Spin structures on loop spaces that characterize string manifolds

DOI10.2140/AGT.2016.16.675MaRDI QIDQ276567zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Konrad Waldorf

Publication date 4 May 2016

Published in Algebraic \& Geometric Topology (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1209.1731

zbMATH Keywords

Brylinski-McLaughlin transgressionfree loop spacefusion productfusion spin structurelifting bundle gerbesPontryagin classspin structurestring manifold

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Differential geometric aspects of gerbes and differential characters (53C08) Specialized structures on manifolds (spin manifolds, framed manifolds, etc.) (57R15) Homotopy and topological questions for infinite-dimensional manifolds (58B05)

Abstract: Classically, a spin structure on the loop space of a manifold is a lift of the structure group of the looped frame bundle from the loop group to its universal central extension. Heuristically, the loop space of a manifold is spin if and only if the manifold itself is a string manifold, against which it is well-known that only the if-part is true in general. In this article we develop a new version of spin structures on loop spaces that exists if and only if the manifold is string, as desired. This new version consists of a classical spin structure plus a certain fusion product related to loops of frames in the manifold. We use the lifting gerbe theory of Carey-Murray, recent results of Stolz-Teichner on loop spaces, and some own results about string geometry and Brylinski-McLaughlin transgression.

Review text

Let \(M\) be a spin manifold of dimension \(3\) or of dimension bigger than \(4\). Using bundle \(2\)-gerbes (in particular, considering string structures as trivializations of the Chern-Simons \(2\)-gerbe; see [\textit{A. L. Carey} et al., Commun. Math. Phys. 259, No. 3, 577--613 (2005; Zbl 1088.58018)]), as well as a functor that serves to transgress string structures, the author proves that the existence of a fusion spin structure (i.e. a spin structure on the infinite dimensional loop manifold \(LM\) together with a fusion product on the associated principal Fréchet \(U(1)\)-bundle over \(LFM\), the loop space of the total space of the frame bundle of \(M\)) is equivalent to the existence of a string structure on \(M\), that is, to vanishing of the first fractional Pontryagin class \(\frac{1}{2}p_1(M)\in H^4(M; \mathbb Z)\).

Recommendations

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Cited in

(19)

• String structures on loop bundles
• Gerbes in geometry, field theory, and quantisation
• The Chern character of \(\vartheta \)-summable Fredholm modules over dg algebras and localization on loop space
• Bigerbes
• A rigorous construction of the supersymmetric path integral associated to a compact spin manifold
• Fusion of implementers for spinors on the circle
• Transgressive loop group extensions
• Analysis, geometry and topology of singular PDE. Abstracts from the workshop held June 6--12, 2021 (hybrid meeting)
• Higher U(1)-gerbe connections in geometric prequantization
• Cheeger-Chern-Simons theory and differential string classes
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 1240838 (Why is no real title available?)
• String geometry vs. spin geometry on loop spaces
• \(\text{String}^c\) structures and modular invariants
• The fermionic integral on loop space and the Pfaffian line bundle
• The Clifford algebra bundle on loop space
• Smooth Fock bundles, and spinor bundles on loop space
• Connes fusion of spinors on loop space
• Flat principal 2-group bundles and flat string structures
• Orientation and string structures on loop space

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