Mathematical Physics

One of the key constructions in the PTVV theory of shifted symplectic structures is the construction, via transgression, of a shifted symplectic structure on the derived mapping stack from an oriented manifold to a shifted symplectic stack vastly generalizing the AKSZ construction (which was formulated in the context of super manifolds). I will explain local-to-global approach to this construction, which also generalizes the construction to shifted Poisson structures and shows that the AKSZ/PTVV construction is compatible with quantization in a strong sense. One pleasant consequence is that every deformation quantization problem reduces to a version of BV-quantization. Time permitting, I will describe several geometric applications of the theory.

Formal loop spaces are algebraic analogs to smooth loops. They were introduced and studied extensively in the 2000' by Kapranov and Vasserot for their link to chiral algebras. In this talk, we will introduced higher dimensional analogs of K. and V. formal loop spaces. We will show how derived methods allow such a definition. We will then study their tangent complexes: even though formal loop spaces are "of infinite dimension", their tangent has enough structure so that we can speak of symplectic forms on them.

I will describe a functorial construction of the free BV-quantization of chain complexes equipped with antisymmetric forms of degree 1 in the context of infinity-categories. This is joint work with Owen Gwilliam.

In this talk, we'll discuss what it means to be a cohomology theory for topological stacks, using a notion of local symmetric monoidal inversion of objects in families. While the general setup is abstract, it specializes to many cases of interest, including Schwede's global spectra. We will then go on to discuss various examples with particular emphasis on elliptic cohomology. It turns out that TMF sees more objects as dualizable (or even invertible) than one might naively expect.

In this talk we will review various point-of-views on classical Chern-Simons theory and moduli of flat connections. We will explain how derived symplectic geomletry (after Pantev-Toën-Vaquié-Vezzosi) somehow reconciles all of these. If time permits, we will discuss a bit the quantization problem.

Thanks to a result of Arinkin and Cāldāru, the derived self-intersection of a closed smooth subscheme of an ambiant scheme (over a field of characteristic zero) is a formal object if and only if the conormal bundle of the subscheme extends to a locally free sheaf at the first order. In this talk, we will explain a program as well as new results in order to describe these derived self-intersections in the non-formal case.

We give a definition of relative Calabi-Yau structure on a dg functor f: A --> B, discussing a examples coming from algebraic geometry, homotopy theory, and representation theory. When A=0, this returns the usual definition of Calabi-Yau structure on a smooth dg category B. When A itself is endowed with a Calabi-Yau structure and relative Calabi-Yau structure on f is compatible with the absolute structure on A, then we sketch the construction of a shifted symplectic structure on the derived moduli space M_A of pseudo-perfect A-modules, as well as the construction of a Lagrangian structure on the induced map f* : M_B --> M_A of derived moduli. This is joint work with Tobias Dyckerhoff.

Let L be an exact Lagrangian submanifold of a cotangent bundle T^* M. If a topological obstruction vanishes, a local system of R-modules on L determines a constructible sheaf of R-modules on M -- this is the Nadler-Zaslow construction. I will discuss a variant of this construction that avoids Floer theory, and that allows R to be a ring spectrum. The talk is based on joint work with Xin Jin.

An important result in shifted symplectic geometry is the existence of shifted symplectic forms on mapping spaces with symplectic target and oriented source. I provide several examples of more complicated situations where stacks of maps shifted symplectic structures, or maps between them have Lagrangian structures. These include spaces of framed maps, pushforwards of perfect complexes, and perfect complexes on open varieties.

In many situations, geometric objects on a space have some kind of singular support, which refines the usual support. For instance, for smooth X, the singular support of a D-module (or a perverse sheaf) on X is as a conical subset of the cotangent bundle; similarly, for quasi-smooth X, the singular support of a coherent sheaf on X is a conical subset of the cohomologically shifted cotangent bundle. I would like to describe a higher categorical version of this notion. Let X be a smooth variety, and let Z be a closed conical isotropic subset of the cotangent bundle of X. I will define a 2-category associated with Z; its objects may be viewed as `categories over X with singular support in Z'. In particular, if Z is the zero section, we simply consider categories over Z in the usual sense. This talk is based on a joint project with D.Gaitsgory. The project is motivated by the local geometric Langlands correspondence; I plan to sketch the relation with the Langlands correspondence in the talk.

The Todd class enters algebraic geometry in two places, in the Hirzebruch-Riemann-Roch formula and in the correction of the HKR isomorphism needed to make the Hochschild cohomology isomorphic to polyvector field cohomology (Kontsevich’s claim, proved by Calaque and van den Bergh). In the case of orbifolds the Riemann-Roch formula is known, but not the analogue of Kontsevich’s result. However, we can try to use the former as a guide towards a conjectural formulation for the latter. The problem with this approach is that in the case of an orbifold it is not obvious what the Todd class actually is. This happens because the Riemann-Roch formula mixes the Todd class with the Chern character and it is difficult to separate one from the other. In my talk I shall discuss what the study of loop groups of orbifolds predicts the correct Todd class to be, and then I shall explain how the orbifold Riemann-Roch formula can be rewritten to make this prediction consistent.