Non-trivial Bundles Research Articles

Nilpotency in instanton homology, and the framed instanton homology of a surface times a circle

In the description of the instanton Floer homology of a surface times a circle due to Muñoz, we compute the nilpotency degree of the endomorphism u2−64. We then compute the framed instanton homology of a surface times a circle with non-trivial bundle, which is closely related to the kernel of u2−64. We discuss these results in the context of the moduli space of stable rank two holomorphic bundles with fixed odd determinant over a Riemann surface.

Moduli identification methods in Type II compactifications

Recent work on four dimensional effective descriptions of the heterotic string has identified the moduli of such systems as being given by kernels of maps between ordinary Dolbeault cohomology groups. The maps involved are defined by the supergravity data of the background solutions. Such structure is seen both in the case of Calabi-Yau compactifications with non-trivial constraints on moduli arising from the gauge bundle and in the case of some non-Kähler compactifications of the theory. This description of the moduli has allowed the explicit computation of the moduli stabilization effects of a wide range of non-trivial gauge bundles on Calabi-Yau three-folds. In this paper we examine to what extent the ideas and techniques used in this work can be extended to the case of flux compactifications of Type IIB string theory. Certain simplifications arise in the Type IIB case in comparison to the heterotic situation. However, complications also arise due to the richer supergravity data of the theory inducing a more involved map structure. We illustrate our discussion with several concrete examples of compactification of Type IIB string theory on conformal CICY three-folds with flux.

Dirac’s magnetic monopole and the Kontsevich star product

We examine relationships between various quantization schemes for an electrically charged particle in the field of a magnetic monopole. Quantization maps are defined in invariant geometrical terms, appropriate to the case of nontrivial topology, and are constructed for two operator representations. In the first setting, the quantum operators act on the Hilbert space of sections of a nontrivial complex line bundle associated with the Hopf bundle, whereas the second approach uses instead a quaternionic Hilbert module of sections of a trivial quaternionic line bundle. We show that these two quantizations are naturally related by a bundle morphism and, as a consequence, induce the same phase-space star product. We obtain explicit expressions for the integral kernels of star-products corresponding to various operator orderings and calculate their asymptotic expansions up to the third order in the Planck constant . We also show that the differential form of the magnetic Weyl product corresponding to the symmetric ordering agrees completely with the Kontsevich formula for deformation quantization of Poisson structures and can be represented by Kontsevich’s graphs.

Two-fold quasi-alternating links, Khovanov homology and instanton homology

We introduce a class of links strictly containing quasi-alternating links for which mod 2 reduced Khovanov homology is always thin. We compute the framed instanton homology for double branched covers of such links. Aligning certain dotted markings on a link with bundle data over the branched cover, we also provide many computations of framed instanton homology in the presence of a non-trivial real 3-plane bundle. We discuss evidence for a spectral sequence from the twisted Khovanov homology of a link with mod 2 coefficients to the framed instanton homology of the double branched cover. We also discuss the relevant mod 4 gradings.

A CODING OF BUNDLE GRAPHS AND THEIR EMBEDDINGS INTO BANACH SPACES

The purpose of this article is to generalize some known characterizations of Banach space properties in terms of graph preclusion. In particular, it is shown that superreflexivity can be characterized by the non-equi-bi-Lipschitz embeddability of any family of bundle graphs generated by a nontrivial finitely-branching bundle graph. It is likewise shown that asymptotic uniform convexifiability can be characterized within the class of reflexive Banach spaces with an unconditional asymptotic structure by the non-equi-bi-Lipschitz embeddability of any family of bundle graphs generated by a nontrivial $\aleph_0$-branching bundle graph. The best known distortions are recovered. For the specific case of $L_1$, it is shown that every countably-branching bundle graph bi-Lipschitzly embeds into $L_1$ with distortion no worse than $2$.

Remarks on Contact and Jacobi Geometry

We present an approach to Jacobi and contact geometry that makes many facts, presented in the literature in an overcomplicated way, much more natural and clear. The key concepts are Kirillov manifolds and linear Kirillov structures, i.e., homogeneous Poisson manifolds and, respectively, homogeneous linear Poisson manifolds. The difference with the existing literature is that the homogeneity of the Poisson structure is related to a principal ${\rm GL}(1,{\mathbb R})$-bundle structure on the manifold and not just to a vector field. This allows for working with Jacobi bundle structures on nontrivial line bundles and drastically simplifies the picture of Jacobi and contact geometry. Our results easily reduce to various basic theorems of Jacobi and contact geometry when the principal bundle structure is trivial, while giving new insights into the theory.

Chern-Simons five-form and holographic baryons

In the top-down holographic model of QCD based on D4/D8-branes in type IIA string theory and some of the bottom up models, the low energy effective theory of mesons is described by a 5 dimensional Yang-Mills-Chern-Simons theory in a certain curved background with two boundaries. The 5 dimensional Chern-Simons term plays a crucial role to reproduce the correct chiral anomaly in 4 dimensional massless QCD. However, there are some subtle ambiguities in the definition of the Chern-Simons term for the cases with topologically non-trivial gauge bundles, which include the configurations with baryons. In particular, for the cases with three flavors, it was pointed out by Hata and Murata that the naive Chern-Simons term does not lead to an important constraint on the baryon spectrum, which is needed to pick out the correct baryon spectrum observed in nature. In this paper, we propose a formulation of well-defined Chern-Simons term which can be used for the cases with baryons, and show that it recovers the correct baryon constraint as well as the chiral anomaly in QCD.

Comments on global symmetries, anomalies, and duality in (2 + 1)d

We analyze in detail the global symmetries of various (2 + 1)d quantum field theories and couple them to classical background gauge fields. A proper identification of the global symmetries allows us to consider all non-trivial bundles of those background fields, thus finding more subtle observables. The global symmetries exhibit interesting ’t Hooft anomalies. These allow us to constrain the IR behavior of the theories and provide powerful constraints on conjectured dualities.

Compactly supported Wannier functions and algebraicK-theory

In a tight-binding lattice model with $n$ orbitals (single-particle states) per site, Wannier functions are $n$-component vector functions of position that fall off rapidly away from some location, and such that a set of them in some sense span all states in a given energy band or set of bands; compactly supported Wannier functions are such functions that vanish outside a bounded region. They arise not only in band theory, but also in connection with tensor-network states for noninteracting fermion systems, and for flat-band Hamiltonians with strictly short-range hopping matrix elements. In earlier work, it was proved that for general complex band structures (vector bundles) or general complex Hamiltonians---that is, class A in the tenfold classification of Hamiltonians and band structures---a set of compactly supported Wannier functions can span the vector bundle only if the bundle is topologically trivial, in any dimension $d$ of space, even when use of an overcomplete set of such functions is permitted. This implied that, for a free-fermion tensor network state with a nontrivial bundle in class A, any strictly short-range parent Hamiltonian must be gapless. Here, this result is extended to all ten symmetry classes of band structures without additional crystallographic symmetries, with the result that in general the nontrivial bundles that can arise from compactly supported Wannier-type functions are those that may possess, in each of $d$ directions, the nontrivial winding that can occur in the same symmetry class in one dimension, but nothing else. The results are obtained from a very natural usage of algebraic $K$-theory, based on a ring of polynomials in ${e}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}i{k}_{x}},\phantom{\rule{0.16em}{0ex}}{e}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}i{k}_{y}},...,$ which occur as entries in the Fourier-transformed Wannier functions.

Spin, statistics, orientations, unitarity

A topological quantum field theory is Hermitian if it is both oriented and complex-valued, and orientation-reversal agrees with complex-conjugation. A field theory satisfies spin-statistics if it is both spin and super, and $360^\circ$-rotation of the spin structure agrees with the operation of flipping the signs of all fermions. We set up a framework in which these two notions are precisely analogous. In this framework, field theories are defined over $\mathrm{Vect}_{\mathbb R}$, but rather than being defined in terms of a single tangential structure, they are defined in terms of a bundle of tangential structures over $\mathrm{Spec}(\mathbb R)$. Bundles of tangential structures may be etale-locally equivalent without being equivalent, and Hermitian field theories are nothing but the field theories controlled by the unique nontrivial bundle of tangential structures that is etale-locally equivalent to Orientations. This bundle owes its existence to the fact that $\pi_1^{et}(\mathrm{Spec}(\mathbb R)) = \pi_1{BO}$. We interpret Deligne's "existence of super fiber functors" theorem as implying that in a categorification of algebraic geometry in which symmetric monoidal categories replace commutative rings, $\pi_2^{et}(\mathrm{Spec}(\mathbb R)) = \pi_2{BO}$. There are eight bundles etale-locally equivalent to Spins, one of which is distinguished; upon unpacking the meaning of that distinguished tangential structure, one arrives at field theories that are both Hermitian and satisfy spin-statistics. Finally, we formulate a notion of "reflection-positivity" and prove that if an etale-locally-oriented field theory is reflection-positive then it is necessarily Hermitian, and if an etale-locally-spin field theory is reflection-positive then it necessarily both satisfies spin-statistics and is Hermitian. The latter result is a topological version of the famous Spin-Statistics Theorem.

Vector bundles on proper toric 3-folds and certain other schemes

We show that a proper algebraic n n -dimensional scheme Y Y admits non-trivial vector bundles of rank n n , even if Y Y is non-projective, provided that there is a modification containing a projective Cartier divisor that intersects the exceptional locus in only finitely many points. Moreover, there are such vector bundles with arbitrarily large top Chern number. Applying this to toric varieties, we infer that every proper toric threefold admits such vector bundles of rank three. Furthermore, we describe a class of higher-dimensional toric varieties for which the result applies, in terms of convexity properties around rays.

Peierls substitution for magnetic Bloch bands

We consider the Schr\"odinger operator in two dimensions with a periodic potential and a strong constant magnetic field perturbed by slowly varying non-periodic scalar and vector potentials, $\phi(\epsilon x)$ and $A(\epsilon x)$, for $\epsilon\ll 1$. For each isolated family of magnetic Bloch bands we derive an effective Hamiltonian that is unitarily equivalent to the restriction of the Schr\"odinger operator to a corresponding almost invariant subspace. At leading order, our effective Hamiltonian can be interpreted as the Peierls substitution Hamiltonian widely used in physics for non-magnetic Bloch bands. However, while for non-magnetic Bloch bands the corresponding result is well understood, for magnetic Bloch bands it is not clear how to even define a Peierls substitution Hamiltonian beyond a formal expression. The source of the difficulty is a topological obstruction: magnetic Bloch bundles are generically not trivializable. As a consequence, Peierls substitution Hamiltonians for magnetic Bloch bands turn out to be pseudodifferential operators acting on sections of non-trivial vector bundles over a two-torus, the reduced Brillouin zone. Part of our contribution is the construction of a suitable Weyl calculus for such pseudos. As an application of our results we construct a new family of canonical one-band Hamiltonians $H^B_{\theta,q}$ for magnetic Bloch bands with Chern number $\theta\in \mathbb{Z}$ that generalizes the Hofstadter model $H^B_{\rm Hof} = H^B_{0,1}$ for a single non-magnetic Bloch band. It turns out that $H^B_{\theta,q}$ is isospectral to $H^{q^2B}_{\rm Hof}$ for any $\theta$ and all spectra agree with the Hofstadter spectrum depicted in his famous black and white butterfly. However, the resulting Chern numbers of subbands, corresponding to Hall conductivities, depend on $\theta$ and $q$, and thus the models lead to different colored butterflies.

Spherical averages in the space of marked lattices

A marked lattice is a d-dimensional Euclidean lattice, where each lattice point is assigned a mark via a given random field on {mathbb {Z}}^d. We prove that, if the field is strongly mixing with a faster-than-logarithmic rate, then for every given lattice and almost every marking, large spheres become equidistributed in the space of marked lattices. A key aspect of our study is that the space of marked lattices is not a homogeneous space, but rather a non-trivial fiber bundle over such a space. As an application, we prove that the free path length in a crystal with random defects has a limiting distribution in the Boltzmann-Grad limit.

Twisted cohomology of the complement of theta divisors in an abelian surface

Let [Formula: see text] be an abelian surface, and [Formula: see text] be the sum of [Formula: see text] distinct theta divisors having normal crossings. We set [Formula: see text]. We study the structure of the nonvanishing twisted cohomology group [Formula: see text], where [Formula: see text] denotes a locally constant sheaf over [Formula: see text] defined by a multiplicative meromorphic function on [Formula: see text] infinitely ramified just along the divisor [Formula: see text] (as will be seen below, we will take as such a function a product of complex powers of theta functions). The de Rham complex on [Formula: see text] with logarithmic poles along [Formula: see text], associated to the twisted cohomology groups [Formula: see text], is [Formula: see text]-valued, where [Formula: see text] denotes a topologically trivial (i.e. Chern class zero) line bundle over [Formula: see text] determined by the locally constant sheaf [Formula: see text]. Therefore the main results of this paper, which give us information on the order of poles of meromorphic 2-forms on [Formula: see text] generating the cohomology group [Formula: see text], are divided into Theorems 4.5 and 4.6, according as the de Rham complex on [Formula: see text] with logarithmic poles along [Formula: see text] takes the values in a holomorphically nontrivial line bundle [Formula: see text] or a holomorphically trivial one [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text] denoting the holomorphically trivial line bundle [Formula: see text]). Such a phenomenon does not occur in the case of the twisted cohomology of complex projective space with hyperplane arrangement.

Line bundle embeddings for heterotic theories

In heterotic string theories consistency requires the introduction of a non-trivial vector bundle. This bundle breaks the original ten-dimensional gauge groups E8 × E8 or SO(32) for the supersymmetric heterotic string theories and SO(16) × SO(16) for the non-supersymmetric tachyon-free theory to smaller subgroups. A vast number of MSSM-like models have been constructed up to now, most of which describe the vector bundle as a sum of line bundles. However, there are several different ways of describing these line bundles and their embedding in the ten-dimensional gauge group. We recall and extend these different descriptions and explain how they can be translated into each other.

Cup products, the Johnson homomorphism and surface bundles over surfaces with multiple fiberings

Let $\Sigma_g \to E \to \Sigma_h$ be a surface bundle over a surface with monodromy representation $\rho: \pi_1 \Sigma_h \to \operatorname{Mod}(\Sigma_g)$ contained in the Torelli group $\mathcal{I}_g$. In this paper we express the cup product structure in $H^*(E, \mathbb{Z})$ in terms of the Johnson homomorphism $\tau: \mathcal{I}_g \to \wedge^3 (H_1 (\Sigma_g, \mathbb{Z}))$. This is applied to the question of obtaining an upper bound on the maximal $n$ such that $p_1: E \to \Sigma_{h_1}, ..., p_n: E \to \Sigma_{h_n}$ are fibering maps realizing $E$ as the total space of a surface bundle over a surface in $n$ distinct ways. We prove that any nontrivial surface bundle over a surface with monodromy contained in the Johnson kernel $\mathcal{K}_g$ fibers in a unique way.

Tensor network trial states for chiral topological phases in two dimensions and a no-go theorem in any dimension

Trial wavefunctions that can be represented by summing over locally-coupled degrees of freedom are called tensor network states (TNSs); they have seemed difficult to construct for two-dimensional topological phases that possess protected gapless edge excitations. We show it can be done for chiral states of free fermions, using a Gaussian Grassmann integral, yielding $p_x \pm i p_y$ and Chern insulator states, in the sense that the fermionic excitations live in a topologically non-trivial bundle of the required type. We prove that any strictly short-range quadratic parent Hamiltonian for these states is gapless; the proof holds for a class of systems in any dimension of space. The proof also shows, quite generally, that sets of compactly-supported Wannier-type functions do not exist for band structures in this class. We construct further examples of TNSs that are analogs of fractional (including non-Abelian) quantum Hall phases; it is not known whether parent Hamiltonians for these are also gapless.

Simply connected varieties in characteristic

We show that there are no non-trivial stratified bundles over a smooth simply connected quasi-projective variety over an algebraic closure of a finite field if the variety admits a normal projective compactification with boundary locus of codimension greater than or equal to $2$.

Evidence for C-theorems in 6D SCFTs

Using the recently established classification of 6D SCFTs we present evidence for the existence of families of weak C-functions, that is, quantities which decrease in a flow from the UV to the IR. Introducing a background R-symmetry field strength R and a non-trivial tangent bundle T on the 6D spacetime, we consider C-functions given by the linear combinations C = m1 alpha + m2 beta + m3 gamma, where alpha, beta and gamma are the anomaly polynomial coefficients for the formal characteristic classes c2(R)^2, c2(R)p1(T) and p1(T)^2. By performing a detailed sweep over many theories, we determine the shape of the unbounded monotonic region in "m-space" compatible with both Higgs branch flows and tensor branch flows. We also verify that --as expected-- the Euler density conformal anomaly falls in the admissible region.

Yang–Mills theory and jumping curves

We study a smooth analogue of jumping curves of a holomorphic vector bundle, and use Yang–Mills theory over S2 to show that any non-trivial, smooth Hermitian vector bundle E over a smooth simply connected manifold, must have such curves. This is used to give new examples complex manifolds for which a non-trivial holomorphic vector bundle must have jumping curves in the classical sense (when c1(E) is zero). We also use this to give a new proof of a theorem of Gromov on the norm of curvature of unitary connections, and make the theorem slightly sharper. Lastly we define a sequence of new non-trivial integer invariants of smooth manifolds, connected to this theory of smooth jumping curves, and make some computations of these invariants. Our methods include an application of the recently developed Morse–Bott chain complex for the Yang–Mills functional over S2.