Duality Principle and Braided Geometry

We give an overview of a new kind symmetry in physics which exists between observables and states and which is made possible by the language of Hopf algebras and quantum geometry. It has been proposed by the author as a feature of Planck scale physics. More recent work includes corresponding results at the semiclassical level of Poisson-Lie groups and at the level of braided groups and braided geometry.Comment: 24 page

Hopf quasigroups and the algebraic 7-sphere

We introduce the notions of Hopf quasigroup and Hopf coquasigroup $H$ generalising the classical notion of an inverse property quasigroup $G$ expressed respectively as a quasigroup algebra $k G$ and an algebraic quasigroup $k[G]$. We prove basic results as for Hopf algebras, such as anti(co)multiplicativity of the antipode $S:H\to H$, that S^2=\id if $H$ is commutative or cocommutative, and a theory of crossed (co)products. We also introduce the notion of a Moufang Hopf (co)quasigroup and show that the coordinate algebras $k[S^{2^n-1}]$ of the parallelizable spheres are algebraic quasigroups (commutative Hopf coquasigroups in our formulation) and Moufang. We make use of the description of composition algebras such as the octonions via a cochain $F$ introduced in \cite{Ma99}. We construct an example $k[S^7]\rtimes\Z_2^3$ of a Hopf coquasigroup which is noncommutative and non-trivially Moufang. We use Hopf coquasigroup methods to study differential geometry on $k[S^7]$ including a short algebraic proof that $S^7$ is parallelizable. Looking at combinations of left and right invariant vector fields on $k[S^7]$ we provide a new description of the structure constants of the Lie algebra $g_2$ in terms of the structure constants $F$ of the octonions. In the concluding section we give a new description of the $q$-deformation quantum group \C_q[S^3] regarded trivially as a Moufang Hopf coquasigroup (trivially since it is in fact a Hopf algebra) but now in terms of $F$ built up via the Cayley-Dickson process.Comment: 43 pages latex; added Maurer-Cartan equation (Prop 6.5) and computation of it for S^7 (lemma 6.8). No other change aside typo

Quantum Deformations of Space-Time Symmetries with Mass-Like Deformation Parameter

The difficulties with the measurability of classical space-time distances are considered. We outline the framework of quantum deformations of D=4 space-time symmetries with dimensionfull deformation parameter, and present some recent results.Comment: 4 pages, LaTeX, uses file stwol.sty, to be published in the Proceedings of XXXII International Rochester Conference in High Energy Physics (Warsaw, 24.07-31.07 1996

Almost commutative Riemannian geometry: wave operators

Associated to any (pseudo)-Riemannian manifold $M$ of dimension $n$ is an $n+1$-dimensional noncommutative differential structure (\Omega^1,\extd) on the manifold, with the extra dimension encoding the classical Laplacian as a noncommutative `vector field'. We use the classical connection, Ricci tensor and Hodge Laplacian to construct (\Omega^2,\extd) and a natural noncommutative torsion free connection $(\nabla,\sigma)$ on $\Omega^1$. We show that its generalised braiding \sigma:\Omega^1\tens\Omega^1\to \Omega^1\tens\Omega^1 obeys the quantum Yang-Baxter or braid relations only when the original $M$ is flat, i.e their failure is governed by the Riemann curvature, and that \sigma^2=\id only when $M$ is Einstein. We show that if $M$ has a conformal Killing vector field $\tau$ then the cross product algebra $C(M)\rtimes_\tau\R$ viewed as a noncommutative analogue of $M\times\R$ has a natural $n+2$-dimensional calculus extending $\Omega^1$ and a natural spacetime Laplacian now directly defined by the extra dimension. The case $M=\R^3$ recovers the Majid-Ruegg bicrossproduct flat spacetime model and the wave-operator used in its variable speed of light preduction, but now as an example of a general construction. As an application we construct the wave operator on a noncommutative Schwarzschild black hole and take a first look at its features. It appears that the infinite classical redshift/time dilation factor at the event horizon is made finite.Comment: 39 pages, 4 pdf images. Removed previous Sections 5.1-5.2 to a separate paper (now ArXived) to meet referee length requirements. Corresponding slight restructure but no change to remaining conten

Towards Spinfoam Cosmology

We compute the transition amplitude between coherent quantum-states of geometry peaked on homogeneous isotropic metrics. We use the holomorphic representations of loop quantum gravity and the Kaminski-Kisielowski-Lewandowski generalization of the new vertex, and work at first order in the vertex expansion, second order in the graph (multipole) expansion, and first order in 1/volume. We show that the resulting amplitude is in the kernel of a differential operator whose classical limit is the canonical hamiltonian of a Friedmann-Robertson-Walker cosmology. This result is an indication that the dynamics of loop quantum gravity defined by the new vertex yields the Friedmann equation in the appropriate limit.Comment: 8 page