Chern-Simons, Wess-Zumino and other cocycles from Kashiwara-Vergne and associators

DOI10.1007/S11005-017-0985-4zbMATH Open1390.17011arXiv1702.08857OpenAlexW2594725194MaRDI QIDQ1745929FDOQ1745929

Authors: Florian Naef, Xiaomeng Xu, Chenchang Zhu, Anton Alekseev 

Publication date: 18 April 2018

Published in: Letters in Mathematical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: Descent equations play an important role in the theory of characteristic classes and find applications in theoretical physics, e.g. in the Chern-Simons field theory and in the theory of anomalies. The second Chern class (the first Pontrjagin class) is defined as $p=langleF,Fangle$ where $F$ is the curvature 2-form and $langlecdot,cdotangle$ is an invariant scalar product on the corresponding Lie algebra $mathfrakg$. The descent for $p$ gives rise to an element $omega=omeg{a}_3+omeg{a}_2+omeg{a}_1+omeg{a}_0$ of mixed degree. The 3-form part $omeg{a}_3$ is the Chern-Simons form. The 2-form part $omeg{a}_2$ is known as the Wess-Zumino action in physics. The 1-form component $omeg{a}_1$ is related to the canonical central extension of the loop group $LG$. In this paper, we give a new interpretation of the low degree components $omeg{a}_1$ and $omeg{a}_0$. Our main tool is the universal differential calculus on free Lie algebras due to Kontsevich. We establish a correspondence between solutions of the first Kashiwara-Vergne equation in Lie theory and universal solutions of the descent equation for the second Chern class $p$. In more detail, we define a 1-cocycle $C$ which maps automorphisms of the free Lie algebra to one forms. A solution of the Kashiwara-Vergne equation $F$ is mapped to $omeg{a}_1=C(F)$. Furthermore, the component $omeg{a}_0$ is related to the associator corresponding to $F$. It is surprising that while $F$ and $Phi$ satisfy the highly non-linear twist and pentagon equations, the elements $omeg{a}_1$ and $omeg{a}_0$ solve the linear descent equation.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1702.08857

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zbMATH Keywords

associatorsChern-Simons formKontsevich's non-commutative differential calculusKashiwara-Vergne theory

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Identities, free Lie (super)algebras (17B01) Homology of classifying spaces and characteristic classes in algebraic topology (55R40)

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Cited In (7)

• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Coadjoint Orbits, Cocycles and Gravitational Wess–Zumino
• Towards holography in the BV-BFV setting
• Shifted symplectic higher Lie groupoids and classifying spaces
• Results on the Wess–Zumino consistency condition for arbitrary Lie algebras
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• Poisson brackets in Kontsevich's ``Lie World

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