Generating Functional in CFT on Riemann Surfaces II: Homological Aspects

We revisit and generalize our previous algebraic construction of the chiral effective action for Conformal Field Theory on higher genus Riemann surfaces. We show that the action functional can be obtained by evaluating a certain Deligne cohomology class over the fundamental class of the underlying topological surface. This Deligne class is constructed by applying a descent procedure with respect to a Čech resolution of any covering map of a Riemann surface. Detailed calculations are presented in the two cases of an ordinary Čech cover, and of the universal covering map, which was used in our previous approach. We also establish a dictionary that allows to use the same formalism for different covering morphisms. The Deligne cohomology class we obtain depends on a point in the Earle–Eells fibration over the Teichmüller space, and on a smooth coboundary for the Schwarzian cocycle associated to the base-point Riemann surface. From it, we obtain a variational characterization of Hubbard's universal family of projective structures, showing that the locus of critical points for the chiral action under fiberwise variation along the Earle–Eells fibration is naturally identified with the universal projective structure. Received: 29 June 2000 / Accepted: 16 January 2002     

Gerbes,Simplicial Forms and Invariants for Families of Foliated Bundles

The notion of smooth Deligne cohomology is conveniently reformulated in terms of the simplicial deRham complex. In particular the usual Chern-Weil and Chern-Simons theory is well adapted to this framework and rather easily gives rise to characteristic Deligne cohomology classes associated to families of bundles and connections. In turn this gives invariants for families of foliated bundles. The construction provides representing cocycles in the usual ech-deRham model for smooth Deligne cohomology called gerbes with connection as they generalize usual Hermitian line bundles with connection. A special case is the Quillen line bundle associated to families of flat SU(2)-bundles.Work supported in part by the Erwin Schrödinger International Institute of Mathematical Physics, Wien, Austria and by the Statens Naturvidenskabelige Forskningsråd, DenmarkSupported in part by the European Union Network EDGE.Supported in part by Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung, Projekt P 14195 MATAcknowledgement The results of the paper go back a few years but the presentation follows a talk given by the first author in November 2002 during the program Aspects of Foliation Theory at the Erwin Schrödinger Institute in Vienna. Both authors gratefully acknowledge the hospitality and support of the Erwin Schrödinger Institute. The second author visited Å;rhus on several occasions during the preparation of this work and would like to thank the Department of Mathematics at Aarhus University for its hospitality and support. Finally we want to thank the referee for some very useful comments in particular on the terminology of gerbes and Deligne cohomology.     

Unitons of Harmonic Maps from R2 to U(p,q)

We calculate a second cohomology class which determines a deformation quantization up to equivalence for a deformation quantization with separation of variables on a Kähler manifold, following P. Deligne.     

Generalized classical BRST cohomology and reduction of Poisson manifolds

In this paper, we formulate a generalization of the classical BRST construction which applies to the case of the reduction of a Poisson manifold by a submanifold. In the case of symplectic reduction, our procedure generalizes the usual classical BRST construction which only applies to symplectic reduction of a symplectic manifold by a coisotropic submanifold, i.e. the case of reducible first class constraints. In particular, our procedure yields a method to deal with second-class constraints. We construct the BRST complex and compute its cohomology. BRST cohomology vanishes for negative dimension and is isomorphic as a Poisson algebra to the algebra of smooth functions on the reduced Poisson manifold in zero dimension. We then show that in the general case of reduction of Poisson manifolds, BRST cohomology cannot be identified with the cohomology of vertical differential forms.Address after September 1992     

Cyclic Cocycles on Twisted Convolution Algebras

We give a construction of cyclic cocycles on convolution algebras twisted by gerbes over discrete translation groupoids. For proper étale groupoids, Tu and Xu (Adv Math 207(2):455–483, 2006) provide a map between the periodic cyclic cohomology of a gerbe-twisted convolution algebra and twisted cohomology groups which is similar to the construction of Mathai and Stevenson (Adv Math 200(2):303–335, 2006). When the groupoid is not proper, we cannot construct an invariant connection on the gerbe; therefore to study this algebra, we instead develop simplicial techniques to construct a simplicial curvature 3-form representing the class of the gerbe. Then by using a JLO formula we define a morphism from a simplicial complex twisted by this simplicial curvature 3-form to the mixed bicomplex computing the periodic cyclic cohomology of the twisted convolution algebras.     

The Cohomology Algebra of the Semi-Infinite Weil Complex

In 1993, Lian-Zuckerman constructed two cohomology operations on the BRST complex of a conformal vertex algebra with central charge 26. They gave explicit generators and relations for the cohomology algebra equipped with these operations in the case of the c = 1 model. In this paper, we describe another such example, namely, the semi-infinite Weil complex of the Virasoro algebra. The semi-infinite Weil complex of a tame -graded Lie algebra was defined in 1991 by Feigin-Frenkel, and they computed the linear structure of its cohomology in the case of the Virasoro algebra. We build on this result by giving an explicit generator for each non-zero cohomology class, and describing all algebraic relations in the sense of Lian-Zuckerman, among these generators.     

Degeneration of Bethe subalgebras in the Yangian of $$\mathfrak {gl}_n$$

We study degenerations of Bethe subalgebras B(C) in the Yangian \(Y(\mathfrak {gl}_n)\), where C is a regular diagonal matrix. We show that closure of the parameter space of the family of Bethe subalgebras, which parameterizes all possible degenerations, is the Deligne–Mumford moduli space of stable rational curves \(\overline{M_{0,n+2}}\). All subalgebras corresponding to the points of \(\overline{M_{0,n+2}}\) are free and maximal commutative. We describe explicitly the “simplest” degenerations and show that every degeneration is the composition of the simplest ones. The Deligne–Mumford space \(\overline{M_{0,n+2}}\) generalizes to other root systems as some De Concini–Procesi resolution of some toric variety. We state a conjecture generalizing our results to Bethe subalgebras in the Yangian of arbitrary simple Lie algebra in terms of this De Concini–Procesi resolution.     

Explicit form and convergence of 1-differential formal deformations of the poisson Lie algebra

Introducing the notion of an admissible graded Lie subalgebra A of the Nijenhui-Richardson algebra A(V) of the vector space V, it is shown that each cohomology class of a subcomplex C _A of the Chevalley-Eilenberg complex (C ⁰ M), extends in a cononical way as a graded cohomology class of weight — 1 of A. Applying this when V is the space N of smooth functions of a smooth manifold M, shows that the de Rham cohomology of M is induced by the graded cohomology of weight — 1 of the Schouten graded Lie algebra of M. This allows us to construct explicitly all 1-differential, nc formal deformations of the Poisson bracket of a symplectic manifold. The construction also applies for an arbitrary Poisson manifold but leads to only part of these deformations when the structure degenerates, as shown by an example.     

Separation Coordinates,Moduli Spaces and Stasheff Polytopes

We show that the orthogonal separation coordinates on the sphere S ⁿ are naturally parametrised by the real version of the Deligne–Mumford–Knudsen moduli space \({\bar{M}_{0,n+2}({\mathbb{R}})}\) of stable curves of genus zero with n + 2 marked points. We use the combinatorics of Stasheff polytopes tessellating \({\bar{M}_{0,n+2}({\mathbb{R}})}\) to classify the different canonical forms of separation coordinates and deduce an explicit construction of separation coordinates, as well as of Stäckel systems from the mosaic operad structure on \({\bar{M}_{0,n+2}({\mathbb{R}})}\).     

Morse–Novikov cohomology of locally conformally Kähler manifolds

A locally conformally Kähler (LCK) manifold is a complex manifold admitting a Kähler covering, with the monodromy acting on this covering by holomorphic homotheties. We define three cohomology invariants, the Lee class, the Morse–Novikov class, and the Bott–Chern class, of an LCK-structure. These invariants play together the same role as the Kähler class in Kähler geometry. If these classes coincide for two LCK-structures, the difference between these structures can be expressed by a smooth potential, similar to the Kähler case. We show that the Morse–Novikov class and the Bott–Chern class of a Vaisman manifold vanish. Moreover, for any LCK-structure on a manifold, admitting a Vaisman structure, we prove that its Morse–Novikov class vanishes. We show that a compact LCK-manifold M$M$ with vanishing Bott–Chern class admits a holomorphic embedding into a Hopf manifold, if _dimCM?3${dim}_{\mathbb{C}}M?3$, a result which parallels the Kodaira embedding theorem.     

Flat Complex Vector Bundles,the Beltrami Differential and W-Algebras

Since the appearance of the paper by Bilal et al. in 1991, it has been widely assumed that W-algebras originating from the Hamiltonian reduction of an SL(n,C)-bundle over a Riemann surface give rise to a flat connection, in which the Beltrami differential may be identified. In this Letter, it is shown that the use of the Beltrami parametrization of complex structures on a compact Riemann surface over which flat complex vector bundles are considered, allows the construction of the above mentioned flat connection. It is stressed that the modulus of the Beltrami differential is of necessity less than one, and that solutions of the so-called Beltrami equation give rise to an orientation-preserving smooth change of local complex coordinates. In particular, the latter yields a smooth equivalence between flat complex vector bundles. The role of smooth diffeomorphisms which induce equivalent complex structures is specially emphasized. Furthermore, it is shown that, while the construction given here applies to the special case of the Virasoro algebra, the extension to flat complex vector bundles of arbitrary rank does not provide generalizations of the Beltrami differential usually considered as central objects for such non-linear symmetries.     

Non-representability of cohomology classes by bi-invariant forms (gauge and Kac-Moody groups)

We give a necessary topological condition on a cohomology class of any Lie group, modelled on a Fréchet space, to be representable by a bi-invariant form on. As a corollary, we show that if for somed>0, then there exists a cohomology class in which cannot be represented by any bi-invariant form. In particular, we conclude that there are many cohomology generators, in general, in the case of gauge groups and also Kac-Moody groups which cannot be represented by bi-invariant forms, although, very often, they are representable by left invariant forms.     

Riemann surfaces,Clifford algebras and infinite dimensional groups

We introduce a class of Riemann surfaces which possess a fixed point free involution and line bundles over these surfaces with which we can associate an infinite dimensional Clifford algebra. Acting by automorphisms of this algebra is a gauge group of meromorphic functions on the Riemann surface. There is a natural Fock representation of the Clifford algebra and an associated projective representation of this group of meromorphic functions in close analogy with the construction of the basic representation of Kac-Moody algebras via a Fock representation of the Fermion algebra. In the genus one case we find a form of vertex operator construction which allows us to prove a version of the Boson-Fermion correspondence. These results are motivated by the analysis of soliton solutions of the Landau-Lifshitz equation and are rather distinct from recent developments in quantum field theory on Riemann surfaces.     

Cohomology,central extensions,and (dynamical) groups

We analyze in this paper the process of group contraction which allows the transition from the Einstenian quantum dynamics to the Galilean one in terms of the cohomology of the Poincaré and Galilei groups. It is shown that the cohomological constructions on both groups do not commute with the contraction process. As a result, the extension coboundaries of the Poincaré group which lead to extension cocycles of the Galilei group in the nonrelativistic limit are characterized geometrically. Finally, the above results are applied to a quantization procedure based on a group manifold.     

Holonomy for gerbes over orbifolds

In this paper we compute explicit formulas for the holonomy map for a gerbe with connection over an orbifold. We show that the holonomy descends to a transgression map in Deligne cohomology. We prove that this recovers both the inner local systems in Ruan’s theory of twisted orbifold cohomology [1] and the local system of Freed–Hopkins–Teleman in their work in twisted K-theory [2]. In the case in which the orbifold is simply a manifold we recover previous results of Gawȩdzki [3] and Brylinski[4].     

The Equivariant Cohomology Theory of Twisted Generalized Complex Manifolds

It has been shown recently by Kapustin and Tomasiello that the mathematical notion of Hamiltonian actions on twisted generalized Kähler manifolds is in perfect agreement with the physical notion of general (2, 2) gauged sigma models with three-form fluxes. In this article, we study the twisted equivariant cohomology theory of Hamiltonian actions on H-twisted generalized complex manifolds. If the manifold satisfies the ${\overline{\partial} \partial}It has been shown recently by Kapustin and Tomasiello that the mathematical notion of Hamiltonian actions on twisted generalized K?hler manifolds is in perfect agreement with the physical notion of general (2, 2) gauged sigma models with three-form fluxes. In this article, we study the twisted equivariant cohomology theory of Hamiltonian actions on H-twisted generalized complex manifolds. If the manifold satisfies the -lemma, we establish the equivariant formality theorem. If in addition, the manifold satisfies the generalized K?hler condition, we prove the Kirwan injectivity in this setting. We then consider the Hamiltonian action of a torus on an H-twisted generalized Calabi-Yau manifold and extend to this case the Duistermaat-Heckman theorem for the push-forward measure. As a side result, we show in this paper that the generalized K?hler quotient of a generalized K?hler vector space can never have a (cohomologically) non-trivial twisting. This gives a negative answer to a question asked by physicists whether one can construct (2, 2) gauged linear sigma models with non-trivial fluxes.     

BRST cohomology for certain reducible topological symmetries

In this paper, two different definitions of the BRST complex are connected. We obtain the BRST complex of topological quantum field theories (leading to equivariant cohomology) from the standard definition of the classical BRST complex (leading to Lie algebra cohomology) provided that we include ghosts for ghosts. Hereby, we use a finite dimensional model with a semi-direct product action ofH DiffM on a configuration spaceM, whereH is a compact Lie group representing the gauge symmetry in this model.     

On the Chern character of θ summable Fredholm modules

We show that the entire cyclic cohomology class given by the Jaffe-Lesniewski-Osterwalder formula is the same as the class we had constructed earlier as the Chern character of -summable Fredholm modules.