Two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory on surfaces with corners in Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism (Q2323513)

The principal objective in this paper is to construct explicit partition functions of \(2\)D Yang-Mills theory on arbitrary surfaces via the perturbative path integral quantization \[ Z=\int\exp\left( \frac{i}{h}S_{\mathrm{YM}}\right) \] and to compare them with the known non-perturbative results [\textit{E. Witten}, Commun. Math. Phys. 141, No. 1, 153--209 (1991; Zbl 0762.53063)] formulated in terms of the representation-theoretic data of the structure group \(G\). The paper consists of four sections together with five appendices, the main original results being presented in \S 3 and \S 4. \S 2 reviews the basics of the BV-BFV formalism [\textit{A. S. Cattaneo} et al., Commun. Math. Phys. 332, No. 2, 535--603 (2014; Zbl 1302.81141); ibid. 357, No. 2, 631--730 (2018; Zbl 1390.81381); ``Classical and quantum Lagrangian field theories with boundary'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1207.0239}; ``Perturbative BV theories with Segal-like gluing'', Preprint, \url{arXiv:1602.00741}]. \S 3 computes the perturbative partition functions on \(2\)D Yang-Mills on disks and cylinders. In the first part of \S 4, the authors address the extension of the BV-BFV formalism to manifolds with corners for \(2\)D Yang-Mills, while the extension is used in the second part of \S 4 to compute the perturbative \(2\)D Yang-Mills partition functions on surfaces of arbitrary genus including in \(\Omega\)-cohomology of the known non-perturbative results [\textit{E. Witten}, Commun. Math. Phys. 141, No. 1, 153--209 (1991; Zbl 0762.53063)]. The first appendix (Appendix A) discusses how to compute, within this setting, Wilson loop observables for both non-intersecting and intersecting loops, recovering in \(\Omega\)-cohomology the well-known non-perturbative result.