Completing Verlinde algebras (Q536013)

Let \(G\) be a simply connected simple compact Lie group. In this paper the authors compute (as an abelian group) the completion of the Verlinde algebra \(V_m(G)\) of \(G\) at the augmentation ideal \(I\) of the ring \(R(G)\). This means that the twisted \(K\)-theory \(K^*_\tau(LBG)\) of the free loop space \(LBG\) of \(BG\) can be computed for the cohomological twisting \(\tau\) corresponding to \(m\) in \(H^3(LBG, \mathbb Z)=\mathbb Z\), since it can be identified with \(V_m(G)^\wedge_I\) according to \textit{D. S. Freed, M. J. Hopkins} and \textit{C. Teleman} [preprint, \url{arXiv:0711.1906} (2007)], \textit{C. Dwyer} [in press] and \textit{A. Lahtinen} [preprint, \url{arXiv:0809.1273} (2008)]. The result is that the completion \(V_m(G)^\wedge_I\) is isomorphic to the sum over primes \(p\) of \(N(G, m, p)\) copies of \(\mathbb Z_p\), where \(N(G, m, p)\) denotes the number of regular weights \(a\) such that the denominator of the rational number \(\langle w, a \rangle /m\) is a power of \(p\) for every weight \(w\). Moreover there can be found an explicit computation of these numbers \(N(G, m, p)\) which is done individually for all nine types of simple simply connected compact Lie groups. Here \(\langle \;, \;\rangle\) denotes the unique inner product on the weight lattice \(\Pi^*=\Hom(T, S^1)\) with respect to a maximal torus \(T\), invariant under the Weyl group and satisfying \(\langle u, u \rangle =2\) for every long root \(u\). In addition, let \(A\) denote the subset of the fundamental Weyl chamber consisting of its elements \(x\) satisfying the relation \(\langle a, x \rangle \leq m\) where \(a\) is the heighest root, then any weight contained in the interior of \(A\) is called a level \(m\) regular weight, which leads to the definition of the Verlinde algebra \(V_m(G)\). When viewed as \(R(G) \subset\mathbb Z[\Pi^*]\), for any regular weight \(c\) one has a map \(\varphi_c :R(G) \to\mathbb C\) induced by sending \(w \in \Pi^*\) to \(\exp(2\pi i\langle w, c \rangle) \in\mathbb C\). Then the algebra \(V_m(G)\) can be defined as the quotient of \(R(G)\) by the ideal \(J_m\) consisting of elements \(x\) such that \(\varphi_c(x)=0\) for every level \(m\) regular weight \(c\). This is a generalization of the result for the case of \(\text{Sp}(n)\) by \textit{I. Kriz, J. T. Levin} and \textit{C. Westerland} [J. Topol. 3, No. 4, 901--936 (2010; Zbl 1209.55008)].