Topological BF theory of the quantum hydrodynamics of incompressible polar fluids

We analyze a hydrodynamical model of a polar fluid in (3+1)-dimensional spacetime. We explore a spacetime symmetry -- volume preserving diffeomorphisms -- to construct an effective description of this fluid in terms of a topological BF theory. The two degrees of freedom of the BF theory are associated to the mass (charge) flows of the fluid and its polarization vorticities. We discuss the quantization of this hydrodynamic theory, which generically allows for fractionalized excitations. We propose an extension of the Girvin-MacDonald-Platzman algebra to (3+1)-dimensional spacetime by the inclusion of the vortex-density operator in addition to the usual charge density operator and show that the same algebra is obeyed by massive Dirac fermions that represent the bulk of $\mathbb{Z}^{\,}_{2}$ topological insulators in three-dimensional space.Comment: 12 pages, 1 figur

No triangles on the moduli space of maximally supersymmetric gauge theory

Maximally supersymmetric gauge theory in four dimensions has a remarkably simple S-matrix at the origin of its moduli space at both tree and loop level. This leads to the question what, if any, of this structure survives at the complement of this one point. Here this question is studied in detail at one loop for the branch of the moduli space parameterized by a vacuum expectation value for one complex scalar. Motivated by the parallel D-brane picture of spontaneous symmetry breaking a simple relation is demonstrated between the Lagrangian of broken super Yang-Mills theory and that of its higher dimensional unbroken cousin. Using this relation it is proven both through an on- as well as an off-shell method there are no so-called triangle coefficients in the natural basis of one-loop functions at any finite point of the moduli space for the theory under study. The off-shell method yields in addition absence of rational terms in a class of theories on the Coulomb branch which includes the special case of maximal supersymmetry. The results in this article provide direct field theory evidence for a recently proposed exact dual conformal symmetry motivated by the AdS/CFT correspondence.Comment: 39 pages, 4 figure

Groupoid Quantization of Loop Spaces

We review the various contexts in which quantized 2-plectic manifolds are expected to appear within closed string theory and M-theory. We then discuss how the quantization of a 2-plectic manifold can be reduced to ordinary quantization of its loop space, which is a symplectic manifold. We demonstrate how the latter can be quantized using groupoids. After reviewing the necessary background, we present the groupoid quantization of the loop space of R^3 in some detail.Comment: 19 pages, Proceedings of the Corfu Summer Institute 2011 - School and Workshops on Elementary Particle Physics and Gravity, September 4-18, 2011, Corfu, Greec

Frobenius-Chern-Simons gauge theory

Given a set of differential forms on an odd-dimensional noncommutative manifold valued in an internal associative algebra H, we show that the most general cubic covariant Hamiltonian action, without mass terms, is controlled by an Z_2-graded associative algebra F with a graded symmetric nondegenerate bilinear form. The resulting class of models provide a natural generalization of the Frobenius-Chern-Simons model (FCS) that was proposed in arXiv:1505.04957 as an off-shell formulation of the minimal bosonic four-dimensional higher spin gravity theory. If F is unital and the Z_2-grading is induced from a Klein operator that is outer to a proper Frobenius subalgebra, then the action can be written on a form akin to topological open string field theory in terms of a superconnection valued in the direct product of H and F. We give a new model of this type based on a twisting of C[Z_2 x Z_4], which leads to self-dual complexified gauge fields on AdS_4. If F is 3-graded, the FCS model can be truncated consistently as to zero-form constraints on-shell. Two examples thereof are a twisting of C[(Z_2)^3] that yields the original model, and the Clifford algebra Cl_2n which provides an FCS formulation of the bosonic Konstein--Vasiliev model with gauge algebra hu(4^{n-1},0).Comment: 44 page

Iterated logarithms and gradient flows

We consider applications of the theory of balanced weight filtrations and iterated logarithms, initiated in arXiv:1706.01073, to PDEs. The main result is a complete description of the asymptotics of the Yang--Mills flow on the space of metrics on a holomorphic bundle over a Riemann surface. A key ingredient in the argument is a monotonicity property of the flow which holds in arbitrary dimension. The A-side analog is a modified curve shortening flow for which we provide a heuristic calculation in support of a detailed conjectural picture.Comment: 29 pages, comments encourage