arXiv subjects

Jurgen Fuchs

Publications and source records attributed to Jurgen Fuchs.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2016

A trace for bimodule categories

We study a 2-functor that assigns to a bimodule category over a finite k-linear tensor category a k-linear abelian category. This 2-functor can be regarded as a category-valued trace for 1-morphisms in the tricategory of finite tensor categories. It is defined by a universal property that is a categorification of Hochschild homology of bimodules over an algebra. We present several equivalent realizations of this 2-functor and show that it has a coherent cyclic invariance. Our results have applications to categories associated to circles in three-dimensional topological field theories with defects. This is made explicit for the subclass of Dijkgraaf-Witten topological field theories.

math.CT↗

arXiv2015

Symmetries and defects in three-dimensional topological field theory

Boundary conditions and defects of any codimension are natural parts of any quantum field theory. Surface defects in three-dimensional topological field theories of Turaev-Reshetikhin type have applications to two-dimensional conformal field theories, in solid state physics and in quantum computing. We explain an obstruction to the existence of surface defects that takes values in a Witt group. We then turn to surface defects in Dijkgraaf-Witten theories and their construction in terms of relative bundles; this allows one to exhibit Brauer-Picard groups as symmetry groups of three-dimensional topological field theories.

hep-th↗

arXiv2014

A geometric approach to boundaries and surface defects in Dijkgraaf-Witten theories

Dijkgraaf-Witten theories are extended three-dimensional topological field theories of Turaev-Viro type. They can be constructed geometrically from categories of bundles via linearization. Boundaries and surface defects or interfaces in quantum field theories are of interest in various applications and provide structural insight. We perform a geometric study of boundary conditions and surface defects in Dijkgraaf-Witten theories. A crucial tool is the linearization of categories of relative bundles. We present the categories of generalized Wilson lines produced by such a linearization procedure. We establish that they agree with the Wilson line categories that are predicted by the general formalism for boundary conditions and surface defects in three-dimensional topological field theories that has been developed in arXive:1203.4568.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

From non-semisimple Hopf algebras to correlation functions for logarithmic CFT

We use factorizable finite tensor categories, and specifically the representation categories of factorizable ribbon Hopf algebras H, as a laboratory for exploring bulk correlation functions in local logarithmic conformal field theories. For any ribbon Hopf algebra automorphism omega of H we present a candidate for the space of bulk fields and endow it with a natural structure of a commutative symmetric Frobenius algebra. We derive an expression for the corresponding bulk partition functions as bilinear combinations of irreducible characters; as a crucial ingredient this involves the Cartan matrix of the category. We also show how for any candidate bulk state space of the type we consider, correlation functions of bulk fields for closed oriented world sheets of any genus can be constructed that are invariant under the natural action of the relevant mapping class group.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Bicategories for boundary conditions and for surface defects in 3-d TFT

We analyze topological boundary conditions and topological surface defects in three-dimensional topological field theories of Reshetikhin-Turaev type based on arbitrary modular tensor categories. Boundary conditions are described by central functors that lift to trivializations in the Witt group of modular tensor categories. The bicategory of boundary conditions can be described through the bicategory of module categories over any such trivialization. A similar description is obtained for topological surface defects. Using string diagrams for bicategories we also establish a precise relation between special symmetric Frobenius algebras and Wilson lines involving special defects. We compare our results with previous work of Kapustin-Saulina and of Kitaev-Kong on boundary conditions and surface defects in abelian Chern-Simons theories and in Turaev-Viro type TFTs, respectively.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

Partition functions, mapping class groups and Drinfeld doubles

Higher genus partition functions of two-dimensional conformal field theories have to be invariants under linear actions of mapping class groups. We illustrate recent results [4,6] on the construction of such invariants by concrete expressions obtained for the case of Drinfeld doubles of finite groups. The results for doubles are independent of the characteristic of the underlying field, and the general results do not require any assumptions of semisimplicity.

hep-th↗

arXiv2013

RCFT with defects: Factorization and fundamental world sheets

It is known that for any full rational conformal field theory, the correlation functions that are obtained by the TFT construction satisfy all locality, modular invariance and factorization conditions, and that there is a small set of fundamental correlators to which all others are related via factorization - provided that the world sheets considered do not contain any non-trivial defect lines. In this paper we generalize both results to oriented world sheets with an arbitrary network of topological defect lines.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Higher genus mapping class group invariants from factorizable Hopf algebras

Lyubashenko's construction associates representations of mapping class groups Map_{g,n} of Riemann surfaces of any genus g with any number n of holes to a factorizable ribbon category. We consider this construction as applied to the category of bimodules over a finite-dimensional factorizable ribbon Hopf algebra H. For any such Hopf algebra we find an invariant of Map_{g,n} for all values of g and n. More generally, we obtain such invariants for any pair (H,omega), where omega is a ribbon automorphism of H. Our results are motivated by the quest to understand correlation functions of bulk fields in two-dimensional conformal field theories with chiral algebras that are not necessarily semisimple, so-called logarithmic conformal field theories.

math.QA↗

arXiv2012

The Cardy-Cartan modular invariant

Using factorizable Hopf algebras, we construct modular invariant partition functions of charge conjugation, or Cardy, type as characters of coends in categories that share essential features with the ones appearing in logarithmic CFT. The coefficients of such a partition function are given by the Cartan matrix of the theory.

hep-th↗

arXiv2012

Modular invariant Frobenius algebras from ribbon Hopf algebra automorphisms

For any finite-dimensional factorizable ribbon Hopf algebra H and any ribbon automorphism omega of H, we establish the existence of the following structure: an H-bimodule F_omega and a bimodule morphism Z_omega from Lyubashenko's Hopf algebra object K for the bimodule category to F_omega. This morphism is invariant under the natural action of the mapping class group of the one-punctured torus on the space of bimodule morphisms from K to F_omega. We further show that the bimodule F_omega can be endowed with a natural structure of a commutative symmetric Frobenius algebra in the monoidal category of H-bimodules, and that it is a special Frobenius algebra iff H is semisimple. The bimodules K and F_omega can both be characterized as coends of suitable bifunctors. The morphism Z_omega is obtained by applying a monodromy operation to the coproduct of F_omega; a similar construction for the product of F_omega exists as well. Our results are motivated by the quest to understand the bulk state space and the bulk partition function in two-dimensional conformal field theories with chiral algebras that are not necessarily semisimple.

math.QA↗

arXiv2011

Hopf algebras and finite tensor categories in conformal field theory

In conformal field theory the understanding of correlation functions can be divided into two distinct conceptual levels: The analytic properties of the correlators endow the representation categories of the underlying chiral symmetry algebras with additional structure, which in suitable cases is the one of a finite tensor category. The problem of specifying the correlators can then be encoded in algebraic structure internal to those categories. After reviewing results for conformal field theories for which these representation categories are semisimple, we explain what is known about representation categories of chiral symmetry algebras that are not semisimple. We focus on generalizations of the Verlinde formula, for which certain finite-dimensional complex Hopf algebras are used as a tool, and on the structural importance of the presence of a Hopf algebra internal to finite tensor categories.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

The classifying algebra for defects

We demonstrate that topological defects in a rational conformal field theory can be described by a classifying algebra for defects - a finite-dimensional semisimple unital commutative associative algebra whose irreducible representations give the defect transmission coefficients. We show in particular that the structure constants of the classifying algebra are traces of operators on spaces of conformal blocks and that the defect transmission coefficients determine the defect partition functions.

hep-th↗

arXiv2010

Module categories for permutation modular invariants

We show that a braided monoidal category C can be endowed with the structure of a right (and left) module category over C \times C. In fact, there is a family of such module category structures, and they are mutually isomorphic if and only if C allows for a twist. For the case that C is premodular we compute the internal End of the tensor unit of C, and we show that it is an Azumaya algebra if C is modular. As an application to two-dimensional rational conformal field theory, we show that the module categories describe the permutation modular invariant for models based on the product of two identical chiral algebras. It follows in particular that all permutation modular invariants are physical.

math.CT↗

arXiv2009

The three-dimensional origin of the classifying algebra

It is known that reflection coefficients for bulk fields of a rational conformal field theory in the presence of an elementary boundary condition can be obtained as representation matrices of irreducible representations of the classifying algebra, a semisimple commutative associative complex algebra. We show how this algebra arises naturally from the three-dimensional geometry of factorization of correlators of bulk fields on the disk. This allows us to derive explicit expressions for the structure constants of the classifying algebra as invariants of ribbon graphs in the three-manifold S^2 x S^1. Our result unravels a precise relation between intertwiners of the action of the mapping class group on spaces of conformal blocks and boundary conditions in rational conformal field theories.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

On Frobenius algebras in rigid monoidal categories

We show that the equivalence between several possible characterizations of Frobenius algebras, and of symmetric Frobenius algebras, carries over from the category of vector spaces to more general monoidal categories. For Frobenius algebras, the appropriate setting is the one of rigid monoidal categories, and for symmetric Frobenius algebras it is the one of sovereign monoidal categories. We also discuss some properties of Nakayama automorphisms.

math.CT↗

arXiv2008

Uniqueness of open/closed rational CFT with given algebra of open states

We study the sewing constraints for rational two-dimensional conformal field theory on oriented surfaces with possibly non-empty boundary. The boundary condition is taken to be the same on all segments of the boundary. The following uniqueness result is established: For a solution to the sewing constraints with nondegenerate closed state vacuum and nondegenerate two-point correlators of boundary fields on the disk and of bulk fields on the sphere, up to equivalence all correlators are uniquely determined by the one-, two,- and three-point correlators on the disk. Thus for any such theory every consistent collection of correlators can be obtained by the TFT approach of hep-th/0204148, hep-th/0503194. As morphisms of the category of world sheets we include not only homeomorphisms, but also sewings; interpreting the correlators as a natural transformation then encodes covariance both under homeomorphisms and under sewings of world sheets.

hep-th↗

arXiv2007

The fusion algebra of bimodule categories

We establish an algebra-isomorphism between the complexified Grothendieck ring F of certain bimodule categories over a modular tensor category and the endomorphism algebra of appropriate morphism spaces of those bimodule categories. This provides a purely categorical proof of a conjecture by Ostrik concerning the structure of F. As a by-product we obtain a concrete expression for the structure constants of the Grothendieck ring of the bimodule category in terms of endomorphisms of the tensor unit of the underlying modular tensor category.

math.CT↗

arXiv2006

TFT construction of RCFT correlators V: Proof of modular invariance and factorisation

The correlators of two-dimensional rational conformal field theories that are obtained in the TFT construction of [FRSI,FRSII,FRSIV] are shown to be invariant under the action of the relative modular group and to obey bulk and boundary factorisation constraints. We present results both for conformal field theories defined on oriented surfaces and for theories defined on unoriented surfaces. In the latter case, in particular the so-called cross cap constraint is included.

hep-th↗