Evolution of Nielsen-Olesen's String from Chern-Simons Field Theory

We study the topology of Nielsen-Olesen's local field theory of single dual string. Based on the Chern-Simons field theory in three dimensons, we find many strings that can form world sheets in four dimensions. These strings have important relation to the zero point of the complex scalar field. These world sheets of strings can be expressed by the topological invariant number, Hopf index, and Brower degree. Nambu-Goto's action is obtained from the Nielsen's action definitely by using φ-mapping theory.     

Evolution of Nielsen-Olesen''''s String from Chern-Simons Field Theory

We study the topology of Nielsen-Olesen's local field theory of single dual string. Based on the Chern-Simons field theory in three dimensons, we find many strings that can form world sheets in four dimensions. These strings have important relation to the zero point of the complex scalar field. These world sheets of strings can be expressed by the topological invariant number, Hopf index, and Brower degree. Nambu-Goto's action is obtained from the Nielsen's action definitely by using o-mapping theory.     

Topological Field Theory Interpretation of String Topology

The string bracket introduced by Chas and Sullivan is reinterpreted from the point of view of topological field theories in the Batalin–Vilkovisky or BRST formalisms. Namely, topological action functionals for gauge fields (generalizing Chern–Simons and BF theories) are considered together with generalized Wilson loops. The latter generate a (Poisson or Gerstenhaber) algebra of functionals with values in the S¹-equivariant cohomology of the loop space of the manifold on which the theory is defined. It is proved that, in the case of GL(n,) with standard representation, the (Poisson or BV) bracket of two generalized Wilson loops applied to two cycles is the same as the generalized Wilson loop applied to the string bracket of the cycles. Generalizations to other groups are briefly described.     

Bulk Deformations of Open Topological String Theory

We present a general method to construct bulk-deformed open topological string theories from Landau-Ginzburg models. To this end we obtain a weak version of deformation quantisation, and we show how this together with the technique of homological perturbation allows to explicitly compute all bulk-deformed open topological string amplitudes at tree-level before tadpole-cancellation. Our approach is based on a coherent treatment of the problem in terms of the fundamental A _??- and L _??-structures involved.     

Large N 2D Yang-Mills Theory and Topological String Theory

We describe a topological string theory which reproduces many aspects of the 1/N expansion of SU(N) Yang-Mills theory in two spacetime dimensions in the zero coupling (A= 0) limit. The string theory is a modified version of topological gravity coupled to a topological sigma model with spacetime as target. The derivation of the string theory relies on a new interpretation of Gross and Taylor's “Ω^-1 points ”. We describe how inclusion of the area, coupling of chiral sectors, and Wilson loop expectation values can be incorporated in the topological string approach. Received: 3 March 1994 / Accepted: 2 February 1995     

Loop Homotopy Algebras in Closed String Field Theory

Barton Zwiebach constructed [20] “string products” on the Hilbert space of a combined conformal field theory of matter and ghosts, satisfying the “main identity”. It has been well known that the “tree level” of the theory gives an example of a strongly homotopy Lie algebra (though, as we will see later, this is not the whole truth). Strongly homotopy Lie algebras are now well-understood objects. On the one hand, strongly homotopy Lie algebra is given by a square zero coderivation on the cofree cocommutative connected coalgebra [13, 14]; on the other hand, strongly homotopy Lie algebras are algebras over the cobar dual of the operad &?om for commutative algebras [9]. As far as we know, no such characterization of the structure of string products for arbitrary genera has been available, though there are two series of papers directly pointing towards the requisite characterization. As far as the characterization in terms of (co)derivations is concerned, we need the concept of higher order (co)derivations, which has been developed, for example, in[2, 3]. These higher order derivations were used in the analysis of the ”master identity“. For our characterization we need to understand the behavior of these higher (co)derivations on (co)free (co)algebras. The necessary machinery for the operadic approach is that of modular operads, anticipated in [5] and introduced in [8]. We believe that the modular operad structure on the compactified moduli space of Riemann surfaces of arbitrary genera implies the existence of the structure we are interested in the same manner as was explained for the tree level in [11]. We also indicate how to adapt the loop homotopy structure to the case of open string field theory [19]. Received: 10 November 1999 / Accepted: 29 March 2001     

Vassiliev Knot Invariants and Chern-Simons Perturbation Theory to All Orders

At any order, the perturbative expansion of the expectation values of Wilson lines in Chern-Simons theory gives certain integral expressions. We show that they all lead to knot invariants. Moreover these are finite type invariants whose order coincides with the order in the perturbative expansion. Together they combine to give a universal Vassiliev invariant. Received: 26 March 1996 / Accepted: 7 November 1996     

Wilson Loops and Topological Phases in Closed String Theory

Using covariant phase space formulations for the natural topological invariants associated with the world-surface in closed string theory, we find that certain Wilson loops defined on the world-surface and that preserve topological invariance, correspond to wave functionals for the vacuum state with zero energy. The differences and similarities with the 2-dimensional QED proposed by Schwinger early are discussed. PACS Numbers : 81T30, 81T45     

Topological Structure of Chern-Simons Vortex

Based on the gauge potential decomposition theory and the φ-mapping method, the topological inner structure of the Chern-Sirnons-Higgs vortex has been studied strictly. It is shown that there exits a multi-charged vortex at every zero point of the Higgs scalar field φ. The multivortex solutions in the Chern-Simons-Higgs model are obtained strictly.     

Localization and Gluing of Topological Amplitudes

We develop a gluing algorithm for Gromov-Witten invariants of toric Calabi-Yau threefolds based on localization and gluing graphs. The main building block of this algorithm is a generating function of cubic Hodge integrals of special form. We conjecture a precise relation between this generating function and the topological vertex at fractional framing.     

Amplitudes for the Bosonic String with Boundaries

We deal with the problem of the computation of amplitudes for the bosonic Polyakov string with boundaries and show that both conformal invariance and reparametrisation invariance are maintained in critical dimensional d = 26 as the case without boundaries. The amplitudes of the bosonic, closed oriented Polyakov string with boundaries are formulated aa integral over moduli space with respect to the Weil-Petersson measure.     

Nonlocal Scalar Electrodynamics from Chern-Simons Theory

The theory of a complex scalar interacting with a pure Chern-Simons gauge field is quantized canonically. Dynamical and nondynarnical variables are separated in a gaugeindependent way. In the physical subspace of the full Hilbert space, this theory reduces to a pure scalar theory with nonlocal interaction. Several scattering processes are studied and the cross sections are calculated.     

One-Dimensional Chern-Simons Theory

We study a one-dimensional toy version of the Chern-Simons theory. We construct its simplicial version which comprises features of a low-energy effective gauge theory and of a topological quantum field theory in the sense of Atiyah.     

The Topological Open String Wavefunction

We show that, in local Calabi–Yau manifolds, the topological open string partition function transforms as a wavefunction under modular transformations. Our derivation is based on the topological recursion for matrix models, and it generalizes in a natural way the known result for the closed topological string sector. As an application, we derive results for vacuum expectation values of 1/2 BPS Wilson loops in ABJM theory at all genera in a strong coupling expansion, for various representations.     

Deformation Dynamics and the Gauss–Bonnet Topological Term in String Theory

We show that there exists a nontrivial contribution on the Witten covariant phase space when the Gauss–Bonnet topological term is added to the Dirac–Nambu–Goto action describing strings, because the geometry of deformations is modified, and on such space we construct a symplectic structure. Future extensions of the present results are outlined.     

Topological phases of quantum theories. Chern-Simons theory

We analyze the vacuum structure (degeneracy, nodes and symmetries) of some quantum theories with special emphasis on the study of its dependence on the geometry and topology of the classical configuration space. The study of the topological limit shows that many low energy properties of those quantum theories can be inferred from the structure of their topological phases. After reviewing some simple pure quantum mechanical models (planar rotor, magnetic monopole and quantum Hall effect) we focus on the study of the rich relationship existing between topologically massive gauge theories and their topological phases, Chern-Simons theories. In particular we show that, although in a finite volume the degeneracy of the quantum vacuum of gauge theories depends on the topology of the underlying Riemann surface, in an infinite volume the vacuum is unique. Finally, the topological structure of Chern-Simons theory is analyzed in a covariant formalism within a geometric regularization scheme. We discuss in some detail the structure of the different metric dependent contributions to the Chern-Simons partition function and the associated topological invariants.