The Heisenberg group and conformal field theory

A mathematical construction of the conformal field theory (CFT) associated to a compact torus, also called the "nonlinear Sigma-model" or "lattice-CFT", is given. Underlying this approach to CFT is a unitary modular functor, the construction of which follows from a "Quantization commutes with reduction"- type of theorem for unitary quantizations of the moduli spaces of holomorphic torus-bundles and actions of loop groups. This theorem in turn is a consequence of general constructions in the category of affine symplectic manifolds and their associated generalized Heisenberg groups.Comment: 45 pages, some parts have been rewritten. Version to appear in Quart. J. Mat

The cyclic theory of Hopf algebroids

We give a systematic description of the cyclic cohomology theory of Hopf algebroids in terms of its associated category of modules. Then we introduce a dual cyclic homology theory by applying cyclic duality to the underlying cocyclic object. We derive general structure theorems for these theories in the special cases of commutative and cocommutative Hopf algebroids. Finally, we compute the cyclic theory in examples associated to Lie-Rinehart algebras and \'etale groupoids.Comment: 44 pages; to appear in Journal of Noncommutative Geometr

Higher genera for proper actions of Lie groups

Let G be a Lie group with finitely many connected components and let K be a maximal compact subgroup. We assume that G satisfies the rapid decay (RD) property and that G/K has non-positive sectional curvature. As an example, we can take G to be a connected semisimple Lie group. Let M be a G-proper manifold with compact quotient M/G. In this paper we establish index formulae for the C^*-higher indices of a G-equivariant Dirac-type operator on M. We use these formulae to investigate geometric properties of suitably defined higher genera on M. In particular, we establish the G-homotopy invariance of the higher signatures of a G-proper manifold and the vanishing of the A-hat genera of a G-spin, G-proper manifold admitting a G-invariant metric of positive scalar curvature.Comment: 20 pages, revised version, the main changes are in section 2.

Bihamiltonian cohomology of KdV brackets

Using spectral sequences techniques we compute the bihamiltonian cohomology groups of the pencil of Poisson brackets of dispersionless KdV hierarchy. In particular this proves a conjecture of Liu and Zhang about the vanishing of such cohomology groups.Comment: 16 pages. v2: corrected typos, in particular formulas (28), (78

The bi-Hamiltonian cohomology of a scalar Poisson pencil

We compute the bi-Hamiltonian cohomology of an arbitrary dispersionless Poisson pencil in a single dependent variable using a spectral sequence method. As in the KdV case, we obtain that $BH^p_d(\hat{F}, d_1,d_2)$ is isomorphic to $\mathbb{R}$ for $(p,d)=(0,0)$, to $C^\infty (\mathbb{R})$ for $(p,d)=(1,1)$, $(2,1)$, $(2,3)$, $(3,3)$, and vanishes otherwise

Deformations of semisimple Poisson pencils of hydrodynamic type are unobstructed

We prove that the bihamiltonian cohomology of a semisimple pencil of Poisson brackets of hydrodynamic type vanishes for almost all degrees. This implies the existence of a full dispersive deformation of a semisimple bihamiltonian structure of hydrodynamic type starting from any infinitesimal deformation.Comment: 22 pages. v2: corrected typos. v3: small improvements of the presentation. v4: typos, small improvements in the introduction and the presentatio

Higher genera for proper actions of Lie groups, Part 2: the case of manifolds with boundary

Let G be a finitely connected Lie group and let K be a maximal compact subgroup. Let M be a cocompact G-proper manifold with boundary, endowed with a G-invariant metric which is of product type near the boundary. Under additional assumptions on G, for example that it satisfies the Rapid Decay condition and is such that G/K has nonpositive sectional curvature, we define higher Atiyah-Patodi-Singer C^*-indices associated to smooth group cocycles on G and to a generalized G-equivariant Dirac operator D on M with L^2-invertible boundary operator D_\partial. We then establish a higher index formula for these C^*-indices and use it in order to introduce higher genera for M, thus generalizing to manifolds with boundary the results that we have established in Part 1. Our results apply in particular to a semisimple Lie group G. We use crucially the pairing between suitable relative cyclic cohomology groups and relative K-theory groups.Comment: Updated version: small corrections. Additivity of higher genera adde