of 3×3 systems of conservation laws can in general blow up in finite time, (independent of the supnorm), due to amplifying instabilities created by the non-trivial Lie algebra of the vector fields that define the elementary waves. For the large total variation problem, there is an interaction between large scale effects that amplify and small scale effects that are stable, and we show that the length scale on which this interaction occurs isd. In the limitd, we recover Glimm's theorem, and we observe that there exist linearly degenerate systems within the class considered for which the growth rate we obtain is sharp.Supported in part by NSF Applied Mathematics grant numbers DMS-92-06631, DMS-95000694, in part by ONR, US Navy grant number N00014-94-1-0691, A Guggenheim fellowship, and by the Institute of Theoretical Dynamics, UC-Davis.Partially supported by DOE grant number DE-FG02-88ER25053 while at the Courant Institute, and by NSF grant number DMS-9201581 and DOE grant number DE-FG02-90ER25084.     

Spin Gromov-Witten Invariants

We define and study r-spin Gromov-Witten invariants and r-spin quantum cohomology of a projective variety V, where r≥2 is an integer. The main element of the construction is the space of r-spin maps, the stable maps into a variety V from n-pointed algebraic curves of genus g with the additional data of an r-spin structure on the curve. We prove that is a Deligne-Mumford stack and use it to define the r-spin Gromov-Witten classes of V. We show that these classes yield a cohomological field theory (CohFT) which is isomorphic to the tensor product of the CohFT associated to the usual Gromov-Witten invariants of V and the r-spin CohFT. Restricting to genus zero, we obtain the notion of an r-spin quantum cohomology of V, whose Frobenius structure is isomorphic to the tensor product of the Frobenius manifolds corresponding to the quantum cohomology of V and the r^th Gelfand-Dickey hierarchy (or, equivalently, the A_r−1 singularity). We also prove a generalization of the descent property which, in particular, explains the appearance of the ψ classes in the definition of gravitational descendants.Research of the first author was partially supported by NSA grant number MDA904-99-1-0039Research of the second author was partially supported by NSF grant number DMS-9803427Research of the third author was partially supported by NSF grant DMS-0104397     

Decay of Solutions of the Wave Equation in the Kerr Geometry

We consider the Cauchy problem for the massless scalar wave equation in the Kerr geometry for smooth initial data compactly supported outside the event horizon. We prove that the solutions decay in time in L ^∞ _loc. The proof is based on a representation of the solution as an infinite sum over the angular momentum modes, each of which is an integral of the energy variable ω on the real line. This integral representation involves solutions of the radial and angular ODEs which arise in the separation of variables. Research supported in part by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. Research supported by NSERC grant #RGPIN 105490-2004. Research supported in part by the NSF, Grant No. DMS-010-3998. Research supported in part by the NSF, Grant No. 33-585-7510-2-30. An erratum to this article is available at .     

Discrete Miura Opers and Solutions of the Bethe Ansatz Equations

Solutions of the Bethe ansatz equations associated to the XXX model of a simple Lie algebra come in families called the populations. We prove that a population is isomorphic to the flag variety of the Langlands dual Lie algebra The proof is based on the correspondence between the solutions of the Bethe ansatz equations and special difference operators which we call the discrete Miura opers. The notion of a discrete Miura oper is one of the main results of the paper.For a discrete Miura oper D, associated to a point of a population, we show that all solutions of the difference equation DY=0 are rational functions, and the solutions can be written explicitly in terms of points composing the population.Supported in part by NSF grant DMS-0140460Supported in part by NSF grant DMS-0244579     

The existence of constant mean curvature foliations of Gowdy 3-torus spacetimes

We consider the class of smooth, maximally extended, globally hyperbolic, vacuum, Gowdy spacetimes onT ³×R and prove that these spacetimes are globally foliated by space-like, constant mean curvature hypersurfaces. Our results can easily be extended to cover electrovac solutions of the same symmetry type and can probably be extended to cover other spacetime topologies as well.Research supported in part by NSF grant No. PHY79-16482 at Yale and No. PHY79-13146 at Berkeley     

Spectral Analysis of a Stochastic Ising Model in Continuum

We consider an equilibrium stochastic dynamics of spatial spin systems in ℝ ^d involving both a birth-and-death dynamics and a spin flip dynamics as well. Using a general approach to the spectral analysis of corresponding Markov generator, we estimate the spectral gap and construct one-particle invariant subspaces for the generator. Dedicated to our admired teacher and friend Robert Minlos on occasion of his 75th birthday. The financial support of SFB-701, Bielefeld University, is gratefully acknowledged. The work is partially supported by RFBR grant 05-01-00449, Scientific School grant 934.2003.1, CRDF grant RUM1-2693-MO-05.     

Quantization ofSL(2,R) Chern-Simons theory

In this paper we consider the bosonic sector of the electroweak theory. It has been shown in the work of Ambjorn and Olesen that when the Higgs mass equals to the mass of theZ boson, the model in two dimensions subject to the 't Hooft periodic boundary condition may be reduced to a Bogomol'nyi system and that the solutions of the system are vortices in a dual superconductor. We shall prove using a constrained variational reformulation of the problem the existence of such vortices. Our conditions for the existence of solutions are necessary and sufficient when the vortex numberN=1,2.Research supported in part by NSF grant DMS-88-02858 and DOE grant DE-FG02-86ER250125     

Convergence to nonlinear diffusion waves for solutions of a system of hyperbolic conservation laws with damping

We consider a model of hyperbolic conservation laws with damping and show that the solutions tend to those of a nonlinear parabolic equation time-asymptotically. The hyperbolic model may be viewed as isentropic Euler equations with friction term added to the momentum equation to model gas flow through a porous media. In this case our result justifies Darcy's law time-asymptotically. Our model may also be viewed as an elastic model with damping.Research supported in part by Energy Dept. grant DEFG 02-88-ER25053Research supported in part by NSF grant DMS 90-0226 and Army grant DAAL 03-91-G0017     

Quantization of triangular Lie bialgebras

We derive a universal twisting element for an arbitrary triangularγ-matrix using a simple analogue of the Fedosov quantization method. Presented at the 11th Colloquium “Quantum Groups and Integrable Systems”, Prague, 20–22 June 2002. The work of SLL is partially supported by RFBR grant 00-02-17-956 and the grant INTAS 00-262. The work of AASh is supported by RFBR grant 02-02-06879 and Russian Ministry of Education under the grant E-00-33-184. The work of VAD is partially supported by the grant INTAS 00-561 and by the Grant for Support of Scientific Schools 00-15-96557. The work of API is partially supported by the RFBR grant 00-01-00299.     

Monopoles and Baker functions

The work in this paper pertains to the solutions of Nahm's equations, which arise in the Atiyah-Drinfield-Hitchin-Manin-Nahm construction of solutions to the Bogomol'nyi equations for static monopoles. This paper provides an explicit construction of the solution of Nahm's equations which satisfy regularity and reality conditions. The Lax form of Nahm's equations is reduced to a standard eigenvalue problem by a special gauge transformation. These equations may then be solved by the method of Baker-Krichever. This leads to a compact representation of the solutions of Nahm's equations. The regularity condition is shown to be related to the monodromy of the gauge reduced linear operator. Hitchin showed that the solutions of Nahm's equations can be characterized by an algebraic curve and some data on that curve. Here, this characterization reduces to a transcendental equation involving certain loop integrals of a meromorphic differential. Donaldson coordinatized the moduli space ofk-monopoles by a class of rational maps from the Riemann sphere to itself. The data of a Baker function is equivalent to this map. This method gives an apriori construction of the (known) two monopole solutions. We also give a generalization of the two monopole solution to a class of elliptic solutions of arbitrary charge. These solutions correspond to reducible curves with elliptic components and the associated Donaldson rational function has a simple partial fraction expansion.Supported in part by the National Science Foundation, Grant Number DMS-8701318 and the Arizona Center for Mathematical Sciences, sponsored by AFOSR Contract F49620-86-C0130 with the University Research Initiative Program at the University of Arizona     

On ergodic properties for harmonic crystals

We consider the dynamics of a harmonic crystal in n dimensions with d components, where d and n are arbitrary, d, n ⩾ 1. The initial data are given by a random function with finite mean energy density which also satisfies a Rosenblatt-or Ibragimov-type mixing condition. The random function is close to diverse space-homogeneous processes as x _n → ±∞, with the distributions μ±. We prove that the phase flow is mixing with respect to the limit measure of statistical solutions. Partially supported by RFBR under grant no. 06-01-00096.     

The method of virtual quanta as a probe of the equivalence principle

We consider bremsstrahlung encounters between a test body of massm, chargee, and a large fixed massM with chargeQ. We use the method of virtual quanta, and calculate the total electromagnetic and gravitational energy radiated in such encounters. We consider both the case in which the deflection is principally electromagnetic in nature, and the case in which the deflection is principally gravitational. The results are interpreted by considering the predictions of the equivalence principle, for the behavior of the test particle,and for the behavior of the virtual quanta. As expected from the equivalence principle, the total radiation produced is larger for electromagnetic deflection than for a gravitational deflection through the same angle.Dedicated to the memory of Alfred Schild, born7 September 1921; died 24 May 1977. A good man, a great scholar, the best of friends.Research supported in part by NSF grant no. PHV76-07919 and by NATO Research grant no. 1002.     

On multivortices in the electroweak theory II: Existence of Bogomol'nyi solutions in ℝ2

In this paper we study the Bogomol'nyi equations of the electroweak theory in the full plane. We will show that, for any distribution of the vortices, there exists a two parameter family of gauge-distinct solutions. Moreover, we also establish some sharp decay rate estimates for these solutions.Research supported in part by NSF grant DMS-88-02858 and DOE grant DE-FG02-86ER250125     

Construction of the affine Lie algebraA 1 (1)

We give an explicit construction of the affine Lie algebraA ₁ ⁽¹⁾ as an algebra of differential operators on [x ₁,x ₃,x ₅, ...]. This algebra is spanned by the creation and annihilation operators and by the homogeneous components of a certain exponential generating function which is strikingly similar to the vertex operator in the string model.Partially supported by a Sloan Foundation Fellowship and NSF grant MCS 76-10435Most of this work was done while the author was a Visiting Fellow at Yale University, supported in part by NSF grant MCS 77-03608 and in part by a Faculty Academic Study Plan grant from Rutgers University     

Setting the Quantum Integrand of M-Theory

In anomaly-free quantum field theories the integrand in the bosonic functional integral—the exponential of the effective action after integrating out fermions—is often defined only up to a phase without an additional choice. We term this choice ``setting the quantum integrand'. In the low-energy approximation to M-theory the E₈-model for the C-field allows us to set the quantum integrand using geometric index theory. We derive mathematical results of independent interest about pfaffians of Dirac operators in 8k+3 dimensions, both on closed manifolds and manifolds with boundary. These theorems are used to set the quantum integrand of M-theory for closed manifolds and for compact manifolds with either temporal (global) or spatial (local) boundary conditions. In particular, we show that M-theory makes sense on arbitrary 11-manifolds with spatial boundary, generalizing the construction of heterotic M-theory on cylinders. The work of D.F. is supported in part by NSF grant DMS-0305505. The work of G.M. is supported in part by DOE grant DE-FG02-96ER40949