Questions tagged [gauge-theory]
Gauge theory in physics and mathematics refers to a field theory whose fields include principal bundles with connection.
78 questions with no upvoted or accepted answers
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Linking formulas by Euler, Pólya, Nekrasov-Okounkov
Consider the formal product
$$F(t,x,z):=\prod_{j=0}^{\infty}(1-tx^j)^{z-1}.$$
(a) If $z=2$ then on the one hand we get Euler's
$$F(t,x,2)=\sum_{n\geq0}\frac{(-1)^nx^{\binom{n}2}}{(x;x)_n}t^n,$$
on the ...
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13
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372
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Finite dimensional approximation of Donaldson theory
In addition to the Seiberg-Witten invariant there has been further success with "finite dimensional approximations" of the Seiberg-Witten theory: Bauer-Furuta's stable (co)homotopy invariants, and ...
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12
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478
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What is known about the Yang-Mills stratification over 3-manifolds?
Rade proved in his thesis (Crelle's Journal, 1992, available here: digizeitschriften.de/dms/toc/?PPN=PPN243919689) that if $E\rightarrow M$ is a $U(n)$-bundle over a 3-manifold, then the gradient flow ...
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Central Yang-Mills connections, and flat connections with prescribed holonomy
Let $X$ be $\Sigma^g$ which is the Riemann surface of genus $g$, and consider a trivial $G$-bundle over it.
1) In this $2$-d setting, the space of Yang-Mills central connections is the set of ...
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9
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205
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Donaldson invariants for piecewise-linear $4$-manifolds
It is well known that in dimension $4$, the notion of piecewise linear manifolds and the notion of smooth manifolds are the same [1][2]. On the other hand, the computations of Donaldson invariants ...
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Is there a contact instanton connection on the tangent bundle of the 5-sphere?
A well-known example of a contact manifold is $S^5$, arising from it being a circle bundle over $\mathbb{CP^2}$. This is somewhat related to the reduction of the structure group from $SO(5)$ to $SU(2)$...
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Hartshorne's Conjectures about Algebraic Bundles?
In 1978 Hartshorne published a list of 26 open problems about algebraic bundles on projective spaces [Hart], proceeding from an Oxford conference organized by Atiyah.
I understand that many of these ...
user100272
8
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369
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Existence of Yang-Mills connection
My question is about what we know, in dimension $4$, about the loss of compactness of Yang–Mills connections with $L^2$-bounded curvature. My background is more analytical than geometrical and it is ...
- 914
8
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291
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Infinitely many nonempty Seiberg-Witten moduli spaces
The classic "finiteness" statement in Seiberg-Witten (SW) theory is that, for any smooth closed connected 4-manifold, there are only finitely many spin-c structures with nontrivial SW ...
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8
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251
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Exact triangle for monopole Floer homology with $\mathbb{Z}$-coefficient
Let $Y$ be oriented 3 manifold with torus boundary and let $\gamma_{j}$ (j=0,1,2) be three curves on its boundary with $\#(\gamma_{j}\cap \gamma_{j+1})=-1$. We denote by $Y_{j}$ the manifold obtained ...
- 1,069
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Deformation of the covariant Laplacian
Let $M$ be a Riemann surface and $P \to M$ a principal $G$-bundle (with compact structure group $G$).
Fix a connection $A$ in $P$ and consider a nearby connection $B$, which is in Coulomb gauge ...
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7
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250
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Weak 2-groups and non-abelian gerbe over a manifold
In literature, a strict 2-group is defined as a group object in the category of categories or groupoids. It has many well known equivalent descriptions viz:
1. A strict monoidal category in which all ...
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$U(1)$ v.s. $SU(N)$ v.s. $SO(N)$ instantons
I am interested in knowing the details of the comparison between $U(1)$, $SU(N)$ and $SO(N)$ instantons for their gauge theories in 4 spacetime dimensions., in terms of:
Chern class (1st, 2nd), and
...
- 2,147
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Connected components of gauge groups of principal bundles over generalized flag manifolds
Let $G$ be a compact connected Lie group and $P$ a principal $G$-bundle over a finite CW complex $X$. The gauge group $\mathcal{G}(P)$ is defined to be the group of principal bundle automorphisms of $...
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Yang–Mills existence and mass gap official statement on Euclidean $\mathbb{R}^4$, why not Minkowski $ \mathbb{R}^{3,1}$?
Yang–Mills existence and mass gap problem is officially stated by Clay Mathematics Institute:
Yang–Mills Existence and Mass Gap.'' Prove that for any compact simple gauge group G, a non-trivial ...
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Spectral flow of Dirac operator twisted by instanton
Suppose $E$ is a $SU(2)$-bundle over a closed three manifold $M$ and $S$ is the spinor bundle over $M$. Also assume $D_{A(t)}:\Gamma(S\otimes_{\mathbb c} E)\to \Gamma(S\otimes_{\mathbb c} E)$ is a ...
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Infinite-dimensional manifold $ΩG$ of loops and the complex projective $n$-space
In a review seminar today, I heard the speaker takes the below for granted, but I have no enough background
"Yang-Mills (YM) instantons in 4D can be naturally identified with (i.e. have the same ...
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6
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Correspondence between $O(n)$-instantons on $S^4$ and holomorphic bundles over $\mathbb{P}^3$
Theorem 2.9 on page 49 of Atiyah's Geometry of Yang-Mills Fields states that there is a natural correspondence between $U(n)$-instantons on $S^4$ and holomorphic vector bundles of rank $n$ over $\...
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Are 2d gauge anomalies determined by genus-one data?
Let $G$ be a (finite, say) group and $\alpha \in \mathrm{H}^3(\mathrm{B}G; \mathrm{U}(1))$ a 3-cohomology class. For each oriented 3-manifold $X^3$ equipped with a $G$-bundle $P : X \to \mathrm{B}G$, ...
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Is central extension of a group equivalent to a bundle with gauge field?
Let $\tilde G$ be a central extension of a group $G$ by $U(1)$.
One common elegant definition is that there should be a short exact sequence of groups: $0 \to U(1) \to \tilde G \to G \to 0$
However,...
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339
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Seiberg-Witten curve for product SU(2)^N gauge theories
In equation 2.10 of this article, the author gives the Seiberg-Witten curve for a $U(N)$ gauge theory with $L<2N$ massive flavours with masses given by $m_i$ as:
$y^{2}=\left\langle \mathrm{det}\...
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Has anyone seen this Hitchin-like system?
Let $(M,g)$ be a riemannian manifold and let $P\to M$ be a principal $G$-bundle with connection $A$. Let $\alpha \in \Omega^1(M;\mathrm{ad}P)$ be a one-form on $M$ with values in the adjoint bundle $\...
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Nullity of a self-dual connection
I consider Yang-Mills theory in the critical dimension $4$ on a $SU(2)$-bundle with positive Chern-Class. It is well known that self-dual connections ($*F=F$) are minimizers of the Yang-Mills ...
- 914
5
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179
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Curvature of the line bundle $\mathcal{O}(2)$ on the twistor space
Let $M^4$ be a closed Riemannian manifold and $Z:=S\big(\Lambda^2_+(M)\big)$ denote the twistor space of $M,$ i.e., the sphere bundle of the self-dual 2-forms on $M$. Now at a point $(m,J)\in Z$ the ...
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Uniqueness of Witten-Dijkgraaf 2D TQFT at 0th dimension
If I understand correctly, Dijkgraaf-Witten TQFT in dimension 2 is the
following. Fix any finite group $G$, we define a field over a closed
2-manifold to be a principle $G$ bundle (it's automatically ...
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158
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Inverse semigroups and partial symmetries
I recently ran across the idea of inverse semi-groups in the context of partial symmetries, where the symmetry only acts on part of the system and not the entire system (e.g., in quasi-crystals).
My ...
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Does Dijkgraaf-Witten theory have a time-reversal symmetry?
By having a time-reversal symmetry I mean that there is a local anti-unitary symmetry (representing the non-trivial element of $Z_2$) of the state-sum construction (or, if you want, of the associated ...
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Does $\Lambda^2_{+}$ generate a differential ideal for a self-dual $4$-manifold?
Let $(X, g)$ be a smooth, oriented, Riemannian 4-diemnsional manifold. Let $\Lambda^2$ denote the bundle of 2-forms on $X$. Then the Hodge-star operator decomposes $\Lambda^2$ into the space of self-...
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Bochner-Weitzenbock formula for flat bundle Laplacian
Suppose $(M,g)$ is a compact Riemannian manifold and $(E, \nabla, \lambda, B)$ is the following data:
1) $E$ is a complex vector bundle over $M.$
2) $\nabla$ is a flat connection.
3) $B$ is a ...
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Existence of diagonalizing coordinates for the metric tensor
Solving for metrics that are Einstein, i.e that satisfy $R_{\mu \nu} = \Lambda g_{\mu \nu}$ is highly non-trivial as soon as $g_{\alpha \beta}$ is allowed to have off-diagonal components. However, ...
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Transversality for Chern-Simons functional on a rational homology sphere
When Floer defined instanton Floer homology for an integer homology sphere. He chose a finite set of loops in the manifold and consider the holonomy along these loops as a perturbation on Chern-Simons ...
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4
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Higher-dimensional analogue of the relation between stable Higgs bundles and constant curvature metrics
In Hitchin's famous paper[1] on the self-dual Yang-Mills equations, he discussed the relation between the stable Higgs bundles and the Teichmüller space for a compact Riemann surface. Namely, through ...
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Moduli spaces of rank 2 stable bundles over curves as projective varieties
Let $\Sigma$ be a Riemann surface of genus $g$. Let's consider the moduli space of rank $2$ stable vector bundles with determinant $L$ such that $\deg(L)$ is odd. Denote this space by $\mathcal{M}_{\...
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Compactly supported geometric representatives for Seiberg-Witten invariant
The question is introduced at the end of the second paragraph.
Readers familiar with Seiberg-Witten theory may well skip the first paragraph.
The first paragraph is meant to set up some notation which ...
- 1,040
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273
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Instanton numbers for diverse gauge bundles on diverse manifolds --- their relations to characteristic classes
It is standard (?) that the $SU(N)$ gauge theory has the instanton number $n$ quantized as $n \in \mathbb{Z}$
$$
n = { 1 \over 8\pi^2} \int_{\mathcal{M}_{4}} \text{tr} \left(F \wedge F\right) = {1 \...
- 10.5k
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Airy stress, Beltrami stress and gauge fields
The following problem comes from the theory of elasticity, but reduces to a pure geometric problem. Consider a $d$-dimensional Riemannian manifold $(M,g)$ with boundary representing the intrinsic ...
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3d Chern-Simons TQFT of gauge group (E8)$_1$ = SO(16)$_1 \otimes$ a trivial spin TQFT = Cartan E$_8$ matrix
In this post, we like to relate the following 3 bosonic TQFTs that can be defined on generic non-spin manifold $M^3$.
Given a non-abelian Chern-Simons (CS) TQFT of a gauge group $G$ and the $k$ named ...
- 10.5k
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The topology of subgroups of gauge groups
I am reading Atiyah and Bott's classic paper "Yang-Mills Equations over Riemann surfaces" and struggling with proposition 2.16 (p. 542)
Let $P$ be a principal $U(n)$-bundle over a compact Riemann ...
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tertiary characteristic class: integration of the Chern-Simons form
Let $P \to M$ be a trivial principal circle bundle with connection $A$ over a closed 3-manifold $M$. The Chern-Simons 3-form of the connection is defined by $\mathrm{CS}(A) = A \wedge dA$. Suppose ...
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147
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Generalizing the Narasimhan–Seshadri theorem
There is a theorem that (stable, topologically trivial) holomorphic $G$-bundles are in one-to-one correspondence to flat $K$-bundles (with the appropriate corresponding condition), where $K$ is the ...
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3
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253
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Tensor product of associated vector bundles
Let $(P, X, \pi, G)$ and $(P', X, \pi', G')$ be two principal bundles (with Lie groups $G$, $G'$ respectively). Given a vector space $V$ and representations $\rho, \rho'$ of the Lie groups in this ...
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309
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Gauge structure of teleparallel gravity
I am interested in references that treat teleparallel gravity in a mathematically rigorous manner, especially in regards to it being a "gauge theory of the translation group".
The standard reference ...
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3
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297
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Cohomology of a flat principal connection
Let $M$ be a compact manifold, $G$ a compact Lie group, $P\to M$ a principal $G$-bundle and $A$ a flat principal connection on $P$. Then $(\Omega^\bullet(M;\operatorname{ad}P),d_A)$ forms a cochain ...
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262
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Vector bundle connection over complex manifold vs. over underlying real manifold
Let $(X,g)$ be an Hermitian manifold, and $(E,h)$ be an Hermitian vector bundle over $X$ of rank $r$. Denote by $(X^{\mathbb{R}},g^{\mathbb{R}})$ the underlying Riemannian manifold of $(X,g)$.
...
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Is it likely that gradient flow trajectories of a $G$-invariant function pass through degenerate points?
This question may be posed somewhat vaguely, but I'm interested to actually get an idea of what to expect, so I try to not target it at a specific result.
Assume that $G$ is a compact Lie group, ...
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2
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0
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125
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Changing the sign of the moment map in the Seiberg Witten equations
The Seiberg-Witten equations on a closed four manifold
$$
D_A \varphi = 0, F_A^+ = \mu(\varphi)
$$
are elliptic (up to gauge transformations), and so the equations
$$
D_A \varphi = 0, F_A^+ = -\mu(\...
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2
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0
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169
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Understanding the Seiberg-Witten equations in dimension $3$
I am trying to understand the dimensional reduction of Seiberg-Witten equations from dimension $4$ to $3$, more specifically my concern is about ellipticity of the new equations in dimension $3$ under ...
- 954
2
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1
answer
518
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A question about the book "the geometry and dynamics of magnetic monopoles"
In chapter 2 of the book "The geometry and dynamics of magnetic monopoles", by M.F. Atiyah and N.J. Hitchin (the chapter is called "Geometry of the monopole spaces"), it is written:...
- 5,215
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0
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86
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Weitzenbock- Anti-selfdual
In "The Theory of Gauge Fields in Four Manifolds", B.Lawson proves the Bochner-Weitzenbock, for an anti-self-dual field $\Psi \in \Omega^2_-(\mathfrak{G}_E)$,where $\mathfrak{G}_E$ is the ...
- 41
2
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0
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195
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Gauge invariance of a QFT path integral
If we consider the usual formal construction of a path integral over fields with gauge symmetries e.g as in Weinbergs "The Quantum Theory of Fields - Volume 2" the notion of gauge invariance ...
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