On the large N limit, W_\infty Strings, Star products, AdS/CFT Duality, Nonlinear Sigma Models on AdS spaces and Chern-Simons p-branes

It is shown that the large $N$ limit of SU(N) YM in $curved$ $m$-dim backgrounds can be subsumed by a higher $m+n$ dimensional gravitational theory which can be identified to an $m$-dim generally invariant gauge theory of diffs $N$, where $N$ is an $n$-dim internal space (Cho, Sho, Park, Yoon). Based on these findings, a very plausible geometrical interpretation of the $AdS/CFT$ correspondence could be given. Conformally invariant sigma models in $D=2n$ dimensions with target non-compact SO(2n,1) groups are reviewed. Despite the non-compact nature of the SO(2n,1), the classical action and Hamiltonian are positive definite. Instanton field configurations are found to correspond geometrically to conformal ``stereographic'' mappings of $R^{2n}$ into the Euclidean signature $AdS_{2n}$ spaces. The relation between Self Dual branes and Chern-Simons branes, High Dimensional Knots, follows. A detailed discussion on $W_\infty$ symmetry is given and we outline the Vasiliev procedure to construct an action involving higher spin massless fields in $AdS_4$. This $AdS_4$ spacetime higher spin theory should have a one-to-one correspondence to noncritical $W_\infty$ strings propagating on $AdS_4 \times S^7$.Comment: 43 pages, Tex fil

The orientation-preserving diffeomorphism group of S^2 deforms to SO(3) smoothly

Smale proved that the orientation-preserving diffeomorphism group of S^2 has a continuous strong deformation retraction to SO(3). In this paper, we construct such a strong deformation retraction which is diffeologically smooth.Comment: 16 page

Robust Cardiac Motion Estimation using Ultrafast Ultrasound Data: A Low-Rank-Topology-Preserving Approach

Cardiac motion estimation is an important diagnostic tool to detect heart diseases and it has been explored with modalities such as MRI and conventional ultrasound (US) sequences. US cardiac motion estimation still presents challenges because of the complex motion patterns and the presence of noise. In this work, we propose a novel approach to estimate the cardiac motion using ultrafast ultrasound data. -- Our solution is based on a variational formulation characterized by the L2-regularized class. The displacement is represented by a lattice of b-splines and we ensure robustness by applying a maximum likelihood type estimator. While this is an important part of our solution, the main highlight of this paper is to combine a low-rank data representation with topology preservation. Low-rank data representation (achieved by finding the k-dominant singular values of a Casorati Matrix arranged from the data sequence) speeds up the global solution and achieves noise reduction. On the other hand, topology preservation (achieved by monitoring the Jacobian determinant) allows to radically rule out distortions while carefully controlling the size of allowed expansions and contractions. Our variational approach is carried out on a realistic dataset as well as on a simulated one. We demonstrate how our proposed variational solution deals with complex deformations through careful numerical experiments. While maintaining the accuracy of the solution, the low-rank preprocessing is shown to speed up the convergence of the variational problem. Beyond cardiac motion estimation, our approach is promising for the analysis of other organs that experience motion.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures, Physics in Medicine and Biology, 201

Contact structures, deformations and taut foliations

Using deformations of foliations to contact structures as well as rigidity properties of Anosov foliations we provide infinite families of examples which show that the space of taut foliations in a given homotopy class of plane fields is in general not path connected. Similar methods also show that the space of representations of the fundamental group of a hyperbolic surface to the group of smooth diffeomorphisms of the circle with fixed Euler class is in general not path connected. As an important step along the way we resolve the question of which universally tight contact structures on Seifert fibered spaces are deformations of taut or Reebless foliations when the genus of the base is positive or the twisting number of the contact structure in the sense of Giroux is non-negative.Comment: 37 pages, 2 figures; Improved exposition incorporating referee's comments mainly in Sections 5 and 9. (To appear in Geom. Topol.

Wick type deformation quantization of Fedosov manifolds

A coordinate-free definition for Wick-type symbols is given for symplectic manifolds by means of the Fedosov procedure. The main ingredient of this approach is a bilinear symmetric form defined on the complexified tangent bundle of the symplectic manifold and subject to some set of algebraic and differential conditions. It is precisely the structure which describes a deviation of the Wick-type star-product from the Weyl one in the first order in the deformation parameter. The geometry of the symplectic manifolds equipped by such a bilinear form is explored and a certain analogue of the Newlander-Nirenberg theorem is presented. The 2-form is explicitly identified which cohomological class coincides with the Fedosov class of the Wick-type star-product. For the particular case of K\"ahler manifold this class is shown to be proportional to the Chern class of a complex manifold. We also show that the symbol construction admits canonical superextension, which can be thought of as the Wick-type deformation of the exterior algebra of differential forms on the base (even) manifold. Possible applications of the deformed superalgebra to the noncommutative field theory and strings are discussed.Comment: 20 pages, no figure

Field-Theoretic Weyl Deformation Quantization of Enlarged Poisson Algebras

$C^*$-algebraic Weyl quantization is extended by allowing also degenerate pre-symplectic forms for the Weyl relations with infinitely many degrees of freedom, and by starting out from enlarged classical Poisson algebras. A powerful tool is found in the construction of Poisson algebras and non-commutative twisted Banach-$*$-algebras on the stage of measures on the not locally compact test function space. Already within this frame strict deformation quantization is obtained, but in terms of Banach-$*$-algebras instead of $C^*$-algebras. Fourier transformation and representation theory of the measure Banach-$*$-algebras are combined with the theory of continuous projective group representations to arrive at the genuine $C^*$-algebraic strict deformation quantization in the sense of Rieffel and Landsman. Weyl quantization is recognized to depend in the first step functorially on the (in general) infinite dimensional, pre-symplectic test function space; but in the second step one has to select a family of representations, indexed by the deformation parameter $\hbar$. The latter ambiguity is in the present investigation connected with the choice of a folium of states, a structure, which does not necessarily require a Hilbert space representation.Comment: This is a contribution to the Special Issue on Deformation Quantization, published in SIGMA (Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications) at http://www.emis.de/journals/SIGMA