Star product geometries (Q1033865)

An interesting and promising field of research is the issue of space-time structure in extremal energy regimes. There are evidences from general relativity, string theory and black hole physics which support the hypothesis of a noncommutative structure. The simplest and most suggestive argument which points to the failure of the classical space-time picture at high-energy scales comes from the attempt of conjugating the principles of quantum mechanics with those of general relativity. If one tries to locate an event with spatial accuracy comparable with the Planck length, then the space-time uncertainty relations necessarily emerge. In total analogy with quantum mechanics, uncertainty relations are naturally implied by the presence of noncommuting coordinates \([x^{\mu}, x^{nu}]\neq 0\). Below the Planck length, the usual description of space-time as a pseudo-Riemannian manifold locally modeled on the Minkowski space is not adequate anymore, and it has been proposed that the space-time can be described by noncommutative geometry [\textit{A. Connes}, Noncommutative geometry. Transl. from the French by Sterling Berberian. San Diego, CA: Academic Press (1994; Zbl 0818.46076)]. In this context, two relevant issues are the formulation of general relativity and the quantization of field theories on noncommutative space-time. The author considers noncommutative geometries obtained from a triangular Drinfel'd twist. This allows us to construct and study a wide class of noncommutative manifolds and their deformed Lie algebras of infinitesimal diffeomorphisms. Principles of symmetry can be implemented in this way. Two examples are considered: (1) the general covariance in noncommutative space-time, which leads to a noncommutative theory of gravity; and (2) symplectomorphisms of the algebra of observables associated with noncommutative space-time. The author works in the deformation quantization context; noncommutativity is obtained by introducing a formal \(*\)-product on the algebra of smooth functions. The most widely studied form of noncommutativity is the Moyal-Weyl one. The author concentrates on a class of star products obtained via a triangular Drinfel'd twist [\textit{V. G. Drinfel'd}, Sov. Math., Dokl. 28, 667--671 (1983; Zbl 0553.58038)]. The algebras of functions of noncommutative tori, of noncommutative spheres, and of other noncommutative manifolds are associated with the \(*\)-product structure obtained via a triangular Drinfel'd twist [\textit{A. Sitarz}, Lett. Math. Phys. 58, No. 1, 69--79 (2001; Zbl 1020.17012)]. The star products are still not the most general ones; in particular, they form a subclass of those associated with quasi-triangular structure [\textit{V. G. Drinfel'd}, Leningr. Math. J. 1, No. 6, 1419--1457 (1990; Zbl 0718.16033)]: these noncommutative algebras of functions admit an action of the braid group and there is an action of the permutation group. It is remarkable how far one can go in the program of formulating a noncommutative differential geometry by using triangular Drinfel'd twists. The study of this class of \(*\)-product geometries gives first examples that may uncover common features of a wider class of noncommutative geometries. The construction is systematic and clear.