arXiv research

New surface observables yield 2-knot invariants in nonabelian theories.

Sharp bounds found on nonabelian quotients of surface braid groups.

We construct a 2-dimensional twisted nonabelian multiplicative integral. This is done in the context of a Lie crossed module (an object composed of two Lie groups interacting), and a pointed manifold. The integrand is a connection-curvature pair, that consists of a Lie algebra valued 1-form and a Lie algebra valued 2-f…

Higher gauge theory via differential nonabelian cohomology

The worldvolume theory of coincident M5-branes is expected to contain a nonabelian 2-form/nonabelian gerbe gauge theory that is a higher analog of self-dual Yang-Mills theory. But the precise details -- in particular the global moduli / instanton / magnetic charge structure -- have remained elusive. Here we deduce from…

Numerical experiments support conjecture about opers and nonabelian Hodge.

Researchers study injectivity of magnetic and thermostatic nonabelian ray transforms on compact surfaces.

Abelian gerbes and twisted bundles describe the topology of the NS-NS 3-form gauge field strength H. We review how they have been usefully applied to study and resolve global anomalies in open string theory. Abelian 2-gerbes and twisted nonabelian gerbes describe the topology of the 4-form field strength G of M-theory.…

We consider the $q$-nonabelianization map, which maps links $L$ in a 3-manifold $M$ to links $\widetilde{L}$ in a branched $N$-fold cover $\widetilde{M}$. In quantum field theory terms, $q$-nonabelianization is the UV-IR map relating two different sorts of defect: in the UV we have the six-dimensional $(2,0)$ superconf…

We consider a simple and natural coboundary operator, on the Lie algebra valued differential forms on a manifold, which in the abelian case reduces to usual exterior derivative of such forms. Using the corresponding de Rham cohomology Lie superalgebra H*(M,G) we obtain numerical smooth invariants--as opposed to homotop…

This article studies the nonabelian localization results of Beasley and Witten, and considers the analogue of these results when the gauge group is U(1). It compares these results with results of Manoliu on abelian Chern-Simons theory, showing that the dependence on the coupling constant is the same.

We prove that the first order theory of nonabelian free groups eliminates the "there exists infinitely many" quantifier (in eq). Equivalently, since the theory of nonabelian free groups is stable, it does not have the finite cover property. We also extend our results to torsion-free hyperbolic groups under some conditi…

In the background effective field theory of heterotic string theory, the Green-Schwarz anomaly cancellation mechanism plays a key role. Here we reinterpret it and its magnetic dual version in terms of differential twisted String- and differential twisted Fivebrane-structures that generalize the notion of Spin-structure…

Bundle gerbes are a higher version of line bundles, we present nonabelian bundle gerbes as a higher version of principal bundles. Connection, curving, curvature and gauge transformations are studied both in a global coordinate independent formalism and in local coordinates. These are the gauge fields needed for the con…

We calculate the twisted Alexander polynomial with the adjoint action for torus knots and twist knots. As consequences of these calculations, we obtain the formula for the nonabelian Reidemeister torsion of torus knots in \cite{Du} and a formula for the nonabelian Reidemeister torsion of twist knots that is better than…

The paper broadens a mathematical correspondence to include more balanced metrics.

Study Poisson metrics on noncompact Kähler manifolds and their Higgs bundle applications.

The Kapustin-Witten equations relate to nonabelian Hodge theory on Kähler surfaces.

New space of currents defined for nonabelian free groups and malnormal subgroups.

We examine the relationship between nonabelian Hodge theory for Riemann surfaces and the theory of vector valued modular forms. In particular, we explain how one might use this relationship to prove a conjectural three-term inequality on the weights of free bases of vector valued modular forms associated to complex, fi…

We generalise Simpson's nonabelian Hodge correspondence to the context of projective varieties with klt singularities. The proof relies on a descent theorem for numerically flat vector bundles along birational morphisms. In its simplest form, this theorem asserts that given any klt variety X and any resolution of singu…

We construct $G$-corks for any extension $G$ of $\mathbb Z^m$ by any finite subgroup of $\mathrm{SO}(4)$ and weakly equivariant $G$-corks for any extension $G$ of $\mathbb Z^m$ by any finite solvable group. In particular, this is the first example of $G$-corks for an infinite nonabelian group $G$ and answers a question…

We give explicit formulas for the adjoint twisted Alexander polynomial and the nonabelian Reidemeister torsion of genus one two-bridge knots.

A conjecture of Riley about the relationship between real parabolic representations and signatures of two-bridge knots is verified for double twist knots.

Summary of main work 1999-2012

The proper action functional of (4k+3)-dimensional U(1)-Chern-Simons theory including the instanton sectors has a well known description: it is given on the moduli space of fields by the fiber integration of the cup product square of classes in degree-(2k+2) differential cohomology. We first refine this statement from …

Study on $GL(1|1)$ Higgs bundles over Riemann surfaces.

Lecture notes from the Concentrated Graduate Course preceding the Workshop on Hodge Theory in String Theory at the Fields Institute in Toronto, November 11--15, 2013.

An observable for nonabelian, higher-dimensional forms is introduced, its properties are discussed and its expectation value in BF theory is described. This is shown to produce potential and genuine invariants of higher-dimensional knots.

We define the fundamental quandle of a spatial graph and several invariants derived from it. In the category of graph tangles, we define an invariant based on the walks in the graph and cocycles from nonabelian quandle cohomology.

The validity of Freedman's disk theorem is known to depend only on the fundamental group. It was conjectured that it fails for nonabelian free fundamental groups. If this were true then surgery theory would work in dimension four. Recently, Krushkal and Lee proved a surprising result that surgery theory works for a lar…

Geometrically connects theta functions and WZNW blocks.

We study the twisted Alexander polynomial from the viewpoint of the SL(2,C)-character variety of nonabelian representations of a knot group. It is known that if a knot is fibered, then the twisted Alexander polynomials associated with nonabelian SL(2,C)-representations are all monic. In this paper, we show that the con…

We give a lower bound to the dimension of a contractible manifold on which a given group can act properly discontinuously. In particular, we show that the $n$-fold product of nonabelian free groups cannot act properly discontinuously on $\R^{2n-1}$.

We refine the Morgan's work on mixed Hodge structures on Sullivan's $1$--minimal models by using non-abelian Hodge theory. As an application, we give explicit representatives of real unipotent variations of mixed Hodge structures over compact K"ahler manifolds.

Extends Higgs fields theory to complex fiber bundles.

The $C_k$-equivalence is an equivalence relation generated by $C_k$-moves defined by Habiro. Habiro showed that the set of $C_k$-equivalence classes of the knots forms an abelian group under the connected sum and it can be classified by the additive Vassiliev invariant of order $\leq k-1$. We see that the set of $C_k$-…

We give a global picture of the Ricci flow on the space of three-dimensional, unimodular, nonabelian metric Lie algebras considered up to isometry and scaling. The Ricci flow is viewed as a two-dimensional dynamical system for the evolution of structure constants of the metric Lie algebra with respect to an evolving or…

Short survey based on talk given at the Institut Henri Poincare January 17th 2012, during program on surface groups. The aim was to describe some background results before describing in detail (in subsequent talks) the results of [Boa11c] related to wild character varieties and irregular mapping class groups.

This work forms a foundational study of factorization homology, or topological chiral homology, at the generality of stratified spaces with tangential structures. Examples of such factorization homology theories include intersection homology, compactly supported stratified mapping spaces, and Hochschild homology with c…

Paper generalizes Higgs bundle limits to parabolic setting.

The aim of this paper is to review and discuss in detail local aspects of principal bundles with groupoid structure. Many results, in particular from the second and third section, are already known to some extents, but, due to the lack of a ``unified'' point of view on the subject, I decided nonetheless to (re)define a…

The paper establishes a Lagrangian correspondence linking different geometric structures on complex varieties.

It is shown that the integrability conditions of the equations satisfied by the local Frenet frame associated with a holomorphic curve in a complex Grassmann manifold coincide with a special class of nonabelian Toda equations. A local moving frame of a holomorphic immersion of a Riemann surface into a complex Grassmann…

On a complex curve, we establish a correspondence between integrable connections with irregular singularities, and Higgs bundles such that the Higgs field is meromorphic with poles of any order. The moduli spaces of these objects are obtained by fixing at each singularity the polar part of the connection. We prove that…

Cencelj and Dranishnikov showed that for certain nilpotent groups $G$, $K(G_{ab},1) \in \text{AE}(X)$ is equivalent to $K(G,1) \in \text{AE}(X)$ for any compacta $X$ (here $G_{ab}$ is the abelianization of $G$). We examine the same problem for solvable groups. We also give an elementary proof of this fact for any nilpo…

Morifuji computed the twisted Alexander polynomial of twist knots for nonabelian representations. In this paper we compute the twisted Alexander polynomial and the Reidemeister torsion of genus one two-bridge knots, a class of knots which includes twist knots. As an application, we give a formula for the Reidemeister t…

We consider orientation-preserving actions of a finite group G on the 3-sphere S^3 (and also on Euclidean space R^3). By the geometrization of finite group actions on 3-manifolds, if such an action is smooth then it is conjugate to an orthogonal action, and in particular G is isomorphic to a subgroup of the orthogonal …