More about the axial anomaly on the lattice

We study the axial anomaly defined on a finite-size lattice by using a Dirac operator which obeys the Ginsparg-Wilson relation. When the gauge group is U(1), we show that the basic structure of axial anomaly on the infinite lattice, which can be deduced by a cohomological analysis, persists even on (sufficiently large) finite-size lattices. For non-abelian gauge groups, we propose a conjecture on a possible form of axial anomaly on the infinite lattice, which holds to all orders in perturbation theory. With this conjecture, we show that a structure of the axial anomaly on finite-size lattices is again basically identical to that on the infinite lattice. Our analysis with the Ginsparg-Wilson Dirac operator indicates that, in appropriate frameworks, the basic structure of axial anomaly is quite robust and it persists even in a system with finite ultraviolet and infrared cutoffs.Comment: 12 pages, uses JHEP.cls and amsfonts.sty, the final version to appear in Nucl. Phys.

Umbral Moonshine and the Niemeier Lattices

In this paper we relate umbral moonshine to the Niemeier lattices: the 23 even unimodular positive-definite lattices of rank 24 with non-trivial root systems. To each Niemeier lattice we attach a finite group by considering a naturally defined quotient of the lattice automorphism group, and for each conjugacy class of each of these groups we identify a vector-valued mock modular form whose components coincide with mock theta functions of Ramanujan in many cases. This leads to the umbral moonshine conjecture, stating that an infinite-dimensional module is assigned to each of the Niemeier lattices in such a way that the associated graded trace functions are mock modular forms of a distinguished nature. These constructions and conjectures extend those of our earlier paper, and in particular include the Mathieu moonshine observed by Eguchi-Ooguri-Tachikawa as a special case. Our analysis also highlights a correspondence between genus zero groups and Niemeier lattices. As a part of this relation we recognise the Coxeter numbers of Niemeier root systems with a type A component as exactly those levels for which the corresponding classical modular curve has genus zero.Comment: 181 pages including 95 pages of Appendices; journal version, minor typos corrected, Research in the Mathematical Sciences, 2014, vol.

Superrigidity of actions on finite rank median spaces

Finite rank median spaces are a simultaneous generalisation of finite dimensional ${\rm CAT}(0)$ cube complexes and real trees. If $\Gamma$ is an irreducible lattice in a product of rank one simple Lie groups, we show that every action of $\Gamma$ on a complete, finite rank median space has a global fixed point. This is in sharp contrast with the behaviour of actions on infinite rank median spaces. The fixed point property is obtained as corollary to a superrigidity result; the latter holds for irreducible lattices in arbitrary products of compactly generated groups. In previous work, we introduced "Roller compactifications" of median spaces; these generalise a well-known construction in the case of cube complexes. We provide a reduced $1$-cohomology class that detects group actions with a finite orbit in the Roller compactification. Even for ${\rm CAT}(0)$ cube complexes, only second bounded cohomology classes were known with this property, due to Chatterji-Fern\'os-Iozzi. As a corollary, we observe that, in Gromov's density model, random groups at low density do not have Shalom's property $H_{FD}$.Comment: 46 pages, 3 figures; final version, to appear on Adv Mat

A finitely presented torsion-free simple group

We construct a finitely presented torsion-free simple group Σ0, acting cocompactly on a product of two regular trees. An infinite family of such groups was introduced by Burger and Mozes [M. Burger and S. Mozes. Finitely presented simple groups and products of trees. C. R. Acad. Sci. Paris Sér. I Math. 324 (1997), 747-752.], [M. Burger and S. Mozes. Lattices in product of trees. Inst. Hautes Études Sci. Publ. Math. 92 (2001), 151-194.]. We refine their methods and construct Σ0 as an index 4 subgroup of a group presented by 10 generators and 24 short relations. For comparison, the smallest virtually simple group of [M. Burger and S. Mozes. Lattices in product of trees. Inst. Hautes Études Sci. Publ. Math. 92 (2001), 151-194., Theorem 6.4] needs more than 18000 relations, and the smallest simple group constructed in [M. Burger and S. Mozes. Lattices in product of trees. Inst. Hautes Études Sci. Publ. Math. 92 (2001), 151-194., §6.5] needs even more than 360000 relations in any finite presentatio

Elliptic fibrations on K3 surfaces

This is mainly a review of my results related to the title. We discuss, how many elliptic fibrations and elliptic fibrations with infinite automorphism group (or the Mordell-Weil group) an algebraic K3 surface over an algebraically closed field can have. This was the subject of my talk at Oberwolfach Workshop "Higher dimensional elliptic fibrations" in October 2010.Comment: Var2: 19 pages. We added a description of K3 surfaces with finite number of non-singular rational curves, finite number of Enriques involutions, and with naturally arithmetic automorphism groups. Var3: The exposition polished. Var4: An important theorem is added at the en