We show that the holonomy of a connection defined on a principal composite bundle is related by a non-abelian Stokes theorem to the composition of the holonomies associated with the connections of the component bundles of the composite. We apply this formalism to describe the non-abelian geometric phase (when the geometric phase generator does not commute with the dynamical phase generator). We find then an assumption to obtain a new kind of separation between the dynamical and the geometric phases. We also apply this formalism to the gauge theory of gravity in the presence of a Dirac spinor field in order to decompose the holonomy of the Lorentz connection into holonomies of the linear connection and of the Cartan connection.
A classic result in the foundations of Yang-Mills theory, due to J. W. Barrett ["Holonomy and Path Structures in General Relativity and Yang-Mills Theory." Int. J. Th. Phys. 30(9), (1991)], establishes that given a "generalized" holonomy map from the space of piece-wise smooth, closed curves based at some point of a manifold to a Lie group, there exists a principal bundle with that group as structure group and a principal connection on that bundle such that the holonomy map corresponds to the holonomies of that connection. Barrett also provided one sense in which this "recovery theorem" yields…
We construct a cycle in higher Hochschild homology associated to the 2-dimensional torus which represents 2-holonomy of a non-abelian gerbe in the same way the ordinary holonomy of a principal G-bundle gives rise to a cycle in ordinary Hochschild homology. This is done using the connection 1-form of Baez-Schreiber. A crucial ingredient in our work is the possibility to arrange that in the structure crossed module mu: g -> h of the principal 2-bundle, the Lie algebra h is abelian, up to equivalence of crossed modules.
Narasimhan and Ramadas showed that the Gribov ambiguity was maximal for the product SU(2) bundle over S^3. Specifically they showed that the holonomy group of the Coulomb connection is dense in the connected component of the identity of the gauge group. Instead of base manifold S^3, we consider here a base manifold with a boundary. In this with-boundary case we must include boundary conditions on the connection forms. We will use the so-called conductor (a.k.a Dirichlet) boundary conditions on connections. With these boundary conditions, we will first show that the space of connections is a C^…
We construct the holonomy-flux operator algebra in the recently developed spinor formulation of loop gravity. We show that, when restricting to SU(2)-gauge invariant operators, the familiar grasping and Wilson loop operators are written as composite operators built from the gauge-invariant `generalized ladder operators' recently introduced in the U(N) approach to intertwiners and spin networks. We comment on quantization ambiguities that appear in the definition of the holonomy operator and use these ambiguities as a toy model to test a class of quantization ambiguities which is present in the…
We survey several mathematical developments in the holonomy approach to gauge theory. A cornerstone of this approach is the introduction of group structures on spaces of based loops on a smooth manifold, relying on certain homotopy equivalence relations -- such as the so-called thin homotopy -- and the resulting interpretation of gauge fields as group homomorphisms to a Lie group $G$ satisfying a suitable smoothness condition, encoding the holonomy of a gauge orbit of smooth connections on a principal $G$-bundle. We also prove several structural results on thin homotopy, and in particular we c…
Instantons in pure Yang-Mills theories on partially periodic space $\mathbb{R}^3\times S^1$ are usually called calorons. The background periodicity brings on characteristic features of calorons such as non-trivial holonomy, which plays an essential role for confinement/deconfinement transition in pure Yang-Mills gauge theory. For the case of gauge group $SU(2)$, calorons can be interpreted as composite objects of two constituent "monopoles" with opposite magnetic charges. There are often the cases that the two monopole charges are unbalanced so that the calorons possess net magnetic charge in …
A nice differential-geometric framework for (non-abelian) higher gauge theory is provided by principal 2-bundles, i.e. categorified principal bundles. Their total spaces are Lie groupoids, local trivializations are kinds of Morita equivalences, and connections are Lie-2-algebra-valued 1-forms. In this article, we construct explicitly the parallel transport of a connection on a principal 2-bundle. Parallel transport along a path is a Morita equivalence between the fibres over the end points, and parallel transport along a surface is an intertwiner between Morita equivalences. We prove that our …
A geometric interpretation of the Aharonov--Bohm effect is given in terms of connections on principal fiber bundles. It is demonstrated that the principal fiber bundle can be trivial while the connection and its holonomy group are nontrivial. Therefore, the main role is played by geometric rather than topological effects.
The theory of principal $G$-bundles over a Lie groupoid is an important one, unifying the various types of principal $G$-bundles, including those over manifolds, those over orbifolds, as well as equivariant principal $G$-bundles. In this paper, we study the differential geometry of these objects, including connections and holonomy maps. We also introduce a Chern-Weil map for these principal bundles and prove that the characteristic classes obtained coincide with the universal characteristic classes. As an application, we recover the equivariant Chern-Weil map of Bott-Tu. We also obtain an expl…
A geometric interpretation of the Berry phase and its Wilczek--Zee non-Abelian generalization are given in terms of connections on principal fiber bundles. It is demonstrated that a principal fiber bundle can be trivial in all cases, while the connection and its holonomy group are nontrivial. Therefore, the main role is played by geometric rather than topological effects.
Narasimhan and Ramadas showed that the restricted holonomy group of the Coulomb connection is dense in the connected component of the identity of the gauge group when one considers the product principal bundle $S^3 \times SU(2)\to S^3$. Instead of a base manifold S^3, we consider here a base manifold of dimension $n\ge 2$ with a boundary and use Dirichlet boundary conditions on connections as defined by Marini. A key step in the method of Narasimhan and Ramadas consisted in showing that the linear space spanned by the curvature form at one specially chosen connection is dense in the holonomy L…
We determine the holonomy of generalized Killing spinor covariant derivatives of the form $D= \nabla + Ω$ on pseudo-Riemannian reductive homogeneous spaces in a purely algebraic and algorithmic way, where $Ω: TM \rightarrow Λ^*(TM)$ is a left-invariant homomorphism. This is essentially an application of the theory of invariant principal bundle connections defined over homogeneous principal bundles. Moreover, the algorithm allows a computation of the associated Killing superalgebra in certain cases. The procedure is demonstrated by determining the supersymmetries of certain homogeneous M2 duals…
A method for determining the orbit types of the action of the group of gauge transformations on the space of connections for gauge theories with gauge group SU(n) in space-time dimension d<=4 is presented. The method is based on the 1:1-correspondence between orbit types and holonomy-induced Howe subbundles of the underlying principal SU(n)-bundle. It is shown that the orbit types are labelled by certain cohomology elements of space-time satisfying two relations. Thus, for every principal SU(n)-bundle the corresponding stratification of the gauge orbit space can be determined explicitly. As an…
Many physical theories, including notably string theory, require non-abelian higher gauge fields defining higher holonomy. Previous approaches to such higher connections on categorified principal bundles require these to be fake flat. This condition, however, renders them locally gauge equivalent to connections on abelian gerbes. For particular higher gauge groups, for example 2-group models of the string group, this limitation can be overcome by generalizing the notion of higher connection. Starting from this observation, we define a corresponding generalized higher holonomy functor which is …
For a principal bundle $P\to M$ equipped with a connection ${\bar A}$, we study an infinite dimensional bundle ${\mathcal P}^{\rm dec}_{\bar A}P$ over the space of paths on $M$, with the points of ${\mathcal P}^{\rm dec}_{\bar A}P$ being horizontal paths on $P$ decorated with elements of a second structure group. We construct parallel transport processes on such bundles and study holonomy bundles in this setting. We explain the relationship with categorical geometry and explore the notion of categorical connections on categorical principal bundles in a concrete differential geometric way.
We consider classical gauge theory on a principal bundle P->X in a case of spontaneous symmetry breaking characterized by the reduction of a structure group G of P->X to its closed subgroup H. This reduction is ensured by the existence of global sections of the quotient bundle P/H->X treated as classical Higgs fields. Matter fields with an exact symmetry group H in such gauge theory are considered in the pairs with Higgs fields, and they are represented by sections of a composite bundle Y->P/H->X, where Y->P/H is a fiber bundle associated to a principal bundle P->P/H with a structure group H. …
We consider classical gauge theory with spontaneous symmetry breaking on a principal bundle $P\to X$ whose structure group $G$ is reducible to a closed subgroup $H$, and sections of the quotient bundle $P/H\to X$ are treated as classical Higgs fields. In this theory, matter fields with an exact symmetry group $H$ are described by sections of a composite bundle $Y\to P/H\to X$. We show that their gauge $G$-invariant Lagrangian necessarily factorizes through a vertical covariant differential on $Y$ defined by a principal connection on an $H$-principal bundle $P\to P/H$.
We provide a new perspective on parallel 2-transport and principal 2-group bundles with 2-connection. We define parallel 2-transport as a 2-functor from the thin fundamental 2-groupoid to the 2-category of 2-group torsors. The definition of the 2-category of 2-group torsors is new, and we develop the tools necessary for computations in this 2-category. We prove a version of the non-Abelian Stokes Theorem and the Ambrose-Singer Theorem for 2-transport. This definition motivated by the fact that principal $G$-bundles with connection are equivalent to functors from the thin fundamental groupoid t…
Geometric foundations of thermodynamics in the quantum regime
Universidad de Granada（格拉纳达大学）；Instituto Carlos I de Física Teórica y Computacional, Universidad de Granada（格拉纳达大学卡洛斯一世理论与计算物理研究所）；Universidad de Córdoba（科尔多瓦大学）
Higgs fields are attributes of classical gauge theory on a principal bundle $P\to X$ whose structure Lie group $G$ if is reducible to a closed subgroup $H$. They are represented by sections of the quotient bundle $P/H\to X$. A problem lies in description of matter fields with an exact symmetry group $H$. They are represented by sections of a composite bundle which is associated to an $H$-principal bundle $P\to P/H$. It is essential that they admit an action of a gauge group $G$.
We construct Chern-Simons bundles as $\mathrm{Aut}^{+}P$-equivariant $U(1)$ -bundles with connection over the space of connections $\mathcal{A}_{P}$ on a principal $G$-bundle $P\rightarrow M$. We show that the Chern-Simons bundles are determined up to an isomorphisms by means of its equivariant holonomy. The space of equivariant holonomies is shown to coincide with the space of equivariant differential characteres of second order. Furthermore, we prove that the Chern-Simons theory provides, in a natural way, an equivariant differential character that determines the Chern-Simons bundles. Our co…
This paper is motivated by recent developments of higher gauge theory. Different from its style of using higher category theory, we try to describe the concept of higher parallel transport within setting of classical principal bundle theory. From this perspective, we obtain a global geometric proof on a generalized 3-dimensional non-abelian Stokes' theorem related to parallel transport on surfaces. It can be naturally extended to four dimension when the underlying crossed module is replaced by crossed 2-module. This 4-dimensional Stokes' theorem yields a global formula for volume holonomy, and…
We describe the geometric (Berry) phases arising when some quantum systems are driven by control classical parameters but also by outer classical stochastic processes (as for example classical noises). The total geometric phase is then divided into an usual geometric phase associated with the control parameters and a second geometric phase associated with the stochastic processes. The geometric structure in which these geometric phases take place is a composite bundle (and not an usual principal bundle), which is explicitely built in this paper. We explain why the composite bundle structure is…
What remains of a geometrical notion like that of a principal bundle when the base space is not a manifold but a coarse graining of it, like the poset formed by a base for the topology ordered under inclusion? Motivated by finding a geometrical framework for developing gauge theories in algebraic quantum field theory, we give, in the present paper, a first answer to this question. The notions of transition function, connection form and curvature form find a nice description in terms of cohomology, in general non-Abelian, of a poset with values in a group $G$. Interpreting a 1--cocycle as a pri…
In this paper, we start from an extension of the notion of holonomy on diffeological bundles, reformulate the notion of regular Lie group or Frölicher Lie groups, state an Ambrose-Singer theorem that enlarges the one stated in \cite{Ma2}, and conclude with a differential geometric treatment of KP hierarchy. The examples of Lie groups that are studied are principally those obtained by enlarging some graded Frölicher (Lie) algebras such as formal $q-$series of the quantum algebra of pseudo-differential operators. These deformations can be defined for classical pseudo-differential operators but t…
Topological quantum systems subjected to an even (resp. odd) time-reversal symmetry can be classified by looking at the related "Real" (resp. "Quaternionic") Bloch-bundles. If from one side the topological classification of these time-reversal vector bundle theories has been completely described in [DG1] for the "Real" case and in [DG2] for the "Quaternionic" case, from the other side it seems that a classification in terms of differential geometric invariants is still missing in the literature. With this article (and its companion [DG3]) we want to cover this gap. More precisely, we extend in…
