A connection between the Einstein and Yang-Mills equations

It is our purpose here to show an unusual relationship between the Einstein equations and the Yang-Mills equations. We give a correspondence between solutions of the self-dual Einstein vacuum equations and the self-dual Yang-Mills equations with a special choice of gauge group. The extension of the argument to the full Yang-Mills equations yields Einstein's unifield equations. We try to incorporate the full Einstein vacuum equations, but the approach is incomplete. We first consider Yang-Mills theory for an arbitrary Lie-algebra with the condition that the connection 1-form and curvature are constant on Minkowski space. This leads to a set of algebraic equations on the connection components. We then specialize the Lie-algebra to be the (infinite dimensional) Lie-algebra of a group of diffeomorphisms of some manifold. The algebraic equations then become differential equations for four vector fields on the manifold on which the diffeomorphisms act. In the self-dual case, if we choose the connection components from the Lie-algebra of the volume preserving 4-dimensional diffeomorphism group, the resulting equations are the same as those obtained by Ashtekar, Jacobsen and Smolin, in their remarkable simplification of the self-dual Einstein vacuum equations. (An alternative derivation of the same equations begins with the self-dual Yang-Mills connection now depending only on the time, then choosing the Lie algebra as that of the volume preserving 3-dimensional diffeomorphisms.) When the reduced full Yang-Mills equations are used in the same context, we get Einstein's equations for his unified theory based on absolute parallelism. To incorporate the full Einsteinvacuum equations we use as the Lie group the semi-direct product of the diffeomorphism group of a 4-dimensional manifold with the group of frame rotations of anSO(1, 3) bundle over the 4-manifold. This last approach, however, yields equations more general than the vacuum equations.Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral fellow and Fulbright ScholarSupported in part by NSF grant no. PHY 80023     

The Global Gravitational Anomaly of the Self-dual Field Theory

We derive a formula for the global gravitational anomaly of the self-dual field theory on an arbitrary compact oriented Riemannian manifold. Along the way, we uncover interesting links between the theory of determinant line bundles of Dirac operators, Siegel theta functions and a functor constructed by Hopkins and Singer. We apply our result to type IIB supergravity and show that in the naive approximation where the Ramond-Ramond fields are treated as differential cohomology classes, the global gravitational anomaly vanishes on all 10-dimensional spin manifolds. We sketch a few other important physical applications.     

On the geometry of Dirac determinant bundles in two dimensions

The gauge and diffeomorphism anomalies are used to define the determinant bundles for the left-handed Dirac operator on a two-dimensional Riemann surface. Three different moduli spaces are studied: (1) the space of vector potentials modulo gauge transformations; (2) the space of vector potentials modulo bundle automorphisms; and, (3) the space of Riemannian metrics modulo diffeomorphisms. Using the methods earlier developed for the studies of affine Kac-Moody groups, natural geometries are constructed for each of the three bundles.This work was supported in part by funds provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (D.O.E.) under contract #DE-AC02-76ER03069     

Geometric Quantization and the Metric Dependence of the Self-Dual Field Theory

We investigate the metric dependence of the partition function of the self-dual p-form gauge field on an arbitrary Riemannian manifold. Using geometric quantization of the space of middle-dimensional forms, we derive a projectively flat connection on its space of polarizations. This connection governs metric dependence of the partition function of the self-dual field. We show that the dependence is essentially given by the Cheeger half-torsion of the underlying manifold. We compute the local gravitational anomaly and show how our derivation relates to the classical computation based on index theory. As an application, we show that the one-loop determinant of the (2, 0) multiplet on a Calabi-Yau threefold coincides with the square root of the one-loop determinant of the B-model.     

Self-Dual Strings in Six Dimensions: Anomalies,the <Emphasis Type="Italic">ADE</Emphasis>-Classification,and the World-Sheet <Emphasis Type="Italic">WZW</Emphasis>-Model

We consider the (2,0) supersymmetric theory of tensor multiplets and self-dual strings in six space-time dimensions. Space-time diffeomorphisms that leave the string world-sheet invariant appear as gauge transformations on the normal bundle of the world-sheet. The naive invariance of the model under such transformations is however explicitly broken by anomalies: The electromagnetic coupling of the string to the two-form gauge field of the tensor multiplet suffers from a classical anomaly, and there is also a one-loop quantum anomaly from the chiral fermions on the string world-sheet. Both of these contributions are proportional to the Euler class of the normal bundle of the string world-sheet, and consistency of the model requires that they cancel. This imposes strong constraints on possible models, which are found to obey an ADE-classification. We then consider the decoupled world-sheet theory that describes low-energy fluctuations (compared to the scale set by the string tension) around a configuration with a static, straight string. The anomaly structure determines this to be a supersymmetric version of the level one Wess-Zumino-Witten model based on the group      

Hamiltonian Anomalies from Extended Field Theories

We develop a proposal by Freed to see anomalous field theories as relative field theories, namely field theories taking value in a field theory in one dimension higher, the anomaly field theory. We show that when the anomaly field theory is extended down to codimension 2, familiar facts about Hamiltonian anomalies can be naturally recovered, such as the fact that the anomalous symmetry group admits only a projective representation on the Hilbert space, or that the latter is really an abelian bundle gerbe over the moduli space. We include in the discussion the case of non-invertible anomaly field theories, which is relevant to six-dimensional (2, 0) superconformal theories. In this case, we show that the Hamiltonian anomaly is characterized by a degree 2 non-abelian group cohomology class, associated to the non-abelian gerbe playing the role of the state space of the anomalous theory. We construct Dai-Freed theories, governing the anomalies of chiral fermionic theories, and Wess-Zumino theories, governing the anomalies of Wess-Zumino terms and self-dual field theories, as extended field theories down to codimension 2.     

Heisenberg groups and noncommutative fluxes

We develop a group-theoretical approach to the formulation of generalized abelian gauge theories, such as those appearing in string theory and M-theory. We explore several applications of this approach. First, we show that there is an uncertainty relation which obstructs simultaneous measurement of electric and magnetic flux when torsion fluxes are included. Next, we show how to define the Hilbert space of a self-dual field. The Hilbert space is Z₂-graded and we show that, in general, self-dual theories (including the RR fields of string theory) have fermionic sectors. We indicate how rational conformal field theories associated to the two-dimensional Gaussian model generalize to (4k + 2)-dimensional conformal field theories. When our ideas are applied to the RR fields of string theory we learn that it is impossible to measure the K-theory class of a RR field. Only the reduction modulo torsion can be measured.     

Witten's gauge field equations and an infinite-dimensional Grassmann manifold

Witten's gauge fields are interpreted as motions on an infinite-dimensional Grassmann manifold. Unlike the case of self-dual Yang-Mills equations in Takasaki's work, the initial data must satisfy a system of differential equations since Witten's equations comprise a pair of spectral parameters. Solutions corresponding to (anti-) self-dual Yang-Mills fields are characterized in the space of initial data and in application, some Yang-Mills fields which are not self-dual, anti-self-dual nor abelian can be constructed.     

Gravitational multi-instantons

We present a new family of self-dual positive definite metrics which are asymptotic to Euclidean space modulo identifications under discrete subgroups of O(4). these solutions contain 3τ ? 3 parameters where τ is the signature. We show that a fully general self-dual solution with these boundary conditions should have this number of parameters.     

The Uncertainty of Fluxes

In the ordinary quantum Maxwell theory of a free electromagnetic field, formulated on a curved 3-manifold, we observe that magnetic and electric fluxes cannot be simultaneously measured. This uncertainty principle reflects torsion: fluxes modulo torsion can be simultaneously measured. We also develop the Hamilton theory of self-dual fields, noting that they are quantized by Pontrjagin self-dual cohomology theories and that the quantum Hilbert space is -graded, so typically contains both bosonic and fermionic states. Significantly, these ideas apply to the Ramond-Ramond field in string theory, showing that its K-theory class cannot be measured.     

Moduli Spaces of Self-Dual Connections over Asymptotically Locally Flat Gravitational Instantons

We investigate Yang–Mills instanton theory over four dimensional asymptotically locally flat (ALF) geometries, including gravitational instantons of this type, by exploiting the existence of a natural smooth compactification of these spaces introduced by Hausel–Hunsicker–Mazzeo. First referring to the codimension 2 singularity removal theorem of Sibner–Sibner and R?de we prove that given a smooth, finite energy, self-dual SU(2) connection over a complete ALF space, its energy is congruent to a Chern–Simons invariant of the boundary three-manifold if the connection satisfies a certain holonomy condition at infinity and its curvature decays rapidly. Then we introduce framed moduli spaces of self-dual connections over Ricci flat ALF spaces. We prove that the moduli space of smooth, irreducible, rapidly decaying self-dual connections obeying the holonomy condition with fixed finite energy and prescribed asymptotic behaviour on a fixed bundle is a finite dimensional manifold. We calculate its dimension by a variant of the Gromov–Lawson relative index theorem. As an application, we study Yang–Mills instantons over the flat , the multi-Taub–NUT family, and the Riemannian Schwarzschild space.     

Green's functions for gravitational multi-instantons

The Green's functions for scalar fields propagating on the self-dual gravitational multi-instantons and multi-Taub-NUT metrics are given explicitly in closed form. The special cases for flat space, Taub-NUT and the Eguchi-Hanson instanton are listed. A construction is described for obtaining the Green's functions for fields of arbitrary spin.     

Warped product Kähler manifolds and Bochner–Kähler metrics

Using as an underlying manifold an alpha-Sasakian manifold, we introduce warped product Kähler manifolds. We prove that if the underlying manifold is an alpha-Sasakian space form, then the corresponding Kähler manifold is of quasi-constant holomorphic sectional curvatures with a special distribution. Conversely, we prove that any Kähler manifold of quasi-constant holomorphic sectional curvatures with a special distribution locally has the structure of a warped product Kähler manifold whose base is an alpha-Sasakian space form. As an application, we describe explicitly all Bochner–Kähler metrics of quasi-constant holomorphic sectional curvatures. We find four families of complete metrics of this type. As a consequence, we obtain Bochner–Kähler metrics generated by a potential function of distance in complex Euclidean space and of time-like distance in the flat Kähler–Lorentz space.     

Remarks on the Quantization of Self-Dual Fields

We investigate the Srivastava's and the Floreanini-Jackiw's formalisms of self-dual fields. By imposing an additional constraint on phase space we overcome the former's non-unitarity at the quantum level and simultaneously translate the former into the latter. Through introducing a parameter to extend the self-duality condition we show that both formalisms guarantee that it is only the self-dual field that exists in a consistent Hamiltonian quantum theory.     

Spacetime tangent bundle with torsion

It is demonstrated explicitly that the bundle connection of the Finslerspacetime tangent bundle can be made compatible with Cartan's theory of Finsler space by the inclusion of bundle torsion, and without the restriction that the gauge curvature field be vanishing. A component of the contorsion is made to cancel the contribution of the gauge curvature field to the relevant component of the bundle connection. Also, it is shown that the bundle manifold remains almost complex, and that the almost complex structure can be made to have a vanishing covariant derivative if additional conditions on the torsion are satisfied. However, the Finsler-spacetime tangent bundle remains complex only if the gauge curvature field vanishes.     

Functional integration and gauge ambiguities in generalized abelian gauge theories

We consider the covariant quantization of generalized abelian gauge theories on a closed and compact n$n$-dimensional manifold whose space of gauge invariant fields is the abelian group of Cheeger–Simons differential characters. The space of gauge fields is shown to be a non-trivial bundle over the orbits of the subgroup of smooth Cheeger–Simons differential characters. Furthermore each orbit itself has the structure of a bundle over a multi-dimensional torus. As a consequence there is a topological obstruction to the existence of a global gauge fixing condition. A functional integral measure is proposed on the space of gauge fields which takes this problem into account and provides a regularization of the gauge degrees of freedom. For the generalized p$p$-form Maxwell theory closed expressions for all physical observables are obtained. The Green’s functions are shown to be affected by the non-trivial bundle structure. Finally the vacuum expectation values of circle-valued homomorphisms, including the Wilson operator for singular p$p$-cycles of the manifold, are computed and selection rules are derived.     

Minimal orbits of metrics

The group of diffeomorphisms of a compact manifold acts isometrically on the space of Riemannian metrics with its L² metric. Following Arnaudon and Paycha (1995) and Maeda, Rosenberg and Tondeur (1993), we define minimal orbits for this action by a zeta function regularization. We show that odd dimensional isotropy irreducible homogeneous spaces give rise to minimal orbits, the first known examples of minimal submanifolds of infinite dimension and codimension. We also find a flat 2-torus giving a stable minimal orbit. We prove that isolated orbits are minimal, as in finite dimensions.     

New cohomogeneity one metrics with Spin(7) holonomy

We construct new explicit non-singular metrics that are complete on non-compact Riemannian 8-manifolds with holonomy Spin(7). One such metric, which we denote by , is complete and non-singular on . The other complete metrics are defined on manifolds with the topology of the bundle of chiral spinors over S⁴, and are denoted by , and . The metrics on and occur in families with a non-trivial parameter. The metric on arises for a limiting value of this parameter, and locally this metric is the same as the one for . The new Spin(7) metrics are asymptotically locally conical (ALC): near infinity they approach a circle bundle with fibres of constant length over a cone whose base is the squashed Einstein metric on . We construct the covariantly constant spinor and calibrating 4-form. We also obtain an L²-normalisable harmonic 4-form for the manifold, and two such 4-forms (of opposite dualities) for the manifold.