String Topology: Background and Present State

MaRDI QIDQ3596950zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Dennis Sullivan

Publication date 9 February 2009

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0710.4141

zbMATH Keywords

BV algebraclosed stringdiffuse equivariant chainequivariant loop spaceintersection productmaster equationmoduli spaceopen stringstring diagram

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Products and intersections in homology and cohomology (55N45) Loop spaces (55P35) Chain complexes in algebraic topology (55U15) Abstract and axiomatic homotopy theory in algebraic topology (55U35) Topological quantum field theories (aspects of differential topology) (57R56) Two-dimensional field theories, conformal field theories, etc. in quantum mechanics (81T40) Topological field theories in quantum mechanics (81T45)

Abstract: The data of a "2D field theory with a closed string compactification" is an equivariant chain level action of a cell decomposition of the union of all moduli spaces of punctured Riemann surfaces with each component compactified as a pseudomanifold with boundary. The axioms on the data are contained in the following assumptions. It is assumed the punctures are labeled and divided into nonempty sets of inputs and outputs. The inputs are marked by a tangent direction and the outputs are weighted by nonnegative real numbers adding to unity. It is assumed the gluing of inputs to outputs lands on the pseudomanifold boundary of the cell decomposition and the entire pseudomanifold boundary is decomposed into pieces by all such factorings. It is further assumed that the action is equivariant with respect to the toroidal action of rotating the markings. A main result of compactified string topology is the Theorem (closed strings): Each oriented smooth manifold has a 2D field theory with a closed string compactification on the equivariant chains of its free loop space mod constant loops. The sum over all surface types of the top pseudomanifold chain yields a chain X satisfying the master equation dX + X*X = 0 where * is the sum over all gluings. This structure is well defined up to homotopy. The genus zero parts yields an infinity Lie bialgebra on the equivariant chains of the free loop space mod constant loops. The higher genus terms provide further elements of algebraic structure called a "quantum Lie bialgebra" partially resolving the involutive identity. There is also a compactified discussion and a Theorem 2 for open strings as the first step to a more complete theory. We note a second step for knots.

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Cited in

(24)

• Homology of spaces of regular loops in the sphere
• Topological field theory interpretation of string topology
• Strings, fermions and the topology of curves on annuli
• Knot contact homology, string topology, and the cord algebra
• Homological algebra related to surfaces with boundary
• A detailed look on actions on Hochschild complexes especially the degree 1 coproduct and actions on loop spaces
• Cochain level May-Steenrod operations
• Transverse string topology and the cord algebra
• String topology for stacks
• Open-closed field theories, string topology, and Hochschild homology
• The odd origin of Gerstenhaber brackets, Batalin-Vilkovisky operators, and master equations
• Some recent progress in string topology
• Remarks on Chern-Simons theory
• The role of string topology in symplectic field theory
• A Morse theoretic description of string topology
• Stable string operations are trivial
• Ribbon graphs and mirror symmetry
• Interactions of strings and equivariant homology theories
• An algebraic chain model of string topology
• Happy birthday, Dennis!
• Poincaré duality for loop spaces
• String topology and cyclic homology
• Hochschild homology of structured algebras
• Floer homology of cotangent bundles and the loop product

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