Author: Jørgen E. Andersen
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 0821853538
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 464
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Book Description
In 1989, Edward Witten discovered a deep relationship between quantum field theory and knot theory, and this beautiful discovery created a new field of research called Chern-Simons theory. This field has the remarkable feature of intertwining a large number of diverse branches of research in mathematics and physics, among them low-dimensional topology, differential geometry, quantum algebra, functional and stochastic analysis, quantum gravity, and string theory. The 20-year anniversary of Witten's discovery provided an opportunity to bring together researchers working in Chern-Simons theory for a meeting, and the resulting conference, which took place during the summer of 2009 at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, included many of the leading experts in the field. This volume documents the activities of the conference and presents several original research articles, including another monumental paper by Witten that is sure to stimulate further activity in this and related fields. This collection will provide an excellent overview of the current research directions and recent progress in Chern-Simons gauge theory.
Author: Jørgen E. Andersen
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781470417536
Category : Algebraic topology
Languages : en
Pages : 446
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Book Description
In 1989, Edward Witten discovered a deep relationship between quantum field theory and knot theory, and this beautiful discovery created a new field of research called Chern-Simons theory. This field has the remarkable feature of intertwining a large number of diverse branches of research in mathematics and physics, among them low-dimensional topology, differential geometry, quantum algebra, functional and stochastic analysis, quantum gravity, and string theory. The 20-year anniversary of Witten's discovery provided an opportunity to bring together researchers working in Chern-Simons theory fo.
Author: Jørgen E. Andersen
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 0821888536
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 464
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Book Description
In 1989, Edward Witten discovered a deep relationship between quantum field theory and knot theory, and this discovery created a new field of research called Chern-Simons theory. This volume documents the activities of a conference which took place in 2009 and focused on Chern-Simons theory.
Author: Si Li
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 1470429519
Category : Algebraic geometry -- Projective and enumerative geometry -- Gromov-Witten invariants, quantum cohomology, Gopakumar-Vafa invariants, Donaldson-Thomas invariants
Languages : en
Pages : 297
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Book Description
This volume contains the proceedings of the conference String-Math 2015, which was held from December 31, 2015–January 4, 2016, at Tsinghua Sanya International Mathematics Forum in Sanya, China. Two of the main themes of this volume are frontier research on Calabi-Yau manifolds and mirror symmetry and the development of non-perturbative methods in supersymmetric gauge theories. The articles present state-of-the-art developments in these topics. String theory is a broad subject, which has profound connections with broad branches of modern mathematics. In the last decades, the prosperous interaction built upon the joint efforts from both mathematicians and physicists has given rise to marvelous deep results in supersymmetric gauge theory, topological string, M-theory and duality on the physics side, as well as in algebraic geometry, differential geometry, algebraic topology, representation theory and number theory on the mathematics side.
Author: Damien Calaque
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319099493
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 572
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Book Description
Despite its long history and stunning experimental successes, the mathematical foundation of perturbative quantum field theory is still a subject of ongoing research. This book aims at presenting some of the most recent advances in the field, and at reflecting the diversity of approaches and tools invented and currently employed. Both leading experts and comparative newcomers to the field present their latest findings, helping readers to gain a better understanding of not only quantum but also classical field theories. Though the book offers a valuable resource for mathematicians and physicists alike, the focus is more on mathematical developments. This volume consists of four parts: The first Part covers local aspects of perturbative quantum field theory, with an emphasis on the axiomatization of the algebra behind the operator product expansion. The second Part highlights Chern-Simons gauge theories, while the third examines (semi-)classical field theories. In closing, Part 4 addresses factorization homology and factorization algebras.
Author: Mokhtar Hassaine
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9814730955
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 148
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Book Description
This book grew out of a set of lecture notes on gravitational Chern–Simons (CS) theories developed over the past decade for several schools and different audiences including graduate students and researchers. CS theories are gauge-invariant theories that can include gravity consistently. They are only defined in odd dimensions and represent a very special class of theories in the Lovelock family. Lovelock gravitation theories are the natural extensions of General Relativity for dimensions greater than four that yield second-order field equations for the metric. These theories also admit local supersymmetric extensions where supersymmetry is an off-shell symmetry of the action, as in a standard gauge theory. Apart from the arguments of mathematical elegance and beauty, the gravitational CS actions are exceptionally endowed with physical attributes that suggest the viability of a quantum interpretation. CS theories are gauge-invariant, scale-invariant and background independent; they have no dimensional coupling constants. All constants in the Lagrangian are fixed rational coefficients that cannot be adjusted without destroying gauge invariance. This exceptional status of CS systems makes them classically interesting to study, and quantum mechanically intriguing and promising. Contents:The Quantum Gravity PuzzleGeometry: General OverviewFirst Order Gravitation TheoryGravity in Higher DimensionsChern–Simons GravitiesAdditional Features of Chern–Simons GravityBlack Holes, Particles and BranesSupersymmetry and SupergravityChern–Simons SupergravitiesInönü–Wigner Contractions and Its ExtensionsUnconventional SupersymmetriesConcluding Remarks Readership: This book provides an introduction to Chern–Simons (super) gravity theories accessible for physics as well as mathematics graduate students and researchers. Key Features:The topics described in this book are self-contained and just require some basic background in physics and mathematics. Chern–Simons supergravity is a field which is intensively studied in the current literature of physics and mathematics, with more than 2000 articles related to this topic in the arXiv databaseThis title covers a topic not usually discussed either in standard gravity courses or in mathematical presentations of characteristic classes or cohomologyKeywords:Supergravity;Supersymmetry;Gauge Theory
Author: Daniel S. Freed
Publisher: American Mathematical Society, IAS/Park City Mathematics Institute
ISBN: 1470461234
Category : Mathematics
Languages : en
Pages : 476
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Book Description
This volume contains lectures from the Graduate Summer School “Quantum Field Theory and Manifold Invariants” held at Park City Mathematics Institute 2019. The lectures span topics in topology, global analysis, and physics, and they range from introductory to cutting edge. Topics treated include mathematical gauge theory (anti-self-dual equations, Seiberg-Witten equations, Higgs bundles), classical and categorified knot invariants (Khovanov homology, Heegaard Floer homology), instanton Floer homology, invertible topological field theory, BPS states and spectral networks. This collection presents a rich blend of geometry and topology, with some theoretical physics thrown in as well, and so provides a snapshot of a vibrant and fast-moving field. Graduate students with basic preparation in topology and geometry can use this volume to learn advanced background material before being brought to the frontiers of current developments. Seasoned researchers will also benefit from the systematic presentation of exciting new advances by leaders in their fields.
Author: Antti Niemi
Publisher: World Scientific
ISBN: 9811255180
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 352
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Book Description
Frank Wilczek is one of the foremost theoretical physicists of the past half-century. He has made several fundamental contributions that shape our understanding of high energy physics, cosmology, condensed matter physics, and statistical physics. In all these fields his many discoveries continue to play a key role in shaping the direction of modern theoretical physics.Among Wilczek's major achievements is the discovery of asymptotic freedom, which predicts and explains the ultraviolet behavior of non-abelian gauge theories. The axion, which he co-discovered and named, has emerged as the prevalent candidate for explaining the origin of dark matter in the Universe. His invention of color-flavor locking explains chiral symmetry breaking in high density quantum chromodynamics. His introduction of fractional statistics and anyons are pivotal to our understanding of the fractional quantum Hall effect and form the building blocks of topological quantum computing. His invention of the time crystal concept has catalyzed extensive investigations of dynamical phases of physical systems.Frank Wilczek received the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics for the discovery of asymptotic freedom. He is also the recipient of several Prizes and honorary awards including the MacArthur Fellowship, the Lorentz Medal of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Lilienfeld Prize of the American Physical Society, the High Energy and Particle Physics Prize of the European Physical Society, and the King Faisal International Prize for Science of the King Faisal Foundation. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. He is also a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the Royal Academy of Sciences in Sweden.He is currently the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at MIT Center for Theoretical Physics. He also holds a professorship at Stockholm University, is a Distinguished Professor at Arizona State University, and is the founding director of the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute and Chief Scientist of the Wilczek Quantum Center at Shanghai Jiao Tong University.This volume serves as a tribute to Frank Wilczek's legendary scientific contributions, commemorating his 70th birthday and the first 50 years of his career as a theoretical physicist. The contributors include several of his PhD students, close collaborators, and both past and present colleagues.
Author: Marcos Marino
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198568490
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 210
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Book Description
After an introduction to matrix models and Cherns-Simons gauge theory, this book describes in detail the topological string theories that correspond to these gauge theories and develops the mathematical implication of this duality for the enumerative geometry of Calabi-Yau manifolds and knot theory.
Author: Daniel S. Freed
Publisher: American Mathematical Soc.
ISBN: 1470452065
Category : Algebraic topology
Languages : en
Pages : 186
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Book Description
These lectures recount an application of stable homotopy theory to a concrete problem in low energy physics: the classification of special phases of matter. While the joint work of the author and Michael Hopkins is a focal point, a general geometric frame of reference on quantum field theory is emphasized. Early lectures describe the geometric axiom systems introduced by Graeme Segal and Michael Atiyah in the late 1980s, as well as subsequent extensions. This material provides an entry point for mathematicians to delve into quantum field theory. Classification theorems in low dimensions are proved to illustrate the framework. The later lectures turn to more specialized topics in field theory, including the relationship between invertible field theories and stable homotopy theory, extended unitarity, anomalies, and relativistic free fermion systems. The accompanying mathematical explanations touch upon (higher) category theory, duals to the sphere spectrum, equivariant spectra, differential cohomology, and Dirac operators. The outcome of computations made using the Adams spectral sequence is presented and compared to results in the condensed matter literature obtained by very different means. The general perspectives and specific applications fuse into a compelling story at the interface of contemporary mathematics and theoretical physics.
