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Jim Stasheff

Publications and source records attributed to Jim Stasheff.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2023

From Lie algebra crossed modules to tensor hierarchies

The present paper, though inspired by the use of tensor hierarchies in theoretical physics, establishes their mathematical credentials, especially as genetically related to Lie algebra crossed modules. Gauging procedures in supergravity rely on a pairing - the embedding tensor - between a Leibniz algebra and a Lie algebra. Two such algebras, together with their embedding tensor, form a triple called a Lie-Leibniz triple, of which Lie algebra crossed modules are particular cases. This paper is devoted to showing that any Lie-Leibniz triple induces a differential graded Lie algebra - its associated tensor hierarchy - whose restriction to the category of Lie algebra crossed modules is the canonical assignment associating to any Lie algebra crossed module its corresponding unique 2-term differential graded Lie algebra. This shows that Lie-Leibniz triples form natural generalizations of Lie algebra crossed modules and that their associated tensor hierarchies can be considered as some kind of 'lie-ization' of the former. We deem the present construction of such tensor hierarchies clearer and more straightforward than previous derivations. We stress that such a construction suggests the existence of further well-defined Leibniz gauge theories.

math-ph↗
arXiv2022

Representations up to coherent homotopy

Homotopy coherence has a considerable history, albeit also by other names. We provide a brief semi-historical survey providing some links that may not be common knowledge.

math.AT↗
arXiv2022

Homotopy coherent representations

Homotopy coherence has a considerable history, albeit also by other names. For this volume highlighting symmetries, the appropriate use is: Homotopy coherence of representations, at one time known as strong homotopy representations. We provide a brief semi-historical survey providing some links that may not be common knowledge.

math.AT↗
arXiv2021

Brackets by any other name

Brackets by another name, Whitehead or Samelson products, have a history parallel to that in Kosmann-Schwarzbach's From Schouten to Mackenzie: notes on brackets. Here I sketch the development of these and some of the other brackets and products and braces within homotopy theory and homological algebra and with applications to mathematical physics. In contrast to the brackets of Schouten, Nijenhuis and of Gerstenhaber, which involve a relation to another graded product, in homotopy theory many of the brackets are free standing binary operations. My path takes me through many twists and turns. The path leads beyond binary to multi-linear n-ary operations, either for a single n or for whole coherent congeries of such assembled into what is known now as an $\infty$-algebra, such as in homotopy Gerstenhaber algebras. It also leads to more subtle invariants. Along the way, attention will be called to interaction with `physics'; indeed, it has been a two-way street.

math.QA↗
arXiv2018

$L_\infty$ and $A_\infty$ structures: then and now

Looking back over 55 years of higher homotopy structures, I reminisce as I recall the early days and ponder how they developed and how I now see them. From the history of $A_\infty$-structures and later of $L_\infty$ -structures and their progeny, I hope to highlight some old results which seem not to have garnered the attention they deserve as well as some tantalizing new connections.

math.QA↗
arXiv2014

Even symplectic supermanifolds and double field theory

Over many decades, the word "double" has appeared in various contexts, at times seemingly unrelated. Several have some relation to mathematical physics. Recently, this has become particularly strking in DFT (double field theory). Two 'doubles' that are particularly relevant are double vector bundles and Drinfel'd doubles. The original Drinfel'd double occurred in the contexts of quantum groups and of Lie bialgebras. Quoting T. Voronov: "Double Lie algebroids arose in the works on double Lie groupoids and in connection with an analog for Lie bialgebroids of the classical Drinfel'd double of Lie bialgebras...Suppose $(A,A^*)$ is a Lie bialgebroid over a base $M$... Mackenzie and Roytenberg suggested two different constructions based on the cotangent bundles $T^*A$ and $T^*ΠA$, respectively. Here $Π$ is the fibre-wise parity reversal functor." Although the approaches of Roytenberg and of Mackenzie look very different, Voronov establishes their equivalence. We have found Roytenberg's version to be quite congenial with our attempt to interpret the gauge algebra of DFT in terms of Poisson brackets on a suitable generalized Drinfel'd double. This double of a Lie bialgebroid $(A,A^*)$ provides a framework to describe the differentials of $A$ and $A^*$ on an equal footing as Hamiltonian functions on an even symplectic supermanifold. A special choice of momenta explicates the double coordinates of DFT and shows their relation to the strong constraint determining the physical fields of double field theory.

math-ph↗
arXiv2013

$A_\infty$-actions and Recognition of Relative Loop Spaces

We show that relative loop spaces are recognized by $A_\infty$-actions. A certain version of the 2-sided bar construction is used to prove such recognition theorem. The operad ${\sf Act}_\infty$ of $A_\infty$-actions is presented in terms of the Boardman-Vogt resolution of the operad ${\sf Act}$. We exhibit an operad homotopy equivalence between such resolution and the $1$-dimensional Swiss-cheese operad $\mathcal{SC}_1$.

math.AT↗
arXiv2012

Deformation theory and rational homotopy type

We regard the classification of rational homotopy types as a problem in algebraic deformation theory: any space with given cohomology is a perturbation, or deformation, of the "formal" space with that cohomology. The classifying space is then a "moduli" space --- a certain quotient of an algebraic variety of perturbations. The description we give of this moduli space links it with corresponding structures in homotopy theory, especially the classification of fibres spaces with fixed fibre F in terms of homotopy classes of maps of the base B into a classifying space constructed from the monoid of homotopy equivalences of F to itself. We adopt the philosophy, later promoted by Deligne in response to Goldman and Millson, that any problem in deformation theory is "controlled" by a differential graded Lie algebra, unique up to homology equivalence (quasi-isomorphism) of dg Lie algebras. Here we extend this philosophy further to control by sh-Lie-algebras.

math.QA↗
arXiv2012

Twisted differential String and Fivebrane structures

In the background effective field theory of heterotic string theory, the Green-Schwarz anomaly cancellation mechanism plays a key role. Here we reinterpret it and its magnetic dual version in terms of differential twisted String- and differential twisted Fivebrane-structures that generalize the notion of Spin-structures and Spin-lifting gerbes and their differential refinement to smooth Spin-connections. We show that all these structures can be encoded in terms of nonabelian cohomology, twisted nonabelian cohomology, and differential twisted nonabelian cohomology, extending the differential generalized abelian cohomology as developed by Hopkins and Singer and shown by Freed to formalize the global description of anomaly cancellation problems in higher gauge theories arising in string theory. We demonstrate that the Green-Schwarz mechanism for the H_3-field, as well as its magnetic dual version for the H_7-field define cocycles in differential twisted nonabelian cohomology that may be called, respectively, differential twisted Spin(n)-, String(n)- and Fivebrane(n)-structures on target space, where the twist in each case is provided by the obstruction to lifting the classifying map of the gauge bundle through a higher connected cover of U(n) or O(n). We show that the twisted Bianchi identities in string theory can be captured by the (nonabelian) L-infinity-algebra valued differential form data provided by the differential refinements of these twisted cocycles.

math.AT↗
arXiv2011

"Parallel" transport - revisited

Parallel transport in a fibre bundle with respect to smooth paths in the base space B have recently been extended to representations of the smooth singular simplicial set Sing_{smooth}(B). Inspired by these extensions,I revisit the development of a notion of `parallel' transport in the topological setting of fibrations with the homotopy lifting property and then extend it to representations of Sing(B) on such fibrations. Closely related is the notion of (strong or `infty') homotopy action, which has variants under a variety of names.

math.AT↗
arXiv2011

Cech cocycles for differential characteristic classes -- An infinity-Lie theoretic construction

What are called secondary characteristic classes in Chern-Weil theory are a refinement of ordinary characteristic classes of principal bundles from cohomology to differential cohomology. We consider the problem of refining the construction of secondary characteristic classes from cohomology sets to cocycle spaces; and from Lie groups to higher connected covers of Lie groups by smooth infinity-groups, i.e., by smooth groupal A-infinity-spaces. Namely, we realize differential characteristic classes as morphisms from infinity-groupoids of smooth principal infinity-bundles with connections to infinity-groupoids of higher U(1)-gerbes with connections. This allows us to study the homotopy fibers of the differential characteristic maps thus obtained and to show how these describe differential obstruction problems. This applies in particular to the higher twisted differential spin structures called twisted differential string structures and twisted differential fivebrane structures.

math.AT↗
arXiv2009

Fivebrane Structures

We study the cohomological physics of fivebranes in type II and heterotic string theory. We give an interpretation of the one-loop term in type IIA, which involves the first and second Pontrjagin classes of spacetime, in terms of obstructions to having bundles with certain structure groups. Using a generalization of the Green-Schwarz anomaly cancelation in heterotic string theory which demands the target space to have a String structure, we observe that the "magnetic dual" version of the anomaly cancelation condition can be read as a higher analog of String structure, which we call Fivebrane structure. This involves lifts of orthogonal and unitary structures through higher connected covers which are not just 3- but even 7-connected. We discuss the topological obstructions to the existence of Fivebrane structures. The dual version of the anomaly cancelation points to a relation of String and Fivebrane structures under electric-magnetic duality.

math.AT↗
arXiv2009

Homotopy algebra of open-closed strings

This paper is a survey of our previous works on open-closed homotopy algebras, together with geometrical background, especially in terms of compactifications of configuration spaces (one of Fred's specialities) of Riemann surfaces, structures on loop spaces, etc. We newly present Merkulov's geometric A_infty-structure [Internat. Math. Res. Notices (1999) 153--164, arxiv:math/0001007] as a special example of an OCHA. We also recall the relation of open-closed homotopy algebras to various aspects of deformation theory.

hep-th↗
arXiv2009

A twisted tale of cochains and connections

Early in the history of higher homotopy algebra, it was realized that Massey products are homotopy invariants in a special sense, but it was the work of Tornike Kadeisvili that showed they were but a shadow of an A-infinity-structure on the homology of a differential graded algebra. Here we relate his work to that of Victor Gugenheim and K.T. (Chester) Chen. This paper is a personal tribute to Tornike and the Georgian school of homotopy theory as well as to Gugenheim and Chen, who unfortunately are not with us to appreciate this convergence.

math.AT↗
arXiv2008

L-infinity algebra connections and applications to String- and Chern-Simons n-transport

We give a generalization of the notion of a Cartan-Ehresmann connection from Lie algebras to L-infinity algebras and use it to study the obstruction theory of lifts through higher String-like extensions of Lie algebras. We find (generalized) Chern-Simons and BF-theory functionals this way and describe aspects of their parallel transport and quantization. It is known that over a D-brane the Kalb-Ramond background field of the string restricts to a 2-bundle with connection (a gerbe) which can be seen as the obstruction to lifting the PU(H)-bundle on the D-brane to a U(H)-bundle. We discuss how this phenomenon generalizes from the ordinary central extension U(1) -> U(H) -> PU(H) to higher categorical central extensions, like the String-extension BU(1) -> String(G) -> G. Here the obstruction to the lift is a 3-bundle with connection (a 2-gerbe): the Chern-Simons 3-bundle classified by the first Pontrjagin class. For G = Spin(n) this obstructs the existence of a String-structure. We discuss how to describe this obstruction problem in terms of Lie n-algebras and their corresponding categorified Cartan-Ehresmann connections. Generalizations even beyond String-extensions are then straightforward. For G = Spin(n) the next step is "Fivebrane structures" whose existence is obstructed by certain generalized Chern-Simons 7-bundles classified by the second Pontrjagin class.

math.DG↗
arXiv2006

Homotopy Transition Cocycles

For locally homotopy trivial fibrations, one can define transition functions $$ g\dab : U\da\cap U\db \to H = H(F)$$ where $H$ is the monoid of homotopy equivalences of $F$ to itself but, instead of the cocycle condition, one obtains only that $g\dab g\dbgam$ is homotopic to $g\dagam$ as a map of $U\da\cap U\db\cap U\dgam$ into $H$. Moreover on multiple intersections, higher homotopies arise and are relevant to classifying the fibration. The full theory was worked out by the first author in his 1965 Notre Dame thesis \cite{wirth:diss}. Here we present it using language that has been developed in the interim. We also show how this points a direction `on beyond gerbes'.

math.AT↗
arXiv2006

Homotopy algebras inspired by classical open-closed string field theory

We define a homotopy algebra associated to classical open-closed strings. We call it an open-closed homotopy algebra (OCHA). It is inspired by Zwiebach's open-closed string field theory and also is related to the situation of Kontsevich's deformation quantization. We show that it is actually a homotopy invariant notion; for instance, the minimal model theorem holds. Also, we show that our open-closed homotopy algebra gives us a general scheme for deformation of open string structures (A(infinity)-algebras) by closed strings (L(infinity)-algebras).

math.QA↗