Notes on non-commutative Chern–Simons quantum mechanics

The European Physical Journal C - We investigate the classical and quantum aspects of non-commutative topological (Chern–Simons) mechanics. We introduce the magnetic field by the minimal...     

C-disorder fields and Γ(2)-invariant partition functions in parafermionic conformal field theories

The character formulae for the C-disorder fields corresponding to the charge conjugation symmetry in the parafermionic conformal field theories of Zamolodchikov and Fateev are obtained. These characters span a unitary representation of the level 2 subgroup Γ(2) of the full modular group. The corresponding Γ(2)-invariant partition functions are calculated. Derivation of the character formula is based on the relation between the parafermionic theories and the twisted N = 2 superconformal algebra. A similar idea is applied to explicitly construct the highest weight modules of the twisted SU(2) Kac-Moody algebra.     

Chern–Simons–Rozansky–Witten topological field theory

We construct and study a new topological field theory in three dimensions. It is a hybrid between Chern–Simons and Rozansky–Witten theory and can be regarded as a topologically-twisted version of the N=4$N=4$d=3$d=3$ supersymmetric gauge theory recently discovered by Gaiotto and Witten. The model depends on a gauge group G and a hyper-Kähler manifold X with a tri-holomorphic action of G. In the case when X is an affine space, we show that the model is equivalent to Chern–Simons theory whose gauge group is a supergroup. This explains the role of Lie superalgebras in the construction of Gaiotto and Witten. For general X, our model appears to be new. We describe some of its properties, focusing on the case when G is simple and X is the cotangent bundle of the flag variety of G. In particular, we show that Wilson loops are labeled by objects of a certain category which is a quantum deformation of the equivariant derived category of coherent sheaves on X.     

Supersymmetric Chern–Simons vortex systems and extended supersymmetric quantum mechanics algebras

We study N=2$N=2$ supersymmetric Chern–Simons Higgs models in (2+1)$(2+1)$-dimensions and the existence of extended underlying supersymmetric quantum mechanics algebras. Our findings indicate that the fermionic zero modes quantum system in conjunction with the system of zero modes corresponding to bosonic fluctuations, are related to an N=4$N=4$ extended 1-dimensional supersymmetric algebra with central charge, a result closely connected to the N=2$N=2$ spacetime supersymmetry of the total system. We also add soft supersymmetric terms to the fermionic sector in order to examine how this affects the index of the corresponding Dirac operator, with the latter characterizing the degeneracy of the solitonic solutions. In addition, we analyze the impact of the underlying supersymmetric quantum algebras to the zero mode bosonic fluctuations. This is relevant to the quantum theory of self-dual vortices and particularly for the symmetries of the metric of the space of vortices solutions and also for the non-zero mode states of bosonic fluctuations.     

Chern–Simons theory and BCS superconductivity

We study the relationship between the holomorphic unitary connection of Chern–Simons theory with temporal Wilson lines and the Richardson's exact solution of the reduced BCS Hamiltonian. We derive the integrals of motion of the BCS model, their eigenvalues and eigenvectors as a limiting case of the Chern–Simons theory.     

On Chern–Simons and WZW Partition Functions

Direct analysis of the path integral reduces partition functions in Chern-Simons theory on a three-manifold M with group G to partition functions in a WZW model of maps from a Riemann surface ‡ to G. In particular, Chern-Simons theory on S³, S¹ 2 ‡, B³ and the solid torus correspond, respectively, to the WZW model of maps from S² to G, the G/G model for ‡, and Witten's gauged WZW path integral Ansatz for Chern-Simons states using maps from S² and from the torus to G. The reduction hinges on the characterization of {\cal A / G}_{n}$, the space of connections modulo those gauge transformations which are the identity at a point n, as itself a principal fiber bundle with affine-linear fiber.     

Resolution of Chern–Simons–Higgs Vortex Equations

It is well known that the presence of multiple constraints of non-Abelian relativisitic Chern–Simons–Higgs vortex equations makes it difficult to develop an existence theory when the underlying Cartan matrix K of the equations is that of a general simple Lie algebra and the strongest result in the literature so far is when the Cartan subalgebra is of dimension 2. In this paper we overcome this difficulty by implicitly resolving the multiple constraints using a degree-theorem argument, utilizing a key positivity property of the inverse of the Cartan matrix deduced in an earlier work of Lusztig and Tits, which enables a process that converts the equality constraints to inequality constraints in the variational formalism. Thus this work establishes a general existence theorem that settles a long-standing open problem in the field regarding the general solvability of the equations.     

Quantum field theory as effective BV theory from Chern–Simons

The general procedure for obtaining explicit expressions for all cohomologies of Berkovits' operator is suggested. It is demonstrated that calculation of BV integral for the classical Chern–Simons-like theory (Witten's OSFT-like theory) reproduces BV version of two-dimensional gauge model at the level of effective action. This model contains gauge field, scalars, fermions and some other fields. We prove that this model is an example of “singular” point from the perspective of the suggested method for cohomology evaluation. For arbitrary “regular” point the same technique results in AKSZ (Alexandrov, Kontsevich, Schwarz, Zaboronsky) version of Chern–Simons theory (BF theory) in accord with [N. Berkovits, Covariant quantization of the superparticle using pure spinors, JHEP 0109 (2001) 016, hep-th/0105050; N. Berkovits, ICTP lectures on covariant quantization of the superstring, hep-th/0209059; M. Movshev, A. Schwarz, On maximally supersymmetric Yang–Mills theories, Nucl. Phys. B 681 (2004) 324, hep-th/0311132; M. Movshev, A. Schwarz, Algebraic structure of Yang–Mills theory, hep-th/0404183].     

The Topology of Nontopological Chern–Simons Vortices

The quantized magnetic flux =–4 N(sign ), N=0, ±1, ...of nontopological vortices in nonrelativistic Chern–Simons theory is related to the topological degree of the S² S² mapping defined by lifting the problem to Riemann spheres. Regular solutions with finite degree only arise for rational functions whose topological degree, N, is the common number of zeros and poles on the Riemann sphere, also called their algebraic order.     

Chern–Simons Gravities (CSG) and Gravitational Chern–Simons (GCS) Densities in All Dimensions

Physics of Atomic Nuclei - Chern–Simons gravities and gravitational Chern–Simons densities are constructed using the non-Abelian Yang–Mills Chern–Simons densities. As such,...     

Decoupling and reduction in Chern–Simons modified gravity

We show that for four-dimensional spacetimes with a non-null hypersurface orthogonal Killing vector and for a Chern–Simons (CS) background (non-dynamical) scalar field, which is constant along the Killing vector, the source-free equations of CS modified gravity decouple into their Einstein and Cotton constituents. Thus, the model supports only general relativity solutions. We also show that, when the cosmological constant vanishes and the gradient of the CS scalar field is parallel to the non-null hypersurface orthogonal Killing vector of constant length, CS modified gravity reduces to topologically massive gravity in three dimensions. Meanwhile, with the cosmological constant such a reduction requires an appropriate source term for CS modified gravity.     

Chern–Simons theory,Stokes’ theorem,and the Duflo map

We consider a novel derivation of the expectation values of holonomies in Chern–Simons theory, based on Stokes’ Theorem and the functional properties of the Chern–Simons action. It involves replacing the connection by certain functional derivatives under the path integral. It turns out that ordering choices have to be made in the process, and we demonstrate that, quite surprisingly, the Duflo isomorphism gives the right ordering, at least in the simple cases that we consider. In this way, we determine the expectation values of unknotted, but possibly linked, holonomy loops for SU(2) and SU(3), and sketch how the method may be applied to more complicated cases. Our manipulations of the path integral are formal but well motivated by a rigorous calculus of integration on spaces of generalized connections which has been developed in the context of loop quantum gravity.     

Chern–Simons,Wess–Zumino and other cocycles from Kashiwara–Vergne and associators

Descent equations play an important role in the theory of characteristic classes and find applications in theoretical physics, e.g., in the Chern–Simons field theory and in the theory of anomalies. The second Chern class (the first Pontrjagin class) is defined as \(p= \langle F, F\rangle \) where F is the curvature 2-form and \(\langle \cdot , \cdot \rangle \) is an invariant scalar product on the corresponding Lie algebra \(\mathfrak g\). The descent for p gives rise to an element \(\omega =\omega _3+\omega _2+\omega _1+\omega _0\) of mixed degree. The 3-form part \(\omega _3\) is the Chern–Simons form. The 2-form part \(\omega _2\) is known as the Wess–Zumino action in physics. The 1-form component \(\omega _1\) is related to the canonical central extension of the loop group LG. In this paper, we give a new interpretation of the low degree components \(\omega _1\) and \(\omega _0\). Our main tool is the universal differential calculus on free Lie algebras due to Kontsevich. We establish a correspondence between solutions of the first Kashiwara–Vergne equation in Lie theory and universal solutions of the descent equation for the second Chern class p. In more detail, we define a 1-cocycle C which maps automorphisms of the free Lie algebra to one forms. A solution of the Kashiwara–Vergne equation F is mapped to \(\omega _1=C(F)\). Furthermore, the component \(\omega _0\) is related to the associator \(\Phi \) corresponding to F. It is surprising that while F and \(\Phi \) satisfy the highly nonlinear twist and pentagon equations, the elements \(\omega _1\) and \(\omega _0\) solve the linear descent equation.     

Extension of the Chern–Simons Theory: Conservation Laws,Lagrange Structures,and Stability

Russian Physics Journal - We consider the class of higher derivative 3d vector field models with the wave operator being a polynomial of the Chern–Simons operator. For the nth order theory of...