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

Gauge theory on nonassociative spaces

We show how to do gauge theory on the octonions and other nonassociative algebras such as `fuzzy $R^4$' models proposed in string theory. We use the theory of quasialgebras obtained by cochain twist introduced previously. The gauge theory in this case is twisting-equivalent to usual gauge theory on the underlying classical space. We give a general U(1)-Yang-Mills example for any quasi-algebra and a full description of the moduli space of flat connections in this theory for the cube $Z_2^3$ and hence for the octonions. We also obtain further results about the octonions themselves; an explicit Moyal-product description of them as a nonassociative quantisation of functions on the cube, and a characterisation of their cochain twist as invariant under Fourier transform.Comment: 24 pages latex, two .eps figure

Quantum and Braided Lie Algebras

We introduce the notion of a braided Lie algebra consisting of a finite-dimensional vector space \CL equipped with a bracket $[\ ,\ ]:\CL\tens\CL\to \CL$and a Yang-Baxter operator$\Psi:\CL\tens\CL\to \CL\tens\CL$obeying some axioms. We show that such an object has an enveloping braided-bialgebra$U(\CL)$. We show that every generic$R$-matrix leads to such a braided Lie algebra with$[\ ,\ ]$given by structure constants$c^{IJ}{}_K$determined from$R$. In this case$U(\CL)=B(R)$the braided matrices introduced previously. We also introduce the basic theory of these braided Lie algebras, including the natural right-regular action of a braided-Lie algebra$\CL$by braided vector fields, the braided-Killing form and the quadratic Casimir associated to$\CL$. These constructions recover the relevant notions for usual, colour and super-Lie algebras as special cases. In addition, the standard quantum deformations$U_q(g)$are understood as the enveloping algebras of such underlying braided Lie algebras with$[\ ,\ ]$on$\CL\subset U_q(g)$ given by the quantum adjoint action.Comment: 56 page

Braided Matrix Structure of the Sklyanin Algebra and of the Quantum Lorentz Group

Braided groups and braided matrices are novel algebraic structures living in braided or quasitensor categories. As such they are a generalization of super-groups and super-matrices to the case of braid statistics. Here we construct braided group versions of the standard quantum groups $U_q(g)$. They have the same FRT generators $l^\pm$ but a matrix braided-coproduct \und\Delta L=L\und\tens L where $L=l^+Sl^-$, and are self-dual. As an application, the degenerate Sklyanin algebra is shown to be isomorphic to the braided matrices $BM_q(2)$; it is a braided-commutative bialgebra in a braided category. As a second application, we show that the quantum double D(\usl) (also known as the `quantum Lorentz group') is the semidirect product as an algebra of two copies of \usl, and also a semidirect product as a coalgebra if we use braid statistics. We find various results of this type for the doubles of general quantum groups and their semi-classical limits as doubles of the Lie algebras of Poisson Lie groups.Comment: 45 pages. Revised (= much expanded introduction

Bicrossproduct structure of κ\kappa-Poincare group and non-commutative geometry

We show that the $\kappa$-deformed Poincar\'e quantum algebra proposed for elementary particle physics has the structure of a Hopf agebra bicrossproduct U(so(1,3))\cobicross T. The algebra is a semidirect product of the classical Lorentz group $so(1,3)$ acting in a deformed way on the momentum sector $T$. The novel feature is that the coalgebra is also semidirect, with a backreaction of the momentum sector on the Lorentz rotations. Using this, we show that the $\kappa$-Poincar\'e acts covariantly on a $\kappa$-Minkowski space, which we introduce. It turns out necessarily to be deformed and non-commutative. We also connect this algebra with a previous approach to Planck scale physics.Comment: 12 pages. Revision: minor typos correcte

Moduli of quantum Riemannian geometries on <= 4 points

We classify parallelizable noncommutative manifold structures on finite sets of small size in the general formalism of framed quantum manifolds and vielbeins introduced previously. The full moduli space is found for $\le 3$ points, and a restricted moduli space for 4 points. The topological part of the moduli space is found for $\le 9$ points based on the known atlas of regular graphs. We also discuss aspects of the quantum theory defined by functional integration.Comment: 34 pages ams-latex, 4 figure

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

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