Clifford algebras and the Duflo isomorphism

This article summarizes joint work with A. Alekseev (Geneva) on the Duflo isomorphism for quadratic Lie algebras. We describe a certain quantization map for Weil algebras, generalizing both the Duflo map and the quantization map for Clifford algebras. In this context, Duflo's theorem generalizes to a statement in equivariant cohomology

The basic gerbe over a compact simple Lie group

Let $G$ be a compact, simply connected simple Lie group. We give a construction of an equivariant gerbe with connection on $G$, with equivariant 3-curvature representing a generator of $H^3_G(G,\Z)$. Technical tools developed in this context include a gluing construction for gerbes and a theory of equivariant bundle gerbes.Comment: 19 pages. To appear in L'Enseignement Mathematiqu

Witten's formulas for intersection pairings on moduli spaces of flat GG-bundles

In a 1992 paper, Witten gave a formula for the intersection pairings of the moduli space of flat $G$-bundles over an oriented surface, possibly with markings. In this paper, we give a general proof of Witten's formula, for arbitrary compact, simple groups, and any markings for which the moduli space has at most orbifold singularities.Comment: 46 page

Dirac actions and Lu's Lie algebroid

Poisson actions of Poisson Lie groups have an interesting and rich geometric structure. We will generalize some of this structure to Dirac actions of Dirac Lie groups. Among other things, we extend a result of Jiang-Hua-Lu, which states that the cotangent Lie algebroid and the action algebroid for a Poisson action form a matched pair. We also give a full classification of Dirac actions for which the base manifold is a homogeneous space $H/K$, obtaining a generalization of Drinfeld's classification for the Poisson Lie group case.Comment: 41 pages. To appear in "Transformation Groups

Lectures on pure spinors and moment maps

The goal of this article is to give an elementary introduction to Dirac geometry and group-valued moment maps, via pure spinors. The material is based on my lectures at the summer school on 'Poisson geometry in Mathematics and Physics' at Keio University, June 2006

On Riemann-Roch Formulas for Multiplicities

A Theorem due to Guillemin and Sternberg about geometric quantization of Hamiltonian actions of compact Lie groups $G$ on compact Kaehler manifolds says that the dimension of the $G$-invariant subspace is equal to the Riemann-Roch number of the symplectically reduced space. Combined with the shifting-trick, this gives explicit formulas for the multiplicities of the various irreducible components. One of the assumptions of the Theorem is that the reduction is regular, so that the reduced space is a smooth symplectic manifold. In this paper, we prove a generalization of this result to the case where the reduced space may have orbifold singularities. Our proof uses localization techniques from equivariant cohomology, and relies in particular on recent work of Jeffrey-Kirwan and Guillemin. Since there are no complex geometry arguments involved, the result also extends to non Kaehlerian settings.Comment: 21 pages, AMS-LaTe

Maslov indices for periodic orbits

It is shown that there is a generalization of the Conley-Zehnder index for periodic trajectories of a classical Hamiltonian system $(Q, \omega, H)$ from the case $Q = T^*R^n$ to arbitrary symplectic manifolds. As it turns out, it is precisely this index which appears as a Maslov phase in the trace formulas by Gutzwiller and Duistermaat-Guillemin. Contribution presented at the XIX ICGTMP Salamanca June 92.Comment: 5 pages, THEP 92/2

Tilings defined by affine Weyl groups

Let W be a Weyl group, presented as a crystallographic reflection group on a Euclidean vector space V, and C an open Weyl chamber. In a recent paper, Waldspurger proved that the images (id-w)(C), for Weyl group elements w, are all disjoint, and their union is the closed cone spanned by the positive roots. We show that similarly, if A is the Weyl alcove, the images (id-w)(A), for affine Weyl group elements w, are all disjoint, and their union is V.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure

On the quantization of conjugacy classes

Let G be a compact, simple, simply connected Lie group. A theorem of Freed-Hopkins-Teleman identifies the level k fusion ring R_k(G) of G with the twisted equivariant K-homology at level k+h, where h is the dual Coxeter number. In this paper, we review this result using the language of Dixmier-Douady bundles. We show that the additive generators of the group R_k(G) are obtained as K-homology push-forwards of the fundamental classes of conjugacy classes in G.Comment: 32 page

Twisted K-homology and group-valued moment maps

Let G be a compact, simply connected Lie group. We develop a `quantization functor' from pre-quantized quasi-Hamiltonian G-spaces at level k to the fusion ring (Verlinde algebra) R_k(G). The quantization Q(M) is defined as a push-forward in twisted equivariant K-homology. It may be computed by a fixed point formula, similar to the equivariant index theorem for Spin_c-Dirac operators. Using the formula, we calculate Q(M) in several examples.Comment: 38 page