The symplectic and twistor geometry of the general isomonodromic deformation problem

Hitchin's twistor treatment of Schlesinger's equations is extended to the general isomonodromic deformation problem. It is shown that a generic linear system of ordinary differential equations with gauge group SL(n,C) on a Riemann surface X can be obtained by embedding X in a twistor space Z on which sl(n,C) acts. When a certain obstruction vanishes, the isomonodromic deformations are given by deforming X in Z. This is related to a description of the deformations in terms of Hamiltonian flows on a symplectic manifold constructed from affine orbits in the dual Lie algebra of a loop group.Comment: 35 pages, LATE

BRST Extension of Geometric Quantization

Consider a physical system for which a mathematically rigorous geometric quantization procedure exists. Now subject the system to a finite set of irreducible first class (bosonic) constraints. It is shown that there is a mathematically rigorous BRST quantization of the constrained system whose cohomology at ghost number zero recovers the constrained quantum states. Moreover this space of constrained states has a well-defined Hilbert space structure inherited from that of the original system. Treatments of these ideas in the Physics literature are more general but suffer from having states with infinite or zero "norms" and thus are not admissible as states. Also the BRST operator for many systems require regularization to be well-defined. In our more restricted context we show that our treatment does not suffer from any of these difficulties. This work was submitted for publication March 21,2006

The geometry of dual isomonodromic deformations

The JMMS equations are studied using the geometry of the spectral curve of a pair of dual systems. It is shown that the equations can be represented as time-independent Hamiltonian flows on a Jacobian bundle

A Brief Introduction to Poisson Sigma-Models

The theory of Poisson-$\sigma$-models employs the mathematical notion of Poisson manifolds to formulate and analyze a large class of topological and almost topological two dimensional field theories. As special examples this class of field theories includes pure Yang-Mills and gravity theories, and, to some extent, the G/G gauged WZW-model. The aim of this contribution is to give a pedagogical introduction, explaining many aspects of the general theory by illustrative examples.Comment: 10 pages, LaTex. Based on two talks delivered in Schladming, March 199

Duality for the general isomonodromy problem

By an extension of Harnad's and Dubrovin's `duality' constructions, the general isomonodromy problem studied by Jimbo, Miwa, and Ueno is equivalent to one in which the linear system of differential equations has a regular singularity at the origin and an irregular singularity at infinity (both resonant). The paper looks at this dual formulation of the problem from two points of view: the symplectic geometry of spaces associated with the loop group of the general linear group, and a generalization of the self-dual Yang-Mills equations

QUANTIZATION OF A CLASS OF PIECEWISE AFFINE TRANSFORMATIONS ON THE TORUS

We present a unified framework for the quantization of a family of discrete dynamical systems of varying degrees of "chaoticity". The systems to be quantized are piecewise affine maps on the two-torus, viewed as phase space, and include the automorphisms, translations and skew translations. We then treat some discontinuous transformations such as the Baker map and the sawtooth-like maps. Our approach extends some ideas from geometric quantization and it is both conceptually and calculationally simple.Comment: no. 28 pages in AMSTE

Generalized Kahler geometry and gerbes

We introduce and study the notion of a biholomorphic gerbe with connection. The biholomorphic gerbe provides a natural geometrical framework for generalized Kahler geometry in a manner analogous to the way a holomorphic line bundle is related to Kahler geometry. The relation between the gerbe and the generalized Kahler potential is discussed.Comment: 28 page

Supersymmetric Gauge Theories in Twistor Space

We construct a twistor space action for N=4 super Yang-Mills theory and show that it is equivalent to its four dimensional spacetime counterpart at the level of perturbation theory. We compare our partition function to the original twistor-string proposal, showing that although our theory is closely related to string theory, it is free from conformal supergravity. We also provide twistor actions for gauge theories with N<4 supersymmetry, and show how matter multiplets may be coupled to the gauge sector.Comment: 23 pages, no figure

Conformal proper times according to the Woodhouse causal axiomatics of relativistic spacetimes

On the basis of the Woodhouse causal axiomatics, we show that conformal proper times and an extra variable in addition to those of space and time, precisely and physically identified from experimental examples, together give a physical justification for the `chronometric hypothesis' of general relativity. Indeed, we show that, with a lack of these latter two ingredients, no clock paradox solution exists in which the clock and message functions are solely at the origin of the asymmetry. These proper times originate from a given conformal structure of the spacetime when ascribing different compatible projective structures to each Woodhouse particle, and then, each defines a specific Weylian sheaf structure. In addition, the proper time parameterizations, as two point functions, cannot be defined irrespective of the processes in the relative changes of physical characteristics. These processes are included via path-dependent conformal scale factors, which act like sockets for any kind of physical interaction and also represent the values of the variable associated with the extra dimension. As such, the differential aging differs far beyond the first and second clock effects in Weyl geometries, with the latter finally appearing to not be suitable.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figure

Dual giant gravitons in AdSm_m ×\times Yn^n (Sasaki-Einstein)

We consider BPS motion of dual giant gravitons on Ad$S_5\times Y^5$ where $Y^5$ represents a five-dimensional Sasaki-Einstein manifold. We find that the phase space for the BPS dual giant gravitons is symplectically isomorphic to the Calabi-Yau cone over $Y^5$, with the K\"{a}hler form identified with the symplectic form. The quantization of the dual giants therefore coincides with the K\"{a}hler quantization of the cone which leads to an explicit correspondence between holomorphic wavefunctions of dual giants and gauge-invariant operators of the boundary theory. We extend the discussion to dual giants in $AdS_4 \times Y^7$ where $Y^7$ is a seven-dimensional Sasaki-Einstein manifold; for special motions the phase space of the dual giants is symplectically isomorphic to the eight-dimensional Calabi-Yau cone.Comment: 14 pages. (v2) typo's corrected; factors of AdS radius reinstated for clarity; remarks about dual giant wavefunctions in T^{1,1} expanded and put in a new subsectio