Topology, geometry, and gauge fields. Interactions (Q5894168)

The author carries on the program initiated in his book [Topology, geometry and gauge fields. Foundations. New York, NY: Springer (1997; Zbl 0876.53002); 2nd edition: Berlin: Springer (2011; Zbl 1231.53002)]. Chapter 1 (Geometrical Background) provides the geometrical framework (manifolds, Lie groups, principal and associated bundles, connections) that is necessary for the subsequent chapters. In Chapter 2 (Physical Motivation), the author describes a general mathematical framework for the classical gauge theories of physics, classical electromagnetic theory, spin-zero electrodynamics, spin one-half electrodynamics, \(\mathrm{ SU}(2)\)-Yang-Mills-Higgs theory in \(\mathbb R^n \). In Chapter 3 (Frame Bundles and Space-times), the author studies various types of frame bundles, Minkowski space-time, and space-time manifolds. Chapter 4 (Differential Forms and Integration) contains an exposition of multilinear algebra, differential forms, the de Rham complex, integration on manifolds and Stokes' theorem. Chapter 5 is devoted to de Rham cohomology and Chapter 6 to characteristic classes. The appendix is a much expanded version of the appendix which appeared in the first edition of this book [New York: Springer (2000; Zbl 0979.53001)]. It contains a brief description of Seiberg-Witten gauge theory, Donaldson invariants, Clifford algebras and spin structures, Seiberg-Witten equations, moduli spaces and invariants, and the Witten conjecture. There are 228 exercises that essentially constitute fragments of proofs of theorems. The bibliography consists of 67 titles. A symbol and a subject index are included. This book is warmly recommended to specialists in mathematics and physics, and especially to PhD students interested in the topic.