Mathematical Physics

I will describe joint work with Sachin Gautam where we give a definition of the category of finite-dimensional representations of an elliptic quantum group which is intrinsic, uniform for all Lie types, and valid for numerical values of the deformation and elliptic parameters. We also classify simple objects in this category in terms of elliptic Drinfeld polynomials. This classification is new even for sl(2), as is our definition outside of type A.

Various recent developments, in particular in the context of topological Fukaya categories, seem to be glimpses of an emerging theory of categorified homotopical and homological algebra. The increasing number of meaningful examples and constructions make it desirable to develop such a theory systematically. In this talk, we discuss a step towards this goal: a categorification of the classical Dold–Kan correspondence

In this talk I will present some upcoming work on Bridgeland stability conditions on partially wrapped Fukaya categories of topological surfaces. The main result is a proof that the stability conditions defined by Haiden, Katzarkov and Kontsevich using quadratic differentials cover the entire stability space. This proof uses a definition of the new concept of relative stability conditions, which is a relative version of Bridgeland's definition, with functorial behavior analogous to compactly supported cohomology. This definition is exclusive to the setting of these categories, and I will discuss problems and possibilities regarding generalization to other types of categories.

There are various ways to define factorization algebras: one can define a factorization algebra that lives over the open subsets of some fixed manifold; or, alternatively, one can define a factorization algebra on the site of all manifolds of a given dimension (possibly with a specified geometric structure). In this talk, I will outline a comparison between G-equivariant factorization algebras on a fixed model space M to factorization algebras on the site of all manifolds equipped with a (M, G)-structure, given by an atlas with charts in M and transition maps given by elements of G. I will introduce the definitions of these two concepts and then sketch the proof that there is a quasi-equivalence between these dg-categories. This is work in progress

This talk is based on joint work with Yuri Manin. The idea of a “geometry over the field with one element F1” arises in connection with the study of properties of zeta functions of varieties defined over Z. Several different versions of F1 geometry (geometry below Spec(Z)) have been proposed over the years (by Tits, Manin, Deninger, Kapranov–Smirnov, etc.) including the use of homotopy theoretic methods and “brave new algebra” of ring spectra (To¨en–Vaqui´e). We present a version of F1 geometry that connects the homotopy theoretic viewpoint, using Zakharevich’s approach to the construction of spectra via assembler categories, and a point of view based on the Bost–Connes quantum statistical mechanical system, and we discuss its relevance in the context of counting problems, zeta-functions and generalised scissors congruences.

I will review the construction of “higher operations” on local and extended operators in topological field theory, and some applications of this construction in supersymmetric field theory. In particular, the higher operation on supersymmetric local operators in a 3d N=4 theory turns out to be induced by the holomorphic Poisson structure on the moduli space of the theory. This leads to a new way of establishing the non-renormalization properties of this Poisson structure, and also to a simple topological reason for the appearance of its deformation quantization when the theory is placed in Omega-background. This is an account of joint work with Christopher Beem, DavidB en-Zvi, Mathew Bullimore, and Tudor Dimofte.

I will explain and state a conjecture of Kontsevich, that relates vertex models from statistical mechanics to En-algebras. I will also give the main ingredients of the proof of Kontsevich’s conjecture, which is a joint work in progress with Damien Lejay.

The based loop group is an infinite-dimensional manifold equipped with a Hamiltonian action of a finite dimensional torus. This was studied by Atiyah and Pressley. We investigate the Duistermaat–Heckman distribution using the theory of hyperfunctions. In applications involving Hamiltonian actions on infinite-dimensional manifolds, this theory is necessary to accommodate the existence of the infinite order differential operators which aries from the isotropy representation on the tangent spaces to fixed points. (Joint work with James Mracek)

This is a joint work with T. Pantev. In this talk, we will discuss moduli of flat bundles on smooth algebraic varieties, with possibly irregular singularities at infinity. For this, we use the notion of “formal boundary”, previously studied by Ben Bassat-Temkin, Efimov and Hennion– Porta–Vezzosi, as well as the moduli of flat bundles at infinity. We prove that the fibers of the restriction map to infinity are representable. We also prove that this restriction map has a canonical Lagrangian structure in the sense of shifted symplectic geometry.

It is conventional wisdom among physicists that anomalies of fermionic theories measure an obstruction to the existence of a well-defined (gauge-invariant) partition function. The aim of this talk is to use the formalism of Costello and Gwilliam to show how this wisdom is instantiated for perturbative anomalies of the massless free fermion. We will show how an action of a dg Lie algebra L on the massless free fermion theory gives rise to a line bundle over the formal moduli problem corresponding to L; the anomaly is precisely the failure of this line bundle to be trivial. Our running example will be the axial symmetry of the massless free fermion.

The generalized double semion model, introduced by Freedman and Hastings, is a lattice field theory similar to the toric code, with a gapped Hamiltonian whose space of ground states depends on the topology of the ambient manifold. In this talk, I’ll explain how to calculate its low-energy limit, which forms part of a topological field theory, in terms of characteristic classes of the ambient manifold.