Braided \(L_{\infty}\)-algebras, braided field theory and noncommutative gravity (Q2062623)

The authors develop a new notion of homotopy algebra that is suited to organize the symmetries and dynamical content of noncommutative gauge theories. In order to do that, after two sections by giving some background to the main elements of this subject, the authors develop in Section 4 the notion of a braided \(L_{\infty}\)-algebra and use the categorical language to formulate the braided homotopy relations. The results can be applied in any symmetric monoidal category. In particular, when considering a classical \(L_{\infty}\)-algebra in the category of modules over the enveloping Hopf algebra of vector fields on \(M\), the authors describe (Proposition 4.8) how its Drinfel'd twist defines a braided \(L_{\infty}\)-algebra. Moreover, they show (Proposition 4.15) that twist quantization of cyclic \(L_{\infty}\)-algebras via Drinfel'd twist which are compatible with the cyclic structure in a suitable sense produce strictly cyclic braided \(L_{\infty}\)-algebras. Physical applications are given in Section 5. More precisely, the authors explain how to build the kinematics and dynamics of a noncommutative field theory in the braided \(L_{\infty}\)-algebra formalism. As a consequence, the authors obtain a straightforward algorithm for producing braided field theories as noncommutative deformations of classical field theories and they apply this algorithm to the example of Chern-Simons gauge theory (Section 5.9). Finally, in Section 6 the authors use their algorithm to construct new braided categories of noncommutative gravity in three and four dimensions.