scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1775468

Publication date 4 August 2002

affine Lie algebras Chern-Simons gauge theory Chern-Simons theory conformal blocks conformal field theories conformal invariants fusion rules holonomy Jones-Witten theory Knizhnik-Zamoldchikov connection Knizhnik-Zamoldchikov equation knot invariants Kontsevich integral quantum field theory topological quantum field theory Vassiliev invariants Verlinde algebra vertex operators Wess-Zumino-Witten model

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Kac-Moody (super)algebras; extended affine Lie algebras; toroidal Lie algebras (17B67) Vertex operators; vertex operator algebras and related structures (17B69) Loop groups and related constructions, group-theoretic treatment (22E67) Issues of holonomy in differential geometry (53C29) Applications of global differential geometry to the sciences (53C80) Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to manifolds and cell complexes (57-02) Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to quantum theory (81-02) Infinite-dimensional groups and algebras motivated by physics, including Virasoro, Kac-Moody, (W)-algebras and other current algebras and their representations (81R10) Two-dimensional field theories, conformal field theories, etc. in quantum mechanics (81T40) Topological field theories in quantum mechanics (81T45)

Review text

This monograph provides an introduction to one of the most recent and central topics in contemporary mathematical physics, with a special emphasis on the just as recent mathematical framework underlying the physical theory. More precisely, this text deals with conformal quantum field theory and its close interrelation with the theory of topological manifolds. In particular, the author focuses on the deep relationship between two-dimensional quantum field theory and three-dimensional topology, which has been studied intensively since the discovery of the Jones polynomial in the middle of the 1980's, on the one hand, and Witten's invariant for 3-manifolds derived from the so-called Chern-Simons gauge theory. In this vein, the basic aim of the present book is to give mathematically rigorous constructions of those topological invariants that originally were postulated as certain partition functions of quantum fields on manifolds. According to his ambitious and rewarding program, the author has subdivided the text into three main chapters entitled as follows: Chapter 1. Geometric Aspects of Conformal Field Theory; Chapter 2. Jones-Witten Theory; Chapter 3. Chern-Simons Perturbation Theory. Each chapter consists of several sections which, altogether, cover about fifteen related fundamental topics in this context. In the very instructive introduction to the book, the author recalls some basic mathematical structures of classical mechanics, quantum mechanics, and quantum field theory. This is followed by a brief survey on the general framework (in quantum field theory) that stipulates the existence of certain topological invariants, including the concepts of quantization, sigma models, Feynman path integrals, Wess-Zumino-Witten models, Jones-Witten theory, and Chern-Simons perturbation theory. All these physical concepts are then discussed, with mathematical rigor, in the following chapters. Chapter 1 deals with the fundamental geometric aspects arising from (physical) conformal field theory à la Belavin-Polyakov-Zamolodchikov, Wess-Zumino-Witten and Knizhnik-Zamolodchikov. The author discusses, in six subsections, affine Lie algebras and loop groups, representations of affine Lie algebras, the complex geometry of the Wess-Zumino-Witten model, the space of conformal blocks and fusion rules, the geometry of the Knizhnik-Zamoldchikov equation, vertex operators, the Verlinde algebra, and the celebrated Verlinde formula for the dimension of the space of conformal blocks. The main object of study in Chapter 2 is the holonomy of the Knizhnik-Zamoldchikov connection on the conformal block bundle. By means of linear representations of braid groups and mapping class groups, the Jones polynomial for links and Witten's invariants for 3-manifolds are rigorously established, and it is shown that this framework leads to a topological quantum field theory in the sense of M. F. Atiyah. For this purpose, the last two sections of this chapter discuss projective representations of mapping class groups, which leads to a construction of Witten invariants in a wider setting, and the basics of the so-called Chern-Simons theory for compact oriented 3-manifolds. Chapter 3 is devoted to the topological invariants obtained from the perturbative expansion of the partition function of the Chern-Simons functional as the level \(k\) tends to infinity. This approach is called Chern-Simons perturbation theory and produces a whole series of topological invariants for links. These are examples of Vassiliev-type invariants, the first of which were discovered (in the early 1990's) in the study of the cohomology of the space of knots. In the three sections of this chapter, the author describes the Vassiliev invariants and the Kontsevich integral expressing them, Drinfeld's approach to quantum groups, K. T. Chen's iterated integrals for braids versus the Kontsevich integral, the relationship between Chern-Simons functionals and the Ray-Singer torsion of a Riemannian manifold, the Chern-Simons partition function, and the topological invariants for 3-manifolds derived from asymptotic expansions by S. Axelrod and I. M. Singer (1994). In an extra section, at the end of the book, the author gives a brief outlook to further developments in conformal quantum field theory and some prospects of the entire theory. All together, this book should be regarded as a highly valuable and welcome contribution towards a better understanding of the fascinating, yet widely unexplored interrelation between quantum field theory and the geometry of manifolds. The author has succeeded in presenting a treatise on this ultramodern and mathematically utmost challenging subject, which appears as particularly captivating by its conciseness, clarity, systematic representation, mathematical rigour, and endeavour to unify various related approaches. Certainly, this monograph is not an introductory textbook on the subject for beginners, because the reader is assumed to have a profound knowledge of both quantum field theory and modern geometry. Instead, it should rather be regarded as an excellent source of knowledge and inspiration for both physicists and mathematicians, researchers and seasoned graduate students, who are already sufficiently familiar with the basics of this area of research, and those readers will undoubtedly acknowledge the mastery of this book.

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