arXiv subjects

Owen Gwilliam

Publications and source records attributed to Owen Gwilliam.

28 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Linear Batalin-Vilkovisky quantization as a functor of $\infty$-categories

We study linear Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) quantization, which is a derived and shifted version of the Weyl quantization of symplectic vector spaces. Using a variety of homotopical machinery, we implement this construction as a symmetric monoidal functor of $\infty$-categories. We also show that this construction has a number of pleasant properties: It has a natural extension to derived algebraic geometry, it can be fed into the higher Morita category of $E_n$-algebras to produce a "higher BV quantization" functor, and when restricted to formal moduli problems, it behaves like a determinant. Along the way we also use our machinery to give an algebraic construction of $E_n$-enveloping algebras for shifted Lie algebras.

math.AT↗

arXiv2019

Relating nets and factorization algebras of observables: free field theories

In this paper we relate two mathematical frameworks that make perturbative quantum field theory rigorous: perturbative algebraic quantum field theory (pAQFT) and the factorization algebras framework developed by Costello and Gwilliam. To make the comparison as explicit as possible, we use the free scalar field as our running example, while giving proofs that apply to any field theory whose equations of motion are Green-hyperbolic (which includes, for instance, free fermions). The main claim is that for such free theories, there is a natural transformation intertwining the two constructions. In fact, both approaches encode equivalent information if one assumes the time-slice axiom. The key technical ingredient is to use time-ordered products as an intermediate step between a net of associative algebras and a factorization algebra.

math-ph↗

arXiv2019

How to derive Feynman diagrams for finite-dimensional integrals directly from the BV formalism

The Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism in quantum field theory was originally invented to address the difficult problem of finding diagrammatic descriptions of oscillating integrals with degenerate critical points. But since then, BV algebras have become interesting objects of study in their own right, and mathematicians sometimes have good understanding of the homological aspects of the story without any access to the diagrammatics. In this note we reverse the usual direction of argument: we begin by asking for an explicit calculation of the homology of a BV algebra, and from it derive Wick's Theorem and the other Feynman rules for finite-dimensional integrals.

math-ph↗

arXiv2019

Higher Kac-Moody algebras and symmetries of holomorphic field theories

We introduce a higher dimensional generalization of the affine Kac-Moody algebra using the language of factorization algebras. In particular, on any complex manifold there is a factorization algebra of "currents" associated to any Lie algebra. We classify local cocycles of these current algebras, and compare them to central extensions of higher affine algebras recently proposed by Faonte-Hennion-Kapranov. A central goal of this paper is to witness higher Kac-Moody algebras as symmetries of a class of holomorphic quantum field theories. In particular, we prove a generalization of the free field realization of an affine Kac-Moody algebra and also develop the theory of q-characters for this class of algebras in terms of factorization homology. Finally, we exhibit the "large N" behavior of higher Kac-Moody algebras and their relationship to symmetries of non-commutative field theories.

math.QA↗

arXiv2018

Duals and adjoints in higher Morita categories

We study duals for objects and adjoints for $k$-morphisms in $\operatorname{Alg}_n(\mathcal{S})$, an $(\infty,n+N)$-category that models a higher Morita category for $E_n$ algebra objects in a symmetric monoidal $(\infty,N)$-category $\mathcal{S}$. Our model of $\operatorname{Alg}(\mathcal{S})$ uses the geometrically convenient framework of factorization algebras. The main result is that $\operatorname{Alg}_n(\mathcal{S})$ is fully $n$-dualizable, verifying a conjecture of Lurie. Moreover, we unpack the consequences for a natural class of fully extended topological field theories and explore $(n+1)$-dualizability.

math.CT↗

arXiv2018

The holomorphic bosonic string

We present a holomorphic version of the bosonic string in the formalism of quantum field theory developed by Costello and collaborators. In this paper we focus on the case in which space-time is flat and construct a one-loop exact quantization. Starting from first principles, we arrive at the critical dimension as an obstruction to satisfying the quantum master equation. Moreover, we show how the factorization algebra recovers the BRST cohomology of the string and give another construction of the Gerstenhaber structure. Finally, we show how the factorization homology along closed manifolds encodes the determinant line bundle over the moduli space of Riemann surfaces.

math-ph↗

arXiv2018

Enhancing the filtered derived category

The filtered derived category of an abelian category has played a useful role in subjects including geometric representation theory, mixed Hodge modules, and the theory of motives. We develop a natural generalization using current methods of homotopical algebra, in the formalisms of stable infinity-categories, stable model categories, and pretriangulated, idempotent-complete dg categories. We characterize the filtered stable infinity-category Fil(C) of a stable infinity-category C as the left exact localization of sequences in C along the infinity-categorical version of completion (and prove analogous model and dg category statements). We also spell out how these constructions interact with spectral sequences and monoidal structures. As examples of this machinery, we construct a stable model category of filtered D-modules and develop the rudiments of a theory of filtered operads and filtered algebras over operads.

math.KT↗

arXiv2018

Lie algebroids as $L_\infty$ spaces

In this paper, we relate Lie algebroids to Costello's version of derived geometry. For instance, we show that each Lie algebroid $L$-and the natural generalization to dg Lie algebroids-provides an (essentially unique) $L_\infty$ space. More precisely, we construct a faithful functor from the category of Lie algebroids to the category of $L_\infty$ spaces. Then we show that for each Lie algebroid $L$, there is a fully faithful functor from the category of representations up to homotopy of $L$ to the category of vector bundles over the associated $L_\infty$ space. Indeed, this functor sends the adjoint complex of $L$ to the tangent bundle of the $L_\infty$ space. Finally, we show that a shifted-symplectic structure on a dg Lie algebroid $L$ produces a shifted-symplectic structure on the associated $L_\infty$ space.

math.DG↗

arXiv2015

L-infinity spaces and derived loop spaces

We develop further the approach to derived differential geometry introduced in Costello's work on the Witten genus. In particular, we introduce several new examples of L-infinity spaces, discuss vector bundles and shifted symplectic structures on L-infinity spaces, and examine in some detail the example of derived loop spaces. This paper is background for a companion paper, in which we define a quantum field theory on a derived stack, building upon Costello's definition of an effective field theory.

math.AG↗

arXiv2013

One-dimensional Chern-Simons theory and the $\hat{A}$ genus

We construct a Chern-Simons gauge theory for dg Lie and L-infinity algebras on any one-dimensional manifold and quantize this theory using the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism and Costello's renormalization techniques. Koszul duality and derived geometry allow us to encode topological quantum mechanics, a nonlinear sigma model of maps from a 1-manifold into a cotangent bundle T*X, as such a Chern-Simons theory. Our main result is that the partition function of this theory is naturally identified with the A-genus of X. From the perspective of derived geometry, our quantization construct a volume form on the derived loop space which can be identified with the A-class.

math.QA↗