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Andre Henriques

Publications and source records attributed to Andre Henriques.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2019

Loop groups and diffeomorphism groups of the circle as colimits

We show that loop groups and the universal cover of $\mathrm{Diff}_+(S^1)$ can be expressed as colimits of groups of loops/diffeomorphisms supported in subintervals of $S^1$. Analogous results hold for based loop groups and for the based diffeomorphism group of $S^1$. These results continue to hold for the corresponding centrally extended groups. We use the above results to construct a comparison functor from the representations of a loop group conformal net to the representations of the corresponding affine Lie algebra. We also establish an equivalence of categories between solitonic representations of the loop group conformal net, and locally normal representations of the based loop group.

math-ph↗
arXiv2017

What Chern-Simons theory assigns to a point

In this note, we answer the questions "What does Chern-Simons theory assign to a point?" and "What kind of mathematical object does Chern-Simons theory assign to a point?". Our answer to the first question is representations of the based loop group. More precisely, we identify a certain class of projective unitary representations of the based loop group $ΩG$ that we locally normal representations. We define the fusion product of such representations and we prove that, modulo certain conjectures, the Drinfel'd centre of that representation category of $ΩG$ is equivalent to the category of positive energy representations of the free loop group $LG$. The above mentioned conjectures are known to hold when the gauge group is abelian or of type $A_1$. Our answer to the second question is bicommutant categories. The latter are higher categorical analogs of von Neumann algebras: they are tensor categories that are equivalent to their bicommutant inside $\mathrm{Bim}(R)$, the category of bimodules over a hyperfinite $\mathit{III}_1$ factor. We prove that, modulo certain conjectures, the category of locally normal representations of the based loop group is a bicommutant category. The relevant conjectures are known to hold when the gauge group is abelian or of type $A_n$. Our work builds on the formalism of coordinate free conformal nets, developed jointly with A. Bartels and C. Douglas.

math-ph↗
arXiv2017

Bicommutant categories from conformal nets

We prove that the category of solitons of a finite index conformal net is a bicommutant category, and that its Drinfel'd center is the category of representations of the conformal net. In the special case of a chiral WZW conformal net with finite index, the second result specializes to the statement that the Drinfel'd center of the category of representations of the based loop group is equivalent to the category of representations of the free loop group. These results were announced in [arXiv:1503.06254].

math.OA↗
arXiv2016

Conformal nets are factorization algebras

We prove that conformal nets of finite index are an instance of the notion of a factorization algebra. This result is an ingredient in our proof that, for $G=SU(n)$, the Drinfel'd center of the category of positive energy representations of the based loop group is equivalent to the category of positive energy representations of the free loop group.

math-ph↗
arXiv2016

The classification of chiral WZW models by $H^4_+(BG,\mathbb Z)$

We axiomatize the defining properties of chiral WZW models. We show that such models are in almost bijective correspondence with pairs $(G,k)$, where $G$ is a connected Lie group and $k \in H^4_+(BG,\mathbb Z)$ is a degree four cohomology class subject to a certain positivity condition. We find a couple extra models which satisfy all the defining properties of chiral WZW models, but which don't come from pairs $(G,k)$ as above. The simplest such model is the simple current extension of the affine VOA $E_8 \times E_8$ at level $(2,2)$ by the group $\mathbb Z_2$.

math-ph↗
arXiv2013

Three-tier CFTs from Frobenius algebras

These are lecture notes of a course given at the Summer School on Topology and Field Theories held at the Centre for Mathematics of the University of Notre Dame, Indiana, from May 29 to June 2, 2012. The idea of extending quantum field theories to manifolds of lower dimension was first proposed by Dan Freed in the nineties. In the case of conformal field theory (CFT), we are talking of an extension of the Atiyah-Segal axioms, where one replaces the bordism category of Riemann surfaces by a suitable bordism bicategory, whose ob jects are points, whose morphisms are 1-manifolds, and whose 2-morphisms are pieces of Riemann surface. There is a beautiful classification of full (rational) CFTs due to Fuchs, Runkel and Schweigert, which roughly says the following. Fix a chiral algebra A (= vertex algebra). Then the set of full cfts whose left and right chiral algebras agree with A is classified by Frobenius algebras internal to Rep(A). A famous example to which one can successfully apply this is the case where the chiral algebra A is affine su(2) at level k, for some k in N. In that case, the Frobenius algebras in Rep (A) are classified by A_n, D_n, E_6, E_7, E_8, and so are the corresponding CFTs. Recently, Kapustin and Saulina gave a conceptual interpretation of the FRS classification in terms of 3-dimensional Chern-Simons theory with defects. Those defects are also given by Frobenius algebra ob ject in Rep(A). Inspired by the proposal of Kapustin and Saulina, we will (partially) construct the three-tier CFT associated to a Frobenius algebra object.

math-ph↗
arXiv2009

The Multidimensional Cube Recurrence

We introduce a recurrence which we term the multidimensional cube recurrence, generalizing the octahedron recurrence studied by Propp, Fomin and Zelevinsky, Speyer, and Fock and Goncharov and the three-dimensional cube recurrence studied by Fomin and Zelevinsky, and Carroll and Speyer. The states of this recurrence are indexed by tilings of a polygon with rhombi, and the variables in the recurrence are indexed by vertices of these tilings. We travel from one state of the recurrence to another by performing elementary flips. We show that the values of the recurrence are independent of the order in which we perform the flips; this proof involves nontrivial combinatorial results about rhombus tilings which may be of independent interest. We then show that the multidimensional cube recurrence exhibits the Laurent phenomenon -- any variable is given by a Laurent polynomial in the other variables. We recognize a special case of the multidimensional cube recurrence as giving explicit equations for the isotropic Grassmannians IG(n-1,2n). Finally, we describe a tropical version of the multidimensional cube recurrence and show that, like the tropical octahedron recurrence, it propagates certain linear inequalities.

math.CO↗
arXiv2007

An action of the cactus group

We construct an action of the big cactus group (the fundamental group of the Deligne-Mumford compactification of the moduli space of real curves of genus zero with n undistinguished marked points) on Fock-Goncharov's SL_m analog of the decorated Teichmuller space of ideal n-gons.

math.AG↗
arXiv2007

The cohomology ring of the real locus of the moduli space of stable curves of genus 0 with marked points

We compute the Poincare polynomial and the cohomology algebra with rational coefficeints of the manifold M_n of real points of the moduli space of algebraic curves of genus 0 with n labeled points. This cohomology is a quadratic algebra, and we conjecture that it is Koszul. We also compute the 2-local torsion in the cohomology of M_n. As was shown by E. Rains in arXiv:math/0610743 the cohomology of M_n does not have odd torsion, so that the above determines the additive structure of the integral homology and cohomology. Further, we prove that the rational homology operad of M_n is the operad of 2-Gerstenhaber algebras, which is closely related to the Hanlon-Wachs operad of 2-Lie algebras (generated by a ternary bracket). Finally, using Drinfeld's theory of quantization of coboundary Lie quasibialgebras, we show that a large series of representations of the quadratic dual Lie algebra L_n of H^*(M_n,Q) (associated to such quasibialgebras) factors through the the natural projection of L_n to the associated graded Lie algebra of the prounipotent completion of the fundamental group of M_n. This leads us to conjecture that the said projection is an isomorphism, which would imply a formula for lower central series ranks of the fundamental group. On the other hand, we show that the spaces M_n are not formal starting from n=6.

math.AT↗
arXiv2007

Integrating L-infinity algebras

Given an n-term L-infinity algebra L, we construct a Kan simplicial manifold which we think of as the 'Lie n-group' integrating L. This extends work of Getzler math.AT/0404003 . In the case of an ordinary Lie algebra, our construction gives the simplicial classifying space of the corresponding simply connect Lie group. In the case of the string Lie 2-algebra of Baez and Crans, this recovers the model of the string group introduced in math.QA/0504123 .

math.AT↗
arXiv2007

Homotopy Theory of Orbispaces

Given a topological group G, its orbit category Orb_G has the transitive G-spaces G/H as objects and the G-equivariant maps between them as morphisms. A well known theorem of Elmendorf then states that the category of G-spaces and the category of contravariant functors Func(Orb_G,Spaces) have equivalent homotopy theories. We extend this result to the context of orbispaces, with the role of Orb_G now played by a category whose objects are topological groups and whose morphisms are given by Hom(H,G) = Mono(H,G) x_G EG. On our way, we endow the category of topological groupoids with notions of weak equivalence, fibrant objects, and cofibrant objects, and show that it then shares many of the properties of a Quillen model category.

math.AT↗
arXiv2006

A Periodicity Theorem for the Octahedron Recurrence

We investigate a variant of the octahedron recurrence which lives in a 3-dimensional lattice contained in [0,n] x [0,m] x R. Generalizing results of David Speyer math.CO/0402452, we give an explicit non-recursive formula for the values of this recurrence in terms of perfect matchings. We then use it to prove that the octahedron recurrence is periodic of period n+m. This result is reminiscent of Fomin and Zelevinsky's theorem about the periodicity of Y-systems.

math.CO↗
arXiv2006

Elliptic gamma functions, triptic curves and SL_3(Z)

This is a condensed exposition of the results of math.QA/0601337, based on a talk of the first author at the Oberwolfach workshop "Deformations and Contractions in Mathematics and Physics", 15-21 January 2006.

math.CV↗
arXiv2006

A gerbe for the elliptic gamma function

The identities for elliptic gamma functions discovered by A. Varchenko and one of us are generalized to an infinite set of identities for elliptic gamma functions associated to pairs of planes in 3-dimensional space. The language of stacks and gerbes gives a natural framework for a systematic description of these identities and their domain of validity. A triptic curve is the quotient of the complex plane by a subgroup of rank three (it is a stack). Our identities can be summarized by saying that elliptic gamma functions form a meromorphic section of a hermitian holomorphic abelian gerbe over the universal oriented triptic curve.

math.QA↗
arXiv2005

Crystals and coboundary categories

Following an idea of A. Berenstein, we define a commutor for the category of crystals of a finite dimensional complex reductive Lie algebra. We show that this endows the category of crystals with the structure of a coboundary category. Similar to the case of braided categories, there is a group naturally acting on multiple tensor products in coboundary categories. We call this group the cactus group and identify it as the fundamental group of the moduli space of marked real genus zero stable curves.

math.QA↗
arXiv2005

The octahedron recurrence and gl(n) crystals

We study the hive model of gl(n) tensor products, following Knutson, Tao, and Woodward. We define a coboundary category where the tensor product is given by hives and where the associator and commutor are defined using a modified octahedron recurrence. We then prove that this category is equivalent to the category of crystals for the Lie algebra gl(n). The proof of this equivalence uses a new connection between the octahedron recurrence and the Jeu de Taquin and Schutzenberger involution procedures on Young tableaux.

math.CO↗
arXiv2004

Computation of generalized equivariant cohomologies of Kac-Moody flag varieties

In 1998, Goresky, Kottwitz, and MacPherson showed that for certain projective varieties X equipped with an algebraic action of a complex torus T, the equivariant cohomology ring H_T(X) can be described by combinatorial data obtained from its orbit decomposition. In this paper, we generalize their theorem in three different ways. First, our group G need not be a torus. Second, our space X is an equivariant stratified space, along with some additional hypotheses on the attaching maps. Third, and most important, we allow for generalized equivariant cohomology theories E_G^* instead of H_T^*. For these spaces, we give a combinatorial description of E_G(X) as a subring of \prod E_G(F_i), where the F_i are certain invariant subspaces of X. Our main examples are the flag varieties G/P of Kac-Moody groups G, with the action of the torus of G. In this context, the F_i are the T-fixed points and E_G^* is a T-equivariant complex oriented cohomology theory, such as H_T^*, K_T^* or MU_T^*. We detail several explicit examples.

math.AT↗