arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Samson L. Shatashvili.
This is a summary of my lecture at Igor Frenkel's 70th birthday conference. I give a brief review of my almost forty years of scientific interactions with Igor. I focus here on three topics of joint interests: 2-cocycles, coadjoint orbits and $WZW_4$. At the end of each topic I comment on new developments, if any.
The asymptotics of characters $χ_{kλ}(\exp(h/k))$ of irreducible representations of a compact Lie group $G$ for large values of the scaling factor $k$ are given by Duistermaat-Heckman (DH) integrals over coadjoint orbits of $G$. This phenomenon generalises to coadjoint orbits of central extensions of loop groups $\widehat{LG}$ and of diffeomorphisms of the circle $\widehat{\rm Diff}(S^1)$. We show that the asymptotics of characters of integrable modules of affine Kac-Moody algebras and of the Virasoro algebra factorize into a divergent contribution of the standard form and a convergent contribution which can be interpreted as a formal DH orbital integral. For some Virasoro modules, our results match the formal DH integrals recently computed by Stanford and Witten. In this case, the $k$-scaling has the same origin as the one which gives rise to classical conformal blocks. Furthermore, we consider reduced spaces of Virasoro coadjoint orbits and we suggest a new invariant which replaces symplectic volume in the infinite dimensional situation. We also consider other modules of the Virasoro algebra (in particular, the modules corresponding to minimal models) and we obtain DH-type expressions which do not correspond to any Virasoro coadjoint orbits. We study volume functions $V(x)$ corresponding to formal DH integrals over coadjoint orbits of the Virasoro algebra. We show that they are related by the Hankel transform to spectral densities $ρ(E)$ recently studied by Saad, Shenker and Stanford.
About 30 years ago, in a joint work with L. Faddeev we introduced a geometric action on coadjoint orbits. This action, in particular, gives rise to a path integral formula for characters of the corresponding group $G$. In this paper, we revisit this topic and observe that the geometric action is a 1-cocycle for the loop group $LG$. In the case of $G$ being a central extension, we construct Wess-Zumino (WZ) type terms and show that the cocycle property of the geometric action gives rise to a Polyakov-Wiegmann (PW) formula. In particular, we obtain a PW type formula for the Polyakov's gravitational WZ action. After quantization, this formula leads to an interesting bulk-boundary decoupling phenomenon previously observed in the WZW model. We explain that this decoupling is a general feature of the Wess-Zumino terms obtained from geometric actions, and that in this case the path integral is expressed in terms of the 2-cocycle which defines the central extension. In memory of our teacher Ludwig Faddeev.
Following Simpson we consider the integrable system structure on the moduli spaces of Higgs bundles on a compact Kähler manifold $X$. We propose a description of the corresponding spectral cover of $X$ as the fiberwise projective dual to a hypersurface in the projectivization $\mathbb{P}(\mathcal{T}_{X} \oplus \mathcal{O}_X)$ of the tangent bundle $\mathcal{T}_X$ to $X$. The defining equation of the hypersurface dual to the Simpson spectral cover is explicitly constructed in terms of the Higgs fields.
Bethe/gauge correspondence identifies supersymmetric vacua of massive gauge theories invariant under the two dimensional N=2 Poincare supersymmetry with the stationary states of some quantum integrable system. The supersymmetric theory can be twisted in a number of ways, producing a topological field theory. For these theories we compute the handle gluing operator H. We also discuss the Gaudin conjecture on the norm of Bethe states and its connection to H.
We study four dimensional N=2 supersymmetric gauge theory in the Omega-background with the two dimensional N=2 super-Poincare invariance. We explain how this gauge theory provides the quantization of the classical integrable system underlying the moduli space of vacua of the ordinary four dimensional N=2 theory. The epsilon-parameter of the Omega-background is identified with the Planck constant, the twisted chiral ring maps to quantum Hamiltonians, the supersymmetric vacua are identified with Bethe states of quantum integrable systems. This four dimensional gauge theory in its low energy description has two dimensional twisted superpotential which becomes the Yang-Yang function of the integrable system. We present the thermodynamic-Bethe-ansatz like formulae for these functions and for the spectra of commuting Hamiltonians following the direct computation in gauge theory. The general construction is illustrated at the examples of the many-body systems, such as the periodic Toda chain, the elliptic Calogero-Moser system, and their relativistic versions, for which we present a complete characterization of the L^2-spectrum. We very briefly discuss the quantization of Hitchin system.
An announcement of some results of a longer paper where the supersymmetric vacua of two dimensional N=2 susy gauge theories with matter are shown to be in one-to-one correspondence with the eigenstates of integrable spin chain Hamiltonians. The Heisenberg spin chain is mapped to the two dimensional U(N) theory with fundamental hypermultiplets, the XXZ spin chain is mapped to the analogous three dimensional super-Yang-Mills theory compactified on a circle, the XYZ spin chain and eight-vertex model are related to the four dimensional theory compactified on a torus. The correspondence extends to any spin group, representations, boundary conditions, and inhomogeneity, it includes Sinh-Gordon and non-linear Schroedinger models as well as the dynamical spin chains such as the Hubbard model. Compactifications of four dimensional N=2 theories on a two-sphere lead to the instanton-corrected Bethe equations. We propose a completely novel way for the Yangian, quantum affine, and elliptic algebras to act as a symmetry of a union of quantum field theories. This paper accompanies arXiv:0901.4748
This is an announcement of some of the results of a longer paper where the supersymmetric vacua of two dimensional N=2 susy gauge theories with matter are shown to be in one-to-one correspondence with the eigenstates of integrable spin chain Hamiltonians. The correspondence between the Heisenberg spin chain and the two dimensional U(N) theory with fundamental hypermultiplets is reviewed in detail. We demonstrate the isomorphism of the equivariant quantum cohomology of the cotangent bundle to the Grassmanian manifold Gr(N,L) and the ring of quantum integrals of motion of the length L SU(2) XXX spin chain, in the N-particle sector. This paper accompanies arXiv:0901.4744
In this paper the relation between 2d topological gauge theories and Bethe Ansatz equations is reviewed. In addition we present some new results and clarifications. We hope the relations discussed here are particular examples of more general relations between quantum topological fields theories in dimensions $d\leq 4$ and quantum integrable systems.
The appearance of the Bethe Ansatz equation for the Nonlinear Schrödinger equation in the equivariant integration over the moduli space of Higgs bundles is revisited. We argue that the wave functions of the corresponding two-dimensional topological U(N) gauge theory reproduce quantum wave functions of the Nonlinear Schrödinger equation in the $N$-particle sector. This implies the full equivalence between the above gauge theory and the $N$-particle sub-sector of the quantum theory of Nonlinear Schrödinger equation. This also implies the explicit correspondence between the gauge theory and the representation theory of degenerate double affine Hecke algebra. We propose similar construction based on the $G/G$ gauged WZW model leading to the representation theory of the double affine Hecke algebra. The relation with the Nahm transform and the geometric Langlands correspondence is briefly discussed.
We present evidence for the factorization of the world-sheet path integrals for 2d conformal field theories on the disk into bulk and boundary contributions. This factorization is then used to reinterpret a shift in closed string backgrounds in terms of boundary deformations in background independent open string field theory. We give a proof of the factorization conjecture in the cases where the background is represented by WZW and related models.
The precise relation between Kodaira-Spencer path integral and a particular wave function in seven dimensional quadratic field theory is established. The special properties of three-forms in 6d, as well as Hitchin's action functional, play an important role. The latter defines a quantum field theory similar to Polyakov's formulation of 2d gravity; the curious analogy with world-sheet action of bosonic string is also pointed out.
When eight-dimensional instantons, satisfying F \wedge F = \pm \star_8 (F\wedge F), shrink to zero size, we find stringy objects in higher order ten-dimensional Yang-Mills (viewed as a low-energy limit of open string theory). The associated F^4 action is a combination of two independent parts having a single-trace and a double-trace structure. As a result we get a D-string from the single-trace term and a fundamental string from the double-trace. The latter has (8,0) supersymmetry on the worldsheet and couplings to the background gauge fields of a heterotic string. A correlation between the conformal factor of the instanton and the tachyon field is conjectured.
Multi-brane backgrounds are studied in the framework of the background independent open string field theory. A simple description of the non-abelian degrees of freedom is given. Algebra of the differential operators acting on the space of functions on the space-time provides a natural tool for the discussion of this phenomena.
We consider the couplings of RR fields with open string sector for $Dp$-${\overline{Dp}}$ backgrounds of various $p$. Proposed approach, based on the approximation of the open string algebra by the algebra of differential operators, provides the unified description of these couplings and their interrelations.
I review the physical properties of different vacua in the background independent open string field theory. Talk presented at Strings 2001, Mumbai, India, http://theory.theory.tifr.res.in/strings/Proceedings/#sha-s.
We propose a refinement of the physical picture describing different vacua in bosonic string theory. The vacua with closed strings and open strings are connected by the string field theory version of the Higgs mechanism, generalizing the Higgs mechanism of an abelian gauge field interacting with a complex scalar. In accordance with Sen's conjecture, the condensation of the tachyon is an essential part of the story. We consider this phenomenon from the point of view of both a world-sheet sigma-model and the target-space theory. In the Appendix the relevant remarks regarding the choice of the coordinates in the background independent open string field theory are given.
In these notes we revisit the tachyon lagrangian in the open string field theory using background independent approach of Witten from 1992. We claim that the tree level lagrangian (up to second order in derivatives and modulo some class of field redefinitions) is given by $L = e^{-T} (\partial T)^2 + (1+T)e^{-T}$. Upon obvious change of variables this leads to the potential energy $-ϕ^2 \log {ϕ^2 \over e}$ with canonical kinetic term. This lagrangian may be also obtained from the effective tachyon lagrangian of the p-adic strings in the limit $p\to 1$. Applications to the problem of tachyon condensation are discussed.