arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Camilo Arias Abad.
These lectures notes contain an introduction to General Relativity. They are addressed to a general mathematical audience with no specific background in physics. The goal is to motivate and explain Einstein's theory of gravity and discuss some of the fundamental examples.
Let $G$ be a compact connected Lie group. We show that the category $\mathbf{Loc}_{\infty}(BG)$ of $\infty$-local systems on the classifying space of $G$, can be described infinitesimally as the category $\mathbf{InfLoc}_{\infty}(\mathfrak{g})$ of basic $\mathfrak{g}$-$L_\infty$ spaces. Moreover, we show that, given a principal bundle $π\colon P \rightarrow X$ with structure group $G$ and any connection $θ$ on $P$, there is a DG functor $$\mathcal{CW}_θ \colon \mathbf{InfLoc}_{\infty}(\mathfrak{g}) \longrightarrow \mathbf{Loc}_{\infty}(X), $$ which corresponds to the pullback functor by the classifying map of $P$. The DG functors associated to different connections are related by an $A_\infty$-natural isomorphism. This construction provides a categorification of the Chern-Weil homomorphism, which is recovered by applying the functor $\mathcal{CW}_θ$ to the endomorphisms of the constant local system.
Let $G$ be a simply connected Lie group with Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$. We show that the following categories are naturally equivalent. The category $\mathsf{Mod}(C(G))$, of sufficiently smooth modules over the DG-algebra of singular chains on $G$. The category $\mathsf{Rep}(Tg)$ of representations of the DG-Lie algebra $T\mathfrak{g}$, which is universal for the Cartan relations. This equivalence extends the correspondence between representations of $G$ and representations of $\mathfrak{g}$. In a companion paper we show that in the compact case, the equivalence can be extended to an $\mathsf{A}_\infty$ equivalence of DG-categories.
Let $G$ be a simply connected Lie group with Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ and denote by $\mathrm{C}_{\bullet}(G)$ the DG Hopf algebra of smooth singular chains on $G$. In a companion paper it was shown that the category of sufficiently smooth modules over $\mathrm{C}_{\bullet}(G)$ is equivalent to the category of representations of $\mathbb{T} \mathfrak{g}$, the DG Lie algebra which is universal for the Cartan relations. In this paper we show that, if $G$ is compact, this equivalence of categories can be extended to an $\mathsf{A}_{\infty}$-quasi-equivalence of the corresponding DG categories. As an intermediate step we construct an $\mathsf{A}_{\infty}$-quasi-isomorphism between the Bott-Shulman-Stasheff DG algebra associated to $G$ and the DG algebra of Hochschild cochains on $\mathrm{C}_{\bullet}(G)$. The main ingredients in the proof are the Van Est map and Gugenheim's $\mathsf{A}_{\infty}$ version of De Rham's theorem.
In this note we show that the holonomies for higher local systems provided by the higher Riemann-Hilbert correspondence coincide with those associated to principal $2$-bundles where both formalisms meet.
We prove a categorified version of the Poincaré lemma. The natural setting for our result is that of $\infty$-local systems. More precisely, we show that any smooth homotopy between maps $f$ and $g$ induces an $\mathsf{A}_\infty$-natural transformation between the corresponding pullback functors. This transformation is explicitly defined in terms of Chen's iterated integrals. In particular, we show that a homotopy equivalence induces a quasi-equivalence on the DG categories of $\infty$-local system.
These are lecture notes prepared for the summer school "Geometric, algebraic and topological methods in quantum field theory", held in Villa de Leyva in July 2017. Our goal is to provide an introduction to a conjecture of Chern that states that the Euler characteristic of a closed affine manifold vanishes. We present part of the history and motivation for the conjecture as well as some recent developments. All comments and corrections are most welcome!
The pull back of a flat bundle $E\rightarrow X$ along the evaluation map $π: \mathcal{L} X \to X$ from the free loop space $\mathcal{L} X$ to $X$ comes equipped with a canonical automorphism given by the holonomies of $E$. This construction naturally generalizes to flat $\mathbb{Z}$-graded connections on $X$. Our main result is that the restriction of this holonomy automorphism to the based loop space $Ω_* X$ of $X$ provides an $A_\infty$ quasi-equivalence between the dg category of flat $\mathbb{Z}$-graded connections on $X$ and the dg category of representations of $C_\bullet(Ω_* X)$, the dg algebra of singular chains on $Ω_* X$.
Let $G$ be a connected and non-necessarily compact Lie group acting on a connected manifold $M$. In this short note we announce the following result: for a $G$-invariant closed differential form on $M$, the existence of a closed equivariant extension in the Cartan model for equivariant cohomology is equivalent to the existence of an extension in the homotopy quotient.
Given a flat connection on a manifold with values in a filtered L-infinity-algebra, we construct a morphism of coalgebras that generalizes the holonomies of flat connections with values in Lie algebras. The construction is based on Gugenheim's A-infinity version of de Rham's theorem, which in turn is based on Chen's iterated integrals. Finally, we discuss examples related to the geometry of configuration spaces of points in Euclidean space, and to generalizations of the holonomy representations of braid groups.
These are lecture notes prepared for a minicourse given at the Cimpa Research School "Algebraic and geometric aspects of representation theory", held in Curitiba, Brazil in March 2013. The purpose of the course is to provide an introduction to the study of representations of braid groups. Three general classes of representations of braid groups are considered: homological representations via mapping class groups, monodromy representations via the Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov connection, and solutions of the Yang-Baxter equation via braided bialgebras. Some of the remarkable relations between these three different constructions are described.
We compare two different constructions of higher dimensional parallel transport. On the one hand, there is the two dimensional parallel transport associated to 2-connections on 2-bundles studied by Baez-Schreiber, Faria Martins-Picken and Schreiber-Waldorf. On the other hand, there are the higher holonomies associated to flat superconnections as studied by Igusa, Block-Smith and Arias Abad-Schaetz. We first explain how by truncating the latter construction one obtains examples of the former. Then we prove that the 2-dimensional holonomies provided by the two approaches coincide.
We use higher parallel transport -- more precisely, the integration A_{infty}-functor constructed by Block-Smith and Arias Abad-Schaetz -- to define Reidemeister torsion for flat superconnections. We hope that the combinatorial Reidemeister torsion coincides with the analytic torsion defined by Mathai and Wu, thus permitting for a generalization of the Cheeger-Mueller Theorem.
We introduce and study the notion of representation up to homotopy of a Lie algebroid, paying special attention to examples. We use representations up to homotopy to define the adjoint representation of a Lie algebroid and show that the resulting cohomology controls the deformations of the structure. The Weil algebra of a Lie algebroid is defined and shown to coincide with Kalkman's BRST model for equivariant cohomology in the case of group actions.
This paper belongs to a series devoted to the study of the cohomology of classifying spaces. Generalizing the Weil algebra of a Lie algebra and Kalkman's BRST model, here we introduce the Weil algebra $W(A)$ associated to any Lie algebroid $A$. We then show that this Weil algebra is related to the Bott-Shulman-Stasheff complex (computing the cohomology of the classifying space) via a Van Est map and we prove a Van Est isomorphism theorem. As application, we generalize and find a simpler more conceptual proof of the main result of Bursztyn et.al. on the reconstructions of multiplicative forms and of a result of Weinstein-Xu and Crainic on the reconstruction of connection 1-forms. This reveals the relevance of the Weil algebra and Van Est maps to the integration and the pre-quantization of Poisson (and Dirac) manifolds.
We use Chen's iterated integrals to integrate representations up to homotopy. That is, we construct an A_infty functor from the representations up to homotopy of a Lie algebroid to those of its infinity groupoid. This construction extends the usual integration of representations in Lie theory. We discuss several examples including Lie algebras and Poisson manifolds. The construction is based on an A_infty version of de Rham's theorem due to Gugenheim. The integration procedure we explain here amounts to extending the construction of parallel transport for superconnections, introduced by Igusa and Block-Smith, to the case of certain differential graded manifolds.
We study the construction of tensor products of representations up to homotopy, which are the A-infinity version of ordinary representations. We provide formulas for the construction of tensor products of representations up to homotopy and of morphisms between them, and show that these formulas give the homotopy category a monoidal structure which is uniquely defined up to equivalence.
We show that representations up to homotopy can be differentiated in a functorial way. A van Est type isomorphism theorem is established and used to prove a conjecture of Crainic and Moerdijk on deformations of Lie brackets.