String Topology: Background and Present State

The data of a "2D field theory with a closed string compactification" is an equivariant chain level action of a cell decomposition of the union of all moduli spaces of punctured Riemann surfaces with each component compactified as a pseudomanifold with boundary. The axioms on the data are contained in the following assumptions. It is assumed the punctures are labeled and divided into nonempty sets of inputs and outputs. The inputs are marked by a tangent direction and the outputs are weighted by nonnegative real numbers adding to unity. It is assumed the gluing of inputs to outputs lands on the pseudomanifold boundary of the cell decomposition and the entire pseudomanifold boundary is decomposed into pieces by all such factorings. It is further assumed that the action is equivariant with respect to the toroidal action of rotating the markings. A main result of compactified string topology is the Theorem (closed strings): Each oriented smooth manifold has a 2D field theory with a closed string compactification on the equivariant chains of its free loop space mod constant loops. The sum over all surface types of the top pseudomanifold chain yields a chain X satisfying the master equation dX + X*X = 0 where * is the sum over all gluings. This structure is well defined up to homotopy. The genus zero parts yields an infinity Lie bialgebra on the equivariant chains of the free loop space mod constant loops. The higher genus terms provide further elements of algebraic structure called a "quantum Lie bialgebra" partially resolving the involutive identity. There is also a compactified discussion and a Theorem 2 for open strings as the first step to a more complete theory. We note a second step for knots.Comment: 39 pages, 17 figures, latex: compile twic

Homotopy theory of the master equation package applied to algebra and geometry: a sketch of two interlocking programs

We interpret mathematically the pair (master equation, solution of master equation) up to equivalence, as the pair (a presentation of a free triangular dga T over a combination operad O, dga map of T into C, a dga over O) up to homotopy equivalence of dgOa maps, see Definition 1. We sketch two general applications: I to the theory of the definition and homotopy theory of infinity versions of general algebraic structures including noncompact frobenius algebras and Lie bialgebras. Here the target C would be the total Hom complex between various tensor products of another chain complex B, C = HomB, O describes combinations of operations like composition and tensor product sufficient to describe the algebraic structure and one says that B has the algebraic structure in question. II to geometric systems of moduli spaces up to deformation like the moduli of J holomorphic curves. Here C is some geometric chain complex containing the fundamental classes of the moduli spaces of the geometric problem. We also discuss analogues of homotopy groups and Postnikov systems for maps and impediments to using them related to linear terms in the master equation called anomalies.Comment: 7 page

Lattice Hydrodynamics

Using the combinatorics of two interpenetrating face centered cubic lattices together with the part of calculus naturally encoded in combinatorial topology, we construct from first principles a lattice model of 3D incompressible hydrodynamics on triply periodic three space. Actually the construction applies to every dimension, but has special duality features in dimension three.Comment: 5 page

Open and Closed String field theory interpreted in classical Algebraic Topology

There is an interpretation of open string field theory in algebraic topology. An interpretation of closed string field theory can be deduced from this open string theory to obtain as well the interpretation of open and closed string field theory combined.Comment: 19 page

Topological conjugacy of circle diffeomorphisms

The classical criterion for a circle diffeomorphism to be topologically conjugate to an irrational rigid rotation was given by A. Denjoy. In 1985, one of us (Sullivan) gave a new criterion. There is an example satisfying Denjoy's bounded variation condition rather than Sullivan's Zygmund condition and vice versa. This paper will give the third criterion which is implied by either of the above criteria

The Cumulant Bijection and Differential Forms

According to Jae Suk Park, physicists use "canonical coordinate systems" to compute correlations in perturbative quantum field theories. One may interpret these canonical coordinate systems as equivalences of generalized differential Lie algebras. In this note we discuss these flattenings in one particular setting and refer to them as "cumulant bijections". The main point we make is that these cumulant bijections are functorial for deformation retracts. The discussion is completely self contained and based on well known universal properties

Teichm\"uller Theory and the Universal Period Mapping via Quantum Calculus and the H1/2H^{1/2} Space on the Circle

The Universal Teichm\"uller Space, $T(1)$, is a universal parameter space for all Riemann surfaces. In earlier work of the first author it was shown that one can canonically associate infinite- dimensional period matrices to the coadjoint orbit manifold $Diff(S^1)/Mobius(S^1)$ -- which resides within $T(1)$ as the (Kirillov-Kostant) submanifold of ``smooth points'' of $T(1)$. We now extend that period mapping $\Pi$ to the entire Universal Teichm\"uller space utilizing the theory of the Sobolev space $H^{1/2}(S^1)$. $\Pi$ is an equivariant injective holomorphic immersion of $T(1)$ into Universal Siegel Space, and we describe the Schottky locus utilizing Connes' ``quantum calculus''. There are connections to string theory. Universal Teichm\"uller Space contains also the separable complex submanifold $T(H_\infty)$ -- the Teichm\"uller space of the universal hyperbolic lamination. Genus-independent constructions like the universal period mapping proceed naturally to live on this completion of the classical Teichm\"uller spaces. We show that $T(H_\infty)$ carries a natural convergent Weil-Petersson pairing.Comment: 39 pages (TEX

A formula for topology/deformations and its significance

The formula is $\partial{e}=({\rm ad}_e)b+\sum_{i=0}^\infty{\frac{B_i}{i!}}({\rm ad}_e)^i(b-a)\>,$ with $\partial{a}+{1\over2}[a,a] =0$ and $\partial{b}+{1\over2}[b,b] =0$, where $a$, $b$ and $e$ in degrees $-1$, $-1$ and 0 are the free generators of a completed free graded Lie algebra $L[a,b,e]$. The coefficients are defined by ${x\over{e^x-1}}=\sum_{n=0}^\infty{B_n\over{}n!}x^n$. The theorem is that (I) this formula for $\partial$ on generators extends to a derivation of square zero on $L[a,b,e]$, (II) the formula for $\partial{e}$ is unique satisfying the first property, once given the formulae for $\partial{a}$ and $\partial{b}$, along with the condition that the "flow" generated by $e$ moves $a$ to $b$ in unit time. The immediate significance of this formula is that it computes the infinity cocommutative coalgebra structure on the chains of the closed interval. It may be derived and proved using the geometrical idea of flat connections and one parameter groups or flows of gauge transformations. The deeper significance of such general DGLAs which want to combine deformation theory and rational homotopy theory is proposed as a research problem.Comment: 17 page

Structured vector bundles define differential K-theory

A equivalence relation, preserving the Chern-Weil form, is defined between connections on a complex vector bundle. Bundles equipped with such an equivalence class are called Structured Bundles, and their isomorphism classes form an abelian semi-ring. By applying the Grothedieck construction one obtains the ring K, elements of which, modulo a complex torus of dimension the sum of the odd Betti numbers of the base, are uniquely determined by the corresponding element of ordinary K and the Chern-Weil form. This construction provides a simple model of differential K-theory, c.f.Hopkins-Singer (2005), as well as a useful codification of vector bundles with connection.Comment: 23 page

Closed string operators in topology leading to Lie bialgebras and higher string algebra

This paper explains the conjectured algebraic duality between genus zero Gromov-Witten theory and genus zero "Closed String topology". This duality in another perspective is discussed on page 87 of the book "Frobenius manifold, quantum cohomology, and moduli spaces" (by Yuri Manin). This paper also discusses Fulton MacPherson strata