Archimedean \(L\)-factors and topological field theories. I. (Q412792)

In number theory, \(L\)--functions are primary objects of interest. The global \(L\)--function `decomposes' as an analytic continuation of the product of local Archimedean and non-Archimedian \(L\)--factors. Non-Archimedian \(L\)--factors are better understood than Archimedean \(L\)--factors, reflecting our greater understanding of `finite primes' than of `primes at infinity'. The paper under review represents one step in an ambitious and exciting programme by the authors, to draw on physical techniques and insights in order to develop a unified geometric understanding of Archimedean and non-Archimedean objects in arithmetic geometry, and to interpolate between real and non-Archimedean Whittaker functions. The Macdonald polynomials, which interpolate between Archimedean and non-Archimedean zonal spherical functions, provide a precedent for such a programme. The main result is a direct analytic construction of Archimedean \(L\)--factors as functional integrals in an equivariant type A topological linear sigma model over a disk (Theorem 2.1). The underlying action is quadratic, which means that the resulting formula (expressing Archimedean \(L\)--factors as products of \(\Gamma\)--functions) makes mathematical sense by way of \(\zeta\)--function regularization. Theorem 2.1 in particular leads to an interpretation of the \(\Gamma\)--function as an equivariant symplectic volume of an infinite dimensional space of holomorphic maps of the disk to \(\mathbb{C}\), and this description can be viewed as mirror dual to the classical Euler integral representation of the \(\Gamma\)--function see [\textit{A. Gerasimov}, \textit{D. Lebedev}, and \textit{S. Oblezin}, Commun. Number Theory Phys. 5, No. 1, 101--134 (2011; Zbl 1251.14012)]. General \(q\)--deformed \(\Gamma\)--functions admit an analogous physical interpretation by means of a three--dimensional equivariant topological sigma model, discussed in Section 4, which has an ultraviolet completion which gives rise to a description of quantum \(K\)--theory invariants in the sense of Givental.