arXiv subjects

Lukas Woike

Publications and source records attributed to Lukas Woike.

31 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

The Hochschild Complex of a Finite Tensor Category

Modular functors, i.e. consistent systems of projective representations of mapping class groups of surfaces, have been constructed for non-semisimple modular categories already decades ago. Concepts from homological algebra have not been used in this construction although it is an obvious question how they should enter in the non-semisimple case. In the present paper, we elucidate the interplay between the structures from topological field theory and from homological algebra by constructing a homotopy coherent projective action of the mapping class group $\text{SL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$ of the torus on the Hochschild complex of a modular category. This is a further step towards understanding the Hochschild complex of a modular category as a differential graded conformal block for the torus. Moreover, we describe a differential graded version of the Verlinde algebra.

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arXiv2021

Homotopy Coherent Mapping Class Group Actions and Excision for Hochschild Complexes of Modular Categories

Given any modular category $\mathcal{C}$ over an algebraically closed field $k$, we extract a sequence $(M_g)_{g\geq 0}$ of $\mathcal{C}$-bimodules. We show that the Hochschild chain complex $CH(\mathcal{C};M_g)$ of $\mathcal{C}$ with coefficients in $M_g$ carries a canonical homotopy coherent projective action of the mapping class group of the surface of genus $g+1$. The ordinary Hochschild complex of $\mathcal{C}$ corresponds to $CH(\mathcal{C};M_0)$. This result is obtained as part of the following more comprehensive topological structure: We construct a symmetric monoidal functor $\mathfrak{F}_{\mathcal{C}}:\mathcal{C}\text{-}\mathsf{Surf}^{\mathsf{c}}\to\mathsf{Ch}_k$ with values in chain complexes over $k$ defined on a symmetric monoidal category of surfaces whose boundary components are labeled with projective objects in $\mathcal{C}$. The functor $\mathfrak{F}_{\mathcal{C}}$ satisfies an excision property which is formulated in terms of homotopy coends. In this sense, any modular category gives naturally rise to a modular functor with values in chain complexes. In zeroth homology, it recovers Lyubashenko's mapping class group representations. The chain complexes in our construction are explicitly computable by choosing a marking on the surface, i.e. a cut system and a certain embedded graph. For our proof, we replace the connected and simply connected groupoid of cut systems that appears in the Lego-Teichmüller game by a contractible Kan complex.

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arXiv2021

The Trace Field Theory of a Finite Tensor Category

Given a finite tensor category $\mathcal{C}$, we prove that a modified trace on the tensor ideal of projective objects can be obtained from a suitable trivialization of the Nakayama functor as right $\mathcal{C}$-module functor. Using a result of Costello, this allows us to associate to any finite tensor category equipped with such a trivialization of the Nakayama functor a chain complex valued topological conformal field theory, the trace field theory. The trace field theory topologically describes the modified trace, the Hattori-Stallings trace, and also the structures induced by them on the Hochschild complex of $\mathcal{C}$. In this article, we focus on implications in the linear (as opposed to differential graded) setting: We use the trace field theory to define a non-unital homotopy commutative product on the Hochschild chains in degree zero. This product is block diagonal and can be described through the handle elements of the trace field theory. Taking the modified trace of the handle elements recovers the Cartan matrix of $\mathcal{C}$.

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arXiv2021

Categorification of algebraic quantum field theories

This paper develops a concept of 2-categorical algebraic quantum field theories (2AQFTs) that assign locally presentable linear categories to spacetimes. It is proven that ordinary AQFTs embed as a coreflective full 2-subcategory into the 2-category of 2AQFTs. Examples of 2AQFTs that do not come from ordinary AQFTs via this embedding are constructed by a local gauging construction for finite groups, which admits a physical interpretation in terms of orbifold theories. A categorification of Fredenhagen's universal algebra is developed and also computed for simple examples of 2AQFTs.

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arXiv2020

Dimensional Reduction, Extended Topological Field Theories and Orbifoldization

We prove a decomposition formula for the dimensional reduction of an extended topological field theory that arises as an orbifold of an equivariant topological field theory. Our decomposition formula can be expressed in terms of a categorification of the integral with respect to groupoid cardinality. The application of our result to topological field theories of Dijkgraaf-Witten type proves a recent conjecture of Qiu-Wang.

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arXiv2020

The Little Bundles Operad

Hurwitz spaces are homotopy quotients of the braid group action on the moduli space of principal bundles over a punctured plane. By considering a certain model for this homotopy quotient we build an aspherical topological operad that we call the little bundles operad. As our main result, we describe this operad as a groupoid-valued operad in terms of generators and relations and prove that the categorical little bundles algebras are precisely Turaev's crossed categories. Moreover, we prove that the evaluation on the circle of a homotopical two-dimensional equivariant topolological field theory yields a little bundles algebra up to coherent homotopy.

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arXiv2020

Operads for algebraic quantum field theory

We construct a colored operad whose category of algebras is the category of algebraic quantum field theories. This is achieved by a construction that depends on the choice of a category, whose objects provide the operad colors, equipped with an additional structure that we call an orthogonality relation. This allows us to describe different types of quantum field theories, including theories on a fixed Lorentzian manifold, locally covariant theories and also chiral conformal and Euclidean theories. Moreover, because the colored operad depends functorially on the orthogonal category, we obtain adjunctions between categories of different types of quantum field theories. These include novel and interesting constructions, such as time-slicification and local-to-global extensions of quantum field theories. We compare the latter to Fredenhagen's universal algebra.

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arXiv2019

Extended Homotopy Quantum Field Theories and their Orbifoldization

We present a precise definition of extended homotopy quantum field theories and develop an orbifold construction for these theories when the target space is the classifying space of a finite group $G$, i.e. for $G$-equivariant topological field theories. More precisely, we use a bicategorical version of the parallel section functor to associate to an extended equivariant topological field theory an ordinary extended topological field theory. Thereby, we give a unification, geometric underpinning and vast generalization of algebraic concepts of orbifoldization. In the special case of 3-2-1-dimensional equivariant topological field theories, we investigate the equivariant modular structure on the categories that such theories yield upon evaluation on the circle. By means of our orbifold construction this equivariant modular structure will be related to the modular structure on the orbifold category. We also generalize our orbifold construction to a pushforward operation along an arbitrary morphism of finite groups and hence provide a valuable tool for the construction of extended homotopy quantum field theories.

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arXiv2019

Parallel Transport of Higher Flat Gerbes as an Extended Homotopy Quantum Field Theory

We prove that the parallel transport of a flat $n-1$-gerbe on any given target space gives rise to an $n$-dimensional extended homotopy quantum field theory. In case the target space is the classifying space of a finite group, we provide explicit formulae for this homotopy quantum field theory in terms of transgression. Moreover, we use the geometric theory of orbifolds to give a dimension-independent version of twisted and equivariant Dijkgraaf-Witten models. Finally, we introduce twisted equivariant Dijkgraaf-Witten theories giving us in the 3-2-1-dimensional case a new class of equivariant modular tensor categories which can be understood as twisted versions of the equivariant modular categories constructed by Maier, Nikolaus and Schweigert.

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arXiv2019

Equivariant Higher Hochschild Homology and Topological Field Theories

We present a version of higher Hochschild homology for spaces equipped with principal bundles for a structure group $G$. As coefficients, we allow $E_\infty$-algebras with $G$-action. For this homology theory, we establish an equivariant version of excision and prove that it extends to an equivariant topological field theory with values in the $(\infty,1)$-category of cospans of $E_\infty$-algebras.

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arXiv2019

Involutive categories, colored $\ast$-operads and quantum field theory

Involutive category theory provides a flexible framework to describe involutive structures on algebraic objects, such as anti-linear involutions on complex vector spaces. Motivated by the prominent role of involutions in quantum (field) theory, we develop the involutive analogs of colored operads and their algebras, named colored $\ast$-operads and $\ast$-algebras. Central to the definition of colored $\ast$-operads is the involutive monoidal category of symmetric sequences, which we obtain from a general product-exponential $2$-adjunction whose right adjoint forms involutive functor categories. For $\ast$-algebras over $\ast$-operads we obtain involutive analogs of the usual change of color and operad adjunctions. As an application, we turn the colored operads for algebraic quantum field theory into colored $\ast$-operads. The simplest instance is the associative $\ast$-operad, whose $\ast$-algebras are unital and associative $\ast$-algebras.

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arXiv2019

Homotopy theory of algebraic quantum field theories

Motivated by gauge theory, we develop a general framework for chain complex valued algebraic quantum field theories. Building upon our recent operadic approach to this subject, we show that the category of such theories carries a canonical model structure and explain the important conceptual and also practical consequences of this result. As a concrete application we provide a derived version of Fredenhagen's universal algebra construction, which is relevant e.g. for the BRST/BV formalism. We further develop a homotopy theoretical generalization of algebraic quantum field theory with a particular focus on the homotopy-coherent Einstein causality axiom. We provide examples of such homotopy-coherent theories via (1) smooth normalized cochain algebras on $\infty$-stacks, and (2) fiber-wise groupoid cohomology of a category fibered in groupoids with coefficients in a strict quantum field theory.

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arXiv2018

Orbifold Construction for Topological Field Theories

An equivariant topological field theory is defined on a cobordism category of manifolds with principal fiber bundles for a fixed (finite) structure group. We provide a geometric construction which for any given morphism $G \to H$ of finite groups assigns in a functorial way to a $G$-equivariant topological field theory an $H$-equivariant topological field theory, the pushforward theory. When $H$ is the trivial group, this yields an orbifold construction for $G$-equivariant topological field theories which unifies and generalizes several known algebraic notions of orbifoldization.

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