Two-dimensional topological field theories as taffy

DOI10.4310/ATMP.2011.V15.N1.A6zbMATH Open1246.81334arXiv1011.0100MaRDI QIDQ449510FDOQ449510

Publication date: 30 August 2012

Published in: Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: In this paper we use trivial defects to define global taffy-like operations on string worldsheets, which preserve the field theory. We fold open and closed strings on a space X into open strings on products of multiple copies of X, and perform checks that the "taffy-folded" worldsheets have the same massless spectra and other properties as the original worldsheets. Such folding tricks are a standard method in the defects community; the novelty of this paper lies in deriving mathematical identities to check that e.g. massless spectra are invariant in topological field theories. We discuss the case of the B model extensively, and also derive the same identities for string topology, where they become statements of homotopy invariance. We outline analogous results in the A model, B-twisted Landau-Ginzburg models, and physical strings. We also discuss the understanding of the closed string states as the Hochschild homology of the open string algebra, and outline possible applications to elliptic genera.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1011.0100

Recommendations

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Topological field theories in quantum mechanics (81T45)

Cited In (2)

This page was built for publication: Two-dimensional topological field theories as taffy

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q449510)