M-Theory with Framed Corners and Tertiary Index Invariants

The study of the partition function in M-theory involves the use of index theory on a twelve-dimensional bounding manifold. In eleven dimensions, viewed as a boundary, this is given by secondary index invariants such as the Atiyah-Patodi-Singer eta-invariant, the Chern-Simons invariant, or the Adams e-invariant. If the eleven-dimensional manifold itself has a boundary, the resulting ten-dimensional manifold can be viewed as a codimension two corner. The partition function in this context has been studied by the author in relation to index theory for manifolds with corners, essentially on the product of two intervals. In this paper, we focus on the case of framed manifolds (which are automatically Spin) and provide a formulation of the refined partition function using a tertiary index invariant, namely the f-invariant introduced by Laures within elliptic cohomology. We describe the context globally, connecting the various spaces and theories around M-theory, and providing a physical realization and interpretation of some ingredients appearing in the constructions due to Bunke-Naumann and Bodecker. The formulation leads to a natural interpretation of anomalies using corners and uncovers some resulting constraints in the heterotic corner. The analysis for type IIA leads to a physical identification of various components of eta-forms appearing in the formula for the phase of the partition function

Quantum Hall Ground States, Binary Invariants, and Regular Graphs

Extracting meaningful physical information out of a many-body wavefunction is often impractical. The polynomial nature of fractional quantum Hall (FQH) wavefunctions, however, provides a rare opportunity for a study by virtue of ground states alone. In this article, we investigate the general properties of FQH ground state polynomials. It turns out that the data carried by an FQH ground state can be essentially that of a (small) directed graph/matrix. We establish a correspondence between FQH ground states, binary invariants and regular graphs and briefly introduce all the necessary concepts. Utilizing methods from invariant theory and graph theory, we will then take a fresh look on physical properties of interest, e.g. squeezing properties, clustering properties, etc. Our methodology allows us to `unify' almost all of the previously constructed FQH ground states in the literature as special cases of a graph-based class of model FQH ground states, which we call \emph{accordion} model FQH states