Noncommutative homotopy algebras associated with open strings
Hiroshige Kajiura
备注：
92 pages, 16 figuers; based on Ph.D thesis submitted to Graduate School of Mathematical Sciences, Univ. of Tokyo on January, 2003; v2: explanation improved, references added, published version
We discuss general properties of $A_\infty$-algebras and their applications to the theory of open strings. The properties of cyclicity for $A_\infty$-algebras are examined in detail. We prove the decomposition theorem, which is a stronger version of the minimal model theorem, for $A_\infty$-algebras and cyclic $A_\infty$-algebras and discuss various consequences of it. In particular it is applied to classical open string field theories and it is shown that all classical open string field theories on a fixed conformal background are cyclic $A_\infty$-isomorphic to each other. The same results hold for classical closed string field theories, whose algebraic structure is governed by cyclic $L_\infty$-algebras.
We study cohomology theories of strongly homotopy algebras, namely $A_\infty, C_\infty$ and $L_\infty$-algebras and establish the Hodge decomposition of Hochschild and cyclic cohomology of $C_\infty$-algebras thus generalising previous work by Loday and Gerstenhaber-Schack. These results are then used to show that a $C_\infty$-algebra with an invariant inner product on its cohomology can be uniquely extended to a symplectic $C_\infty$-algebra (an $\infty$-generalisation of a commutative Frobenius algebra introduced by Kontsevich). As another application, we show that the `string topology' oper…
We describe the cyclic $L_{\infty}$-algebra formulation of classical general relativity without matter fields in the Einstein-Cartan-Palatini formalism. Using Drinfel'd twist deformation techniques, we define a noncommutative version of the theory with braided gauge symmetries. We introduce a notion of braided $L_{\infty}$-algebra, and use it to encode the symmetries, field content, field equations and Noether identities of noncommutative gravity.
This paper builds a general framework in which to study cohomology theories of strongly homotopy algebras, namely $A_\infty, C_\infty$ and $L_\infty$-algebras. This framework is based on noncommutative geometry as expounded by Connes and Kontsevich. The developed machinery is then used to establish a general form of Hodge decomposition of Hochschild and cyclic cohomology of $C_\infty$-algebras. This generalizes and puts in a conceptual framework previous work by Loday and Gerstenhaber-Schack.
Using new configuration spaces, we give an explicit construction that extends Kontsevich's Lie-infinity quasi-isomorphism from polyvector fields to Hochschild cochains to a quasi-isomorphism of A-infinity algebras equipped with actions by homotopy derivations of the Lie algebra of polyvector fields. One may term this formality a formality of two-colored noncommutative Gerstenhaber homotopy algebras. In our result the action of polyvector fields by homotopy derivations of the wedge product on polyvector fields is not the adjoint action by the Schouten bracket, but a homotopy nontrivial and, in …
A review of the applications of noncommutative geometry to a systematic formulation of duality symmetries in string theory is presented. The spectral triples associated with a lattice vertex operator algebra and the corresponding Dirac-Ramond operators are constructed and shown to naturally incorporate target space and discrete worldsheet dualities as isometries of the noncommutative space. The target space duality and diffeomorphism symmetries are shown to act as gauge transformations of the geometry. The connections with the noncommutative torus and Matrix Theory compactifications are also d…
We consider inner deformations of families of $A_\infty$-algebras. With the help of noncommutative Cartan's calculus, we prove the invariance of Hochschild (co)homology under inner deformations. The invariance also holds for cyclic cohomology classes that satisfy some additional conditions. Applications to dg-algebras and QFT problems are briefly discussed.
We summarise recent perspectives on symmetries of noncommutative field theories based on homotopy algebras. We show how these viewpoints naturally lead to a new class of noncommutative field theories which possess braided gauge symmetries, and explain in detail their uses in gravity. We review how these considerations lead to a new theory of noncommutative gravity in four dimensions within the Einstein-Cartan-Palatini formalism.
We construct a new gauge theory on a pair of d-dimensional noncommutative tori. The latter comes from an intimate relationship between the noncommutative geometry associated with a lattice vertex operator algebra A and the noncommutative torus. We show that the (truncated) tachyon subalgebra of A is naturally isomorphic to a class of twisted modules representing quantum deformations of the algebra of functions on the torus. We construct the corresponding even real spectral triples and determine their Morita equivalence classes using string duality arguments. These constructions yield simple pr…
We formulate general definitions of semi-classical gauge transformations for noncommutative gauge theories in general backgrounds of string theory, and give novel explicit constructions using techniques based on symplectic embeddings of almost Poisson structures. In the absence of fluxes the gauge symmetries close a Poisson gauge algebra and their action is governed by a $P_\infty$-algebra which we construct explicitly from the symplectic embedding. In curved backgrounds they close a field dependent gauge algebra governed by an $L_\infty$-algebra which is not a $P_\infty$-algebra. Our techniqu…
Motivated by the form of the noncommutative *-product in a system of open strings and Dp-branes with constant nonzero Neveu-Schwarz 2-form, we define a deformed multiplication operation on a quasitriangular Hopf algebra in terms of its R-matrix, and comment on some of its properties. We show that the noncommutative string theory *-product is a particular example of this multiplication, and comment on other possible Hopf algebraic properties which may underlie the theory.
We revisit the existence, background independence and uniqueness of closed, open and open-closed bosonic- and topological string field theory, using the machinery of homotopy algebra. In a theory of classical open- and closed strings, the space of inequivalent open string field theories is isomorphic to the space of classical closed string backgrounds. We then discuss obstructions of these moduli spaces at the quantum level. For the quantum theory of closed strings, uniqueness on a given background follows from the decomposition theorem for loop homotopy algebras. We also address the question …
We give a brief summary of algebraic aspects of string theory arising in the noncommutative geometry setting of foliations called string diagrammatics which we introduced jointly with Bob Penner. We furthermore discuss how this gives rise to actions on the Hochschild complex of a Frobenius algebra. We then explain how this leads to new quantum chains for loop spaces and a stabilization in the semi--simple case.
String backgrounds are described as purely geometric objects related to moduli spaces of Riemann surfaces, in the spirit of Segal's definition of a conformal field theory. Relations with conformal field theory, topological field theory and topological gravity are studied. For each field theory, an algebraic counterpart, the (homotopy) algebra satisfied by the tree level correlators, is constructed.
We define a homotopy algebra associated to classical open-closed strings. We call it an open-closed homotopy algebra (OCHA). It is inspired by Zwiebach's open-closed string field theory and also is related to the situation of Kontsevich's deformation quantization. We show that it is actually a homotopy invariant notion; for instance, the minimal model theorem holds. Also, we show that our open-closed homotopy algebra gives us a general scheme for deformation of open string structures (A(infinity)-algebras) by closed strings (L(infinity)-algebras).
We examine the structure of spacetime symmetries of toroidally compactified string theory within the framework of noncommutative geometry. Following a proposal of Frohlich and Gawedzki, we describe the noncommutative string spacetime using a detailed algebraic construction of the vertex operator algebra. We show that the spacetime duality and discrete worldsheet symmetries of the string theory are a consequence of the existence of two independent Dirac operators, arising from the chiral structure of the conformal field theory. We demonstrate that these Dirac operators are also responsible for …
Barton Zwiebach constructed the `string products' on the Hilbert space of combined conformal field theory of matter and ghosts. It is well-known that the `tree level' specialization of these products forms a strongly homotopy Lie algebra. A strongly homotopy Lie algebra is given by a square zero coderivation on the cofree cocommutative connected coalgebra, on the other hand, strongly homotopy Lie algebras are algebras over the cobar construction on the commutative algebras operad. The aim of our paper is to give two similar characterizations of the structure formed by the `string products' of …
Recantly, William Crawley-Boevey proposed the definition of a Poisson structure on a noncommutative algebra $A$ based on the Kontsevich principle. His idea was to find the {\it weakest} possible structure on $A$ that induces standard (commutative) Poisson structures on all representation spaces $ \Rep_V(A) $. It turns out that such a weak Poisson structure on $A$ is a Lie algebra bracket on the 0-th cyclic homology $ \HC_0(A) $ satisfying some extra conditions; it was thus called in an {\it $ H_0$-Poisson structure}. This paper studies a higher homological extension of this construction. In ou…
This paper is a survey of our previous works on open-closed homotopy algebras, together with geometrical background, especially in terms of compactifications of configuration spaces (one of Fred's specialities) of Riemann surfaces, structures on loop spaces, etc. We newly present Merkulov's geometric A_infty-structure [Internat. Math. Res. Notices (1999) 153--164, arxiv:math/0001007] as a special example of an OCHA. We also recall the relation of open-closed homotopy algebras to various aspects of deformation theory.
We give a quick method of constructing strong homotopy associative algebra, namely, the higher derived product construction. This method is associative analogue of classical higher derived bracket construction in the category of Loday algebras. We introduce a new type of algebra "Loday pair" which is noncommutative analogue of classical Leibniz pair. We study strong homotopy Loday pairs and the higher derived brackets on the Loday pairs.
We show that if the cochain complex computing Ext groups (in the category of modules over Hopf algebroids) admits a cocyclic structure, then the noncommutative Cartan calculus structure on Tor over Ext dualises in a cyclic sense to a calculus on Coext over Cotor. More precisely, the cyclic duals of the chain resp. cochain spaces computing the two classical derived functors lead to complexes that compute the more exotic ones, giving a cyclic opposite module over an operad with multiplication that induce operations such as a Lie derivative, a cap product (or contraction), and a (cyclic) differen…
We introduce in this paper the notion of noncommutative Serre fibration (shortly, NCSF) and show that up to homotopy, every NCCW complex morphism is some noncommutative Serre fibration. We then deduce a six-term exact sequence for the periodic cyclic homology and for K-theory of an arbitrary noncommutative Serre fibration. We also show how to use this technique to compute K-theory and cyclic theory of some noncommutative quotients.
We illustrate the various ways in which the algebraic framework of noncommutative geometry naturally captures the short-distance spacetime properties of string theory. We describe the noncommutative spacetime constructed from a vertex operator algebra and show that its algebraic properties bear a striking resemblence to some structures appearing in M Theory, such as the noncommutative torus. We classify the inner automorphisms of the space and show how they naturally imply the conventional duality symmetries of the quantum geometry of spacetime. We examine the problem of constructing a univers…
Relations between the string topology of Chas and Sullivan and the homotopy skein modules of Hoste and Przytycki are studied. This provides new insight into the structure of homotopy skein modules and their meaning in the framework of quantum topology. Our results can be considered as weak extensions to all orientable 3-manifolds of classical results by Turaev and Goldman concerning intersection and skein theory on oriented surfaces.
In this paper we discuss various aspects of open-closed homotopy algebras (OCHAs) presented in our previous paper, inspired by Zwiebach's open-closed string field theory, but that first paper concentrated on the mathematical aspects. Here we show how an OCHA is obtained by extracting the tree part of Zwiebach's quantum open-closed string field theory. We clarify the explicit relation of an OCHA with Kontsevich's deformation quantization and with the B-models of homological mirror symmetry. An explicit form of the minimal model for an OCHA is given as well as its relation to the perturbative ex…
