arXiv research

Motivated by recent developments in the AdS/CFT correspondence, we provide several alternative bulk descriptions of an arbitrary Wilson loop operator in Chern-Simons theory. Wilson loop operators in Chern-Simons theory can be given a description in terms of a configuration of branes or alternatively anti-branes in the …

Wilson loops in ${\cal N}=4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory correspond at strong coupling to extremal surfaces in $AdS_5$. We study a class of extremal surfaces known as special Legendrian submanifolds. The "hemisphere" corresponding to the circular Wilson loop is an example of a special Legendrian submanifold, and w…

Researchers compute knot invariants in Seifert manifolds using Wilson loops.

We give, using an explicit expression obtained in [V. Jones, Ann. of Math. 126, 335 (1987)], a basic hypergeometric representation of the HOMFLY polynomial of $(n,m)$ torus knots, and present a number of equivalent expressions, all related by Heine's transformations. Using this result the $(m,n)\leftrightarrow (n,m)$ s…

We reconsider Chern-Simons gauge theory on a Seifert manifold M, which is the total space of a nontrivial circle bundle over a Riemann surface, possibly with orbifold points. As shown in previous work with Witten, the path integral technique of non-abelian localization can be used to express the partition function of C…

We introduce and study the Wilson loops in a general 3D topological field theories (TFTs), and show that the expectation value of Wilson loops also gives knot invariants as in Chern-Simons theory. We study the TFTs within the Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) and Alexandrov-Kontsevich-Schwarz-Zaboronsky (AKSZ) framework, and the…

An NQ-manifold is a non-negatively graded supermanifold with a degree 1 homological vector field. The focus of this paper is to define the Wilson loops/lines in the context of NQ-manifolds and to study their properties. The Wilson loops/lines, which give the holonomy or parallel transport, are familiar objects in usual…

The string bracket introduced by Chas and Sullivan [math.GT/9911159] is reinterpreted from the point of view of topological field theories in the Batalin-Vilkovisky or BRST formalisms. Namely, topological action functionals for gauge fields (generalizing Chern-Simons and BF theories) are considered together with genera…

We study the supersymmetric Wilson loop as introduced by Caron-Huot, which attaches to lightlike polygons certain edge and vertex operators, whose shape is determined by supersymmetry constraints. We state explicit formulas for the vertex operators to all orders in the Graßmann expansion, thus filling a gap in the lite…

L-CNNs learn gauge invariant quantities on lattices.

This paper analyzes in details the Batalin-Vilkovisky quantization procedure for BF theories on n-dimensional manifolds and describes a suitable superformalism to deal with the master equation and the search of observables. In particular, generalized Wilson loops for BF theories with additional polynomial B-interaction…

The classical Wilson loop is the gauge-invariant trace of the parallel transport around a closed path with respect to a connection on a vector bundle over a smooth manifold. We build a precise mathematical model of the super Wilson loop, an extension introduced by Mason-Skinner and Caron-Huot, by endowing the objects o…

We study twisted N=2 superconformal gauge theory on a product of two Riemann surfaces Sigma and C. The twisted theory is topological along C and holomorphic along Sigma and does not depend on the gauge coupling or theta-angle. Upon Kaluza-Klein reduction along Sigma, it becomes equivalent to a topological B-model on C …

We relate the author's Lie cobracket in the module additively generated by loops on a surface with the Connes-Kreimer Lie bracket in the module additively generated by trees. To this end we introduce a pre-Lie coalgebra and a (commutative) Hopf algebra of pointed loops on a surface. In the last version I added sections…

The paper computes group factors and properties of Wilson loops in Chern-Simons theory.

In an abstract Wiener space setting, we constract a rigorous mathematical model of the one-loop approximation of the perturbative Chern-Simons integral, and derive its explicit asymptotic expansion for stochastic Wilson lines.

We prove that Wilson loop expectation values for arbitrary simple closed contours obey an area law up to second order in perturbative two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory. Our analysis occurs within a general family of axial-like gauges, which include and interpolate between holomorphic gauge and the Wu-Mandelstam-Liebran…

Study Euler characteristics and loop lengths in hyperbolic 3-manifolds.

A hyperlink is a finite set of non-intersecting simple closed curves in $\mathbb{R} \times \mathbb{R}^3$. We compute the Wilson Loop observable using a path integral with an Einstein-Hilbert action. Using axial-gauge fixing, we can write this path integral as the limit of a sequence of Chern-Simons integrals, studied e…

We study Wilson-'t Hooft loop operators in a class of N=2 superconformal field theories recently introduced by Gaiotto. In the case that the gauge group is a product of SU(2) groups, we classify all possible loop operators in terms of their electric and magnetic charges subject to the Dirac quantization condition. We t…

We construct Hodge filtered function spaces associated to infinite loop spaces. For Brown-Peterson cohomology, we show that the corresponding Hodge filtered spaces satisfy an analog of Wilson's unstable splitting. As a consequence, we obtain an analog of Quillen's theorem for Hodge filtered Brown-Peterson cohomology fo…

The standard Feynman diagrammatic approach to quantum field theories assumes that perturbation theory approximates the full quantum theory at small coupling even when a mathematically rigorous construction of the latter is absent. On the other hand, two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory is a rare (if not the only) example …

A new discretisation of a doubled, i.e. BF, version of the pure abelian Chern-Simons theory is presented. It reproduces the continuum expressions for the topological quantities of interest in the theory, namely the partition function and correlation function of Wilson loops. Similarities with free spinor field theory a…

In this paper we study the group theoretic structures of colored HOMFLY polynomials in a specific limit. The group structures arise in the perturbative expansion of $SU(N)$ Chern-Simons Wilson loops, while the limit is $N \rightarrow 0$. The result of the paper is twofold. First, we explain the emergence of Kadomsev-Pe…

We consider Chern-Simons theory with complex gauge group and present a complete non-perturbative evaluation of the path integral (the partition function and certain expectation values of Wilson loops) on Seifert fibred 3-Manifolds. We use the method of Abelianisation. In certain cases the path integral can be seen to f…

Simplicial versions of topological abelian gauge theories are constructed which reproduce the continuum expressions for the partition function and Wilson expectation value of linked loops, expressible in terms of R-torsion and linking numbers respectively. The new feature which makes this possible is the introduction o…

We consider Chern-Simons theory on 3-manifold $M$ that is the total space of a circle bundle over a 2d base $Σ$. We show that this theory is equivalent to a new 2d TQFT on the base, which we call Caloron BF theory, that can be obtained by an appropriate type of push-forward. This is a gauge theory on a bundle with stru…

Differential expansion (DE) for a Wilson loop average in representation $R$ is built to respect degenerations of representations for small groups. At the same time it behaves nicely under some changes of the loop, e.g. of some knots in the case of $3d$ Chern-Simons theory. Especially simple is the relation between the …

We study the expectation value of a nonplanar Wilson graph operator in SL(2,C) Chern-Simons theory on $S^3$. In particular we analyze its asymptotic behaviour in the double-scaling limit in which both the representation labels and the Chern-Simons coupling are taken to be large, but with fixed ratio. When the Wilson gr…

Correspondence found between Askey-Wilson polynomials and genus-two handlebody skein module.

Develops Hamiltonian quantization for complex Chern-Simons theory at even level k.

There are two different notions of holonomy in supergeometry, the supergroup introduced by Galaev and our functorial approach motivated by super Wilson loops. Either theory comes with its own version of invariance of vectors and subspaces under holonomy. By our first main result, the Twofold Theorem, these definitions …

We analyze quantum Yang-Mills theory on $\mathbb{R}^2$ using a novel discretization method based on an algebraic analogue of stochastic calculus. Such an analogue involves working with "Gaussian" free fields whose covariance matrix is indefinite rather than positive definite. Specifically, we work with Lie-algebra valu…

We define the thin fundamental categorical group ${\mathcal P}_2(M,*)$ of a based smooth manifold $(M,*)$ as the categorical group whose objects are rank-1 homotopy classes of based loops on $M$, and whose morphisms are rank-2 homotopy classes of homotopies between based loops on $M$. Here two maps are rank-$n$ homotop…

New model calculates Wilson surfaces in higher gauge theory.

Wilson lines generate positive Laurent polynomials in decorated triangulations.

Given a Lie algebra with a scalar product, one may consider the latter as a symplectic structure on a $dg$-scheme, which is the spectrum of the Chevalley--Eilenberg algebra. In the first section we explicitly calculate the first order deformation of the differential on the Hochschild complex of the Chevalley--Eilenberg…

We study junctions of Wilson lines in refined SU(N) Chern-Simons theory and their local relations. We focus on junctions of Wilson lines in antisymmetric and symmetric powers of the fundamental representation and propose a set of local relations which realize one-parameter deformations of quantum groups $\dot{U}_{q}(\m…

We make a precision test of a recently proposed conjecture relating Chern-Simons gauge theory to topological string theory on the resolution of the conifold. First, we develop a systematic procedure to extract string amplitudes from vacuum expectation values (vevs) of Wilson loops in Chern-Simons gauge theory, and then…

New methods reveal symmetries in Chern-Simons theory.

We study three-dimensional Chern-Simons theory with complex gauge group SL(2,C), which has many interesting connections with three-dimensional quantum gravity and geometry of hyperbolic 3-manifolds. We show that, in the presence of a single knotted Wilson loop in an infinite-dimensional representation of the gauge grou…

Let $S$ be a closed connected oriented surface of genus $g>0$. We study a Poisson subalgebra $W_1(g)$ of $C^{\infty}(\mathrm{Hom}(π_1(S), \mathrm{GL}(1, \mathbb{R}))/\mathrm{GL}(1, \mathbb{R}))$, the smooth functions on the moduli space of flat $\mathrm{GL}(1, \mathbb{R})$-bundles over $S$. There is a surjective Lie al…

Wilson lines in gauge theories admit several path integral descriptions. The first one (due to Alekseev-Faddeev-Shatashvili) uses path integrals over coadjoint orbits. The second one (due to Diakonov-Petrov) replaces a 1-dimensional path integral with a 2-dimensional topological $σ$-model. We show that this $σ$-model i…

In the context of non-abelian gerbes we define a cubical version of categorical group 2-bundles with connection over a smooth manifold. We define their two-dimensional parallel transport, study its properties, and define non-abelian Wilson surface functionals.

We find flat band Hamiltonians and Ginsparg-Wilson relations for symmetry classes.

The expectation value of Wilson loop operators in three-dimensional SO(N) Chern-Simons gauge theory gives a known knot invariant: the Kauffman polynomial. Here this result is derived, at the first order, via a simple variational method. With the same procedure the skein relation for Sp(N) are also obtained. Jones polyn…

Given a principal bundle on an orientable closed surface with compact connected structure group, we endow the space of based gauge equivalence classes of smooth connections relative to smooth based gauge transformations with the structure of a Fréchet manifold. Using Wilson loop holonomies and a certain characteristic …

The objective of the present paper is to analyse various features of the Smith-Wilson method used for discounting under the EU regulation Solvency II, with special attention to hedging. In particular, we show that all key rate duration hedges of liabilities beyond the Last Liquid Point will be peculiar. Moreover, we sh…