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Luca Schiavone

Publications and source records attributed to Luca Schiavone.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

A two-point approach to the inverse problem in information geometry

We formulate the inverse problem in information geometry within a two-point tensorial framework and solve it for general metric-affine manifolds, without imposing any curvature or torsion constraints. The construction is explicit and starts directly from the given geometric data: the metric tensor is paired to the affine structure, realized through a local parallelism obtained from parallel transport. This yields a contrast bi-form inducing the original metric-affine manifold. The inverse problems for statistical manifolds admitting torsion and for statistical manifolds are then recovered by homotopical reduction. In this way, suitable pre-contrast and contrast functions are obtained, including several established constructions for statistical manifolds and SMATs. We apply the general theory to reductive homogeneous pseudo-Riemannian manifolds endowed with invariant affine connections. Particular attention is devoted to semisimple Lie groups with Cartan-Schouten connections and to odd-dimensional spheres equipped with Berger metrics.

math.DG↗
arXiv2026

Potential functions in information geometry via bi-forms

In this paper we develop a general framework for potentials on Lauritzen manifolds, namely smooth manifolds equipped with a pseudo-Riemannian metric and a pair of conjugate affine connections that may have non-vanishing torsion. We show how the theory of bi-forms accommodates torsion-full statistical structures and unifies contrast and pre-contrast functions in a cohomological framework. Within this formalism, we construct a canonical contrast bi-form on dually curvature-free Lauritzen manifolds and establish its principal structural properties. Several illustrative examples are analysed.

math.DG↗
arXiv2026

A groupoidal description of elementary particles

In this work, we show that extending the standard description of space-time symmetries from groups of isometries to the more flexible framework of kinematical groupoids allows for the extension of Wigner's program to curved space-times. We propose a new definition of elementary particles as irreducible projective representations of the kinematical groupoids supporting the theory. By choosing a natural kinematical groupoid associated with any space-time, called the \textit{Wigner groupoid}, we demonstrate that such irreducible projective representations are characterized by quantum numbers similar to those characterizing the irreducible projective representations of the Poincaré group. Describing the irreducible projective representations of groupoids poses its own difficulties. To address this, we develop a suitable extension of Mackey's theory of induced representations of groups, proving that projective representations of transitive Lie groupoids with connected isotropy groups are in one-to-one correspondence with the projective representations of their isotropy groups. The application of these results provides a classification of elementary particles valid for a large class of space-times. This classification largely reproduces Wigner's standard classification on Minkowski space-time, while a new family of representations emerges, corresponding to massless particles in the presence of a magnetic-like background field.

math-ph↗
arXiv2026

Regularization of singular time-dependent Lagrangian systems

One approach to studying the dynamics of a singular Lagrangian system is to attempt to regularize it, that is, to find an equivalent and regular system. In the case of time-independent singular Lagrangians, an approach due to \textit{A. Ibort} and \textit{J. Marín-Solano} is to use the coisotropic embedding theorem proved by \textit{M.J. Gotay} which states that any pre-symplectic manifold can be coisotropically embedded in a symplectic manifold. In this paper, we revisit these results and provide an alternative approach, also based on the coisotropic embedding theorem, that employs the Tulczyjew isomorphism and almost product structures, and allows for a slight generalization of the construction. In this revision, we also prove uniqueness of the Lagrangian regularization to first order. Furthermore, we extend our methodology to the case of time-dependent singular Lagrangians.

math.DG↗
arXiv2025

Bi-forms Approach to Potential Functions in Information Geometry

Contrast functions play a fundamental role in information geometry, providing a means for generating the geometric structures of a statistical manifold: a pseudo-Riemannian metric and a pair of torsion-free conjugate affine connections. Conventional contrast-based approaches become indeed insufficient within settings where torsion is naturally present, such as quantum information geometry. This paper introduces contrast bi-forms, a generalisation of contrast functions that systematically encode metric and connection data, allowing for arbitrary affine connections regardless of torsion. It will be shown that they provide a unified framework for statistical potentials, offering new insights into the inverse problem in information geometry. As an example, we consider teleparallel manifolds, where torsion is intrinsic to the geometry, and show how bi-forms naturally accommodate these structures.

math.DG↗
arXiv2025

A zoo of coisotropic embeddings

The aim of this paper is to extend the coisotropic embedding theorem obtained by M. J. Gotay for pre-symplectic manifolds to more general geometric settings: cosymplectic, contact, cocontact, $k$-symplectic, $k$-cosymplectic, $k$-contact, and multisymplectic manifolds. The results are obtained by applying a generic methodology, which gives more relevance to the potential applications. In that sense, this paper gives the fundamental basis to be able to apply the results to the so-called regularization problem of singular Lagrangian systems, both in mechanics and in classical field theories.

math.DG↗
arXiv2025

The coisotropic embedding theorem for pre-symplectic manifolds: an alternative proof

We present an alternative proof of the Coisotropic Embedding Theorem in which the geometric choice of a connection is recast as the algebraic choice of an embedding into the cotangent bundle. The symplectic thickening is then identified as the submanifold determined by the Hamiltonian momenta conjugate to the kernel directions of the pre-symplectic form.

math.DG↗
arXiv2025

"Fields" in classical and quantum field theories

The challenges posed by the development of field theories, both classical and quantum, force us to question their most basic and foundational ideas like the role and origin of space-time, the meaning of physical states, etc. Among them the notion of ``field'' itself is notoriously difficult to address. These notes aim to analyze such notion from the perspective offered by the groupoid description of quantum mechanics inspired by Schwinger's picture of quantum mechanics. Then, a natural interpretation of the notion of physical fields as functors among appropriate groupoids will emerge. The domain of a field in this new picture is a groupoid that describes ``test particles'', and its codomain is a groupoid that describes the intrinsic nature of the system being probed. Such a space of functors carries some natural structures, which are best described in a categorical language. Some illustrative examples will be presented that could help clarify the various abstract notions discussed in the text.

math-ph↗
arXiv2023

The Geometry of the solution space of first order Hamiltonian field theories III: Palatini's formulation of General Relativity

We complete the program started in two companion papers of defining a Poisson bracket structure on the space of solutions of the equations of motion of first order Hamiltonian field theories. The case of General Relativity is addressed by looking at it as a particular non-Abelian gauge theory in a suitable low-energy limit and via a technique related to the coisotropic embedding theorem.

math-ph↗
arXiv2023

The Geometry of the solution space of first order Hamiltonian field theories I: from particle dynamics to free Electrodynamics

We analyse the problem of defining a Poisson bracket structure on the space of solutions of the equations of motions of first order Hamiltonian field theories. The cases of Hamiltonian mechanical point systems (as a (0 + 1)-dimensional field) and more general field theories without gauge symmetries are addressed by showing the existence of a symplectic (and, thus, a Poisson) structure on the space of solutions. Also the easiest case of gauge theory, namely free electrodynamics, is considered: within this problem, a pre-symplectic tensor on the space of solutions is introduced, and a Poisson structure is induced in terms of a flat connection on a suitable bundle associated to the theory.

math-ph↗
arXiv2021

Symmetries and Covariant Poisson brackets on pre-symplectic manifolds

Noticing that the space of the solutions of a first order Hamiltonian field theory has a pre-symplectic structure, we describe a class of conserved charges on it associated to the momentum map determined by any symmetry group of transformations. Gauge theories are dealt with by using a symplectic regularization based on an application of Gotay's coisotropic embedding theorem. The analysis of Electrodynamics and of the Klein-Gordon theory illustrates the main results of the theory as well as the emergence of the energy-momentum tensor algebra of conserved currents.

math-ph↗
arXiv2021

Feynman's Propagator in Schwinger's picture of Quantum Mechanics

A novel derivation of Feynman's sum-over-histories construction of the quantum propagator using the groupoidal description of Schwinger picture of Quantum Mechanics is presented. It is shown that such construction corresponds to the GNS representation of a natural family of states called Dirac-Feynman-Schwinger (DFS) states. Such states are obtained from a q-Lagrangian function $\ell$ on the groupoid of configurations of the system. The groupoid of histories of the system is constructed and the q-Lagrangian $\ell$ allow to define a DFS state on the algebra of the groupoid. The particular instance of the groupoid of pairs of a Riemannian manifold serves to illustrate Feynman's original derivation of the propagator for a point particle described by a classical Lagrangian $L$.

math-ph↗
arXiv2021

Symmetries and Reduction -- part I -- Poisson and symplectic picture

Coherently with the principle of analogy suggested by Dirac, we describe a general setting for reducing a classical dynamics, and the role of the Noether theorem -- connecting symmetries with constants of the motion -- within a reduction. This is the first of two papers, and it focuses on the reduction within the Poisson and the symplectic formalism.

math-ph↗
arXiv2021

A quantum route to the classical Lagrangian formalism

Using the recently developed groupoidal description of Schwinger's picture of Quantum Mechanics, a new approach to Dirac's fundamental question on the role of the Lagrangian in Quantum Mechanics is provided. It is shown that a function $\ell$ on the groupoid of configurations (or kinematical groupoid) of a quantum system determines a state on the von Neumann algebra of the histories of the system. This function, which we call {\itshape q-Lagrangian}, can be described in terms of a new function $\mathcal{L}$ on the Lie algebroid of the theory. When the kinematical groupoid is the pair groupoid of a smooth manifold $M$, the quadratic expansion of $\mathcal{L}$ will reproduce the standard Lagrangians on $TM$ used to describe the classical dynamics of particles.

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