Exotic twisted equivariant cohomology of loop spaces, twisted Bismut-Chern character and T-duality (Q2018335)

There is a popular idea among physicists who study string theory that -- analogous to the point of view that the charges associated with electromagnetic fields take values in integral cohomology (charge quantization) -- the charges of D-branes should take values in (twisted) K-theory. The authors of this article make yet another proposal, and to that end, define what they call the \textit{completed periodic exotic twisted \(\mathbb{T}\)-equivariant cohomology} \(h^\bullet_{\mathbb{T}}(M,\nabla^\xi;H)\); here \(M\) is a (possibly infinite dimensional) manifold with an action of the \(1\)-torus \(\mathbb{T}\); \(\xi\) a \(\mathbb{T}\)-equivariant complex line bundle over \(M\); \(\nabla^\xi\) a \(\mathbb{T}\)-invariant connection on \(\xi\); and \(H\) a closed \(3\)-form (called \(H\)-flux) satisfying a certain equivariance condition. More precisely, it is the cohomology of the complex \(\Omega^\bullet(M,\xi)^{\mathbb{T}} [[ u,u^{-1} ]]\) with the differential \(\nabla^\xi-ui_K+u^{-1}H\), where \(i_K\) denotes contraction by the Killing vector field \(K\), and \(u\) is an indeterminate of degree \(2\). Once they define \(h^\bullet_{\mathbb{T}}(M,\nabla^\xi;H)\), the authors then establish a localization theorem: If \(F\) is the fixed point set of the \(\mathbb{T}\)-action on \(M\) (and provided that \(F\) admits a certain invariant neighborhood in \(M\)), the embedding \(i: F\hookrightarrow M\) induces the following isomorphism: \[ h^\bullet_{\mathbb{T}}(M,\nabla^\xi;H) \cong h^\bullet_{\mathbb{T}}(F,i^*\nabla^\xi;i^*H)=H\{(\Omega^\bullet(F,i^*\xi)[[u,u^{-1}]], i^*\nabla^\xi+u^{-1}i^*H)\}. \] With the above localization map at hand, the authors then define what they call the \textit{twisted Bismut-Chern character} \[ \mathrm{BCh}_H: K^\bullet(Z,H)\to h^\bullet_{\mathbb{T}}(LZ,\nabla^\xi;\bar{H}), \] where \(\bar H\) is an extension of \(H\)-flux on the manifold \(Z\) to its loop space \(LZ\), and \(\xi\) is a line bundle, with a natural connection \(\nabla^\xi\), that arises from the gerbe associated with \(H\). The authors demonstrate that the twisted Bismut-Chern character fits into the following commutative diagram: \[ \begin{tikzcd} K^\bullet (Z,H) \ar[r,"{\mathrm{BCh}_H}"] \ar[d, "\mathrm{Ch}_H" '] & h^\bullet_{\mathbb{T}}(LZ,\nabla^\xi; H) \ar[d, "\mathrm{localization}"] \\ H\{(\Omega^\bullet(Z)[[u,u^{-1}]], d+u^{-1}H)\} \ar[r, equal] & H\{(\Omega^\bullet(Z)[[u,u^{-1}]], d+u^{-1} H)\} \end{tikzcd} \] The vertical map \(\mathrm{Ch}_H\) is the twisted Chern character defined in [\textit{V. Mathai} and \textit{D. Stevenson}, Commun. Math. Phys. 235, No. 1, 161--186 (2003; Zbl 1030.19004)]. This diagram embodies the authors' proposal regarding the D-brane charges mentioned in the begining of this review. As a corollary of the localization theorem, the authors derive an isomorphism in terms of \(h^\bullet_{\mathbb{T}}\)-cohomology for \(Z\) and its \(T\)-dual \(\hat{Z}\) that is compatible with the T-duality isomorphism established by P. Bouwknegt, J. Evslin and V. Mathai in [\textit{P. Bouwknegt} et al., Commun. Math. Phys. 249, No. 2, 383--415 (2004; Zbl 1062.81119)] and [Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, No. 18, Article ID181601, 3 p. (2004; Zbl 1267.81264)].