Ontological-Phase Topological Field Theory
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Quantum Topology and Categorification Seminar, Spring 2017
QUANTUM TOPOLOGY AND CATEGORIFICATION SEMINAR, SPRING 2017 ARUN DEBRAY APRIL 25, 2017 These notes were taken in a learning seminar in Spring 2017. I live-TEXed them using vim, and as such there may be typos; please send questions, comments, complaints, and corrections to [email protected]. Thanks to Michael Ball for finding and fixing a typo. CONTENTS Part 1. Quantum topology: Chern-Simons theory and the Jones polynomial 1 1. The Jones Polynomial: 1/24/171 2. Introduction to quantum field theory: 1/31/174 3. Canonical quantization and Chern-Simons theory: 2/7/177 4. Chern-Simons theory and the Wess-Zumino-Witten model: 2/14/179 5. The Jones polynomial from Chern-Simons theory: 2/21/17 13 6. TQFTs and the Kauffman bracket: 2/28/17 15 7. TQFTs and the Kauffman bracket, II: 3/7/17 17 Part 2. Categorification: Khovanov homology 18 8. Khovanov homology and computations: 3/21/17 18 9. Khovanov homology and low-dimensional topology: 3/28/17 21 10. Khovanov homology for tangles and Frobenius algebras: 4/4/17 23 11. TQFT for tangles: 4/11/17 24 12. The long exact sequence, functoriality, and torsion: 4/18/17 26 13. A transverse link invariant from Khovanov homology: 4/25/17 28 References 30 Part 1. Quantum topology: Chern-Simons theory and the Jones polynomial 1. THE JONES POLYNOMIAL: 1/24/17 Today, Hannah talked about the Jones polynomial, including how she sees it and why she cares about it as a topologist. 1.1. Introduction to knot theory. -
Classical Topology and Quantum States∗
View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by CERN Document Server SU-4240-716 February 2000 Classical Topology and Quantum States∗ A.P. Balachandran Department of Physics, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244-1130, USA Abstract Any two infinite-dimensional (separable) Hilbert spaces are unitarily isomorphic. The sets of all their self-adjoint operators are also therefore unitarily equivalent. Thus if all self-adjoint operators can be observed, and if there is no further major axiom in quantum physics than those formulated for example in Dirac’s ‘Quantum Mechanics’, then a quantum physicist would not be able to tell a torus from a hole in the ground. We argue that there are indeed such axioms involving observables with smooth time evolution: they contain commutative subalgebras from which the spatial slice of spacetime with its topology (and with further refinements of the axiom, its CK− and C∞− structures) can be reconstructed using Gel’fand - Naimark theory and its extensions. Classical topology is an attribute of only certain quantum observables for these axioms, the spatial slice emergent from quantum physics getting progressively less differentiable with increasingly higher excitations of energy and eventually altogether ceasing to exist. After formulating these axioms, we apply them to show the possibility of topology change and to discuss quantized fuzzy topologies. Fundamental issues concerning the role of time in quantum physics are also addressed. ∗Talk presented at the Winter Institute on Foundations of Quantum Theory and Quantum Op- tics,S.N.Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences,Calcutta,January 1-13,2000. -
Emergent Unitarity from the Amplituhedron Arxiv:1906.10700V2
Prepared for submission to JHEP Emergent Unitarity from the Amplituhedron Akshay Yelleshpur Srikant Department of Physics, Princeton University, NJ, USA Abstract: We present a proof of perturbative unitarity for planar N = 4 SYM, following from the geometry of the amplituhedron. This proof is valid for amplitudes of arbitrary multiplicity n, loop order L and MHV degree k. arXiv:1906.10700v2 [hep-th] 26 Dec 2019 Contents 1 Introduction2 2 Review of the topological definition of An;k;L 3 2.1 Momentum twistors3 2.2 Topological definition4 2.2.1 Tree level conditions4 2.2.2 Loop level conditions5 2.2.3 Mutual positivity condition6 2.3 Amplitudes and integrands as Canonical Forms6 2.4 Unitarity and the Optical theorem7 3 Proof for 4 point Amplitudes9 4 Proof for MHV amplitudes of arbitrary multiplicity 12 4.1 Left and right Amplituhedra 12 4.1.1 The left amplituhedron An1;0;L1 12 4.1.2 The right Amplituhedron An2;0;L2 14 4.2 Factorization on the unitarity cut 15 4.2.1 Trivialized mutual positivity 16 5 Proof for higher k sectors 17 5.1 The left and right amplituhedra 18 5.1.1 The left amplituhedron AL 18 n1;kL;L1 5.1.2 The right amplituhedron AR 20 n2;kR;L2 5.2 Factorization of the external data 21 5.3 Factorization of loop level data 24 5.4 Mutual positivity 25 6 Conclusions 25 A Restricting flip patterns 26 { 1 { 1 Introduction Unitarity is at the heart of the traditional, Feynman diagrammatic approach to cal- culating scattering amplitudes. -
New Exciting Approaches to Scattering Amplitudes
New Exciting Approaches to Scattering Amplitudes Henriette Elvang University of Michigan Aspen Center for Physics Colloquium July 16, 2015 In the news… #10 Using only pen and paper, he [Arkani-Hamed & Trnka] discovered a new kind of geometric shape called an amplituhedron […] The shape’s dimensions – length width, height and other parameters […] – represent information about the colliding particles […] Using only pen and paper, he [Arkani-Hamed & Trnka] discovered a new kind of geometric shape called an amplituhedron […] The shape’s dimensions – length width, height and other parameters […] – represent information about the colliding particles […] “We’ve known for decades that spacetime is doomed,” says Arkani-Hamed. Amplituhedrons? Spacetime doomed?? What in the world is this all about??? The story begins with scattering amplitudes in particle physics 1 Introduction 1 Introduction 2 pi =0 In a traditional quantum field theory (QFT) course, you learn to extract Feynman rules from a Lagrangian and use them to calculate a scattering amplitude A as a sum of Feynman dia- Scattering Amplitudes! grams organized perturbatively in the loop-expansion. From the amplitude you calculate the Scatteringdi↵erential amplitudes cross-section, ! dσ A 2, which — if needed — includes a suitable spin-sum average. encode the processes of! d⌦ / | | elementaryFinally particle the cross-sectioninteractions! σ can be found by integration of dσ/d⌦ over angles, with appropriate ! forsymmetry example! factors included for identical final-state particles. The quantities σ and dσ/d⌦ are electrons, photons, quarks,…! the observables of interest for particle physics experiments, but the input for computing them Comptonare thescattering:gauge invariant on-shell scattering amplitudes A. -
Twistor Theory at Fifty: from Rspa.Royalsocietypublishing.Org Contour Integrals to Twistor Strings Michael Atiyah1,2, Maciej Dunajski3 and Lionel Review J
Downloaded from http://rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org/ on November 10, 2017 Twistor theory at fifty: from rspa.royalsocietypublishing.org contour integrals to twistor strings Michael Atiyah1,2, Maciej Dunajski3 and Lionel Review J. Mason4 Cite this article: Atiyah M, Dunajski M, Mason LJ. 2017 Twistor theory at fifty: from 1School of Mathematics, University of Edinburgh, King’s Buildings, contour integrals to twistor strings. Proc. R. Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, UK Soc. A 473: 20170530. 2Trinity College Cambridge, University of Cambridge, Cambridge http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2017.0530 CB21TQ,UK 3Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, Received: 1 August 2017 University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0WA, UK Accepted: 8 September 2017 4The Mathematical Institute, Andrew Wiles Building, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK Subject Areas: MD, 0000-0002-6477-8319 mathematical physics, high-energy physics, geometry We review aspects of twistor theory, its aims and achievements spanning the last five decades. In Keywords: the twistor approach, space–time is secondary twistor theory, instantons, self-duality, with events being derived objects that correspond to integrable systems, twistor strings compact holomorphic curves in a complex threefold— the twistor space. After giving an elementary construction of this space, we demonstrate how Author for correspondence: solutions to linear and nonlinear equations of Maciej Dunajski mathematical physics—anti-self-duality equations e-mail: [email protected] on Yang–Mills or conformal curvature—can be encoded into twistor cohomology. These twistor correspondences yield explicit examples of Yang– Mills and gravitational instantons, which we review. They also underlie the twistor approach to integrability: the solitonic systems arise as symmetry reductions of anti-self-dual (ASD) Yang–Mills equations, and Einstein–Weyl dispersionless systems are reductions of ASD conformal equations. -
MATTERS of GRAVITY, a Newsletter for the Gravity Community, Number 3
MATTERS OF GRAVITY Number 3 Spring 1994 Table of Contents Editorial ................................................... ................... 2 Correspondents ................................................... ............ 2 Gravity news: Open Letter to gravitational physicists, Beverly Berger ........................ 3 A Missouri relativist in King Gustav’s Court, Clifford Will .................... 6 Gary Horowitz wins the Xanthopoulos award, Abhay Ashtekar ................ 9 Research briefs: Gamma-ray bursts and their possible cosmological implications, Peter Meszaros 12 Current activity and results in laboratory gravity, Riley Newman ............. 15 Update on representations of quantum gravity, Donald Marolf ................ 19 Ligo project report: December 1993, Rochus E. Vogt ......................... 23 Dark matter or new gravity?, Richard Hammond ............................. 25 Conference Reports: Gravitational waves from coalescing compact binaries, Curt Cutler ........... 28 Mach’s principle: from Newton’s bucket to quantum gravity, Dieter Brill ..... 31 Cornelius Lanczos international centenary conference, David Brown .......... 33 Third Midwest relativity conference, David Garfinkle ......................... 36 arXiv:gr-qc/9402002v1 1 Feb 1994 Editor: Jorge Pullin Center for Gravitational Physics and Geometry The Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA 16802-6300 Fax: (814)863-9608 Phone (814)863-9597 Internet: [email protected] 1 Editorial Well, this newsletter is growing into its third year and third number with a lot of strength. In fact, maybe too much strength. Twelve articles and 37 (!) pages. In this number, apart from the ”traditional” research briefs and conference reports we also bring some news for the community, therefore starting to fulfill the original promise of bringing the gravity/relativity community closer together. As usual I am open to suggestions, criticisms and proposals for articles for the next issue, due September 1st. Many thanks to the authors and the correspondents who made this issue possible. -
Sign Flip Triangulation of the Amplituhedron
Sign Flip Triangulation of the Amplituhedron Ryota Kojima SOKENDAI, KEK theory centor Based on RK, JHEP 1904 (2019) 085 arxiv:1812.01822 [hep-th] RK, Cameron Langer, Jaroslav Trnka and Minshan Zheng(UC Davis, QMAP), in progress Strings and Fields 2019 at YITP 8/20 Introduction • Scattering amplitude: Basic objects in QFT. • Recently there are many progress about the understanding of the new structure of scattering amplitude. • Studying and calculating scattering amplitudes became a new direction in theoretical physics. • Major motivations: • Efficient calculations of the scattering amplitudes • Use amplitudes as a probe to explore quantum field theory 2 Introduction • Efficient calculations of the scattering amplitudes • Use amplitudes as a probe to explore quantum field theory • Example: BCFW recursion relation (Britto, Cachazo, Feng, Witten 2005) • Method for building higher-point amplitudes from lower-point <latexit sha1_base64="UNc4SGyPxwXJet7OEnzpssxTFaM=">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</latexit> g + g 4g, g + g -
Topological Quantum Computation Zhenghan Wang
Topological Quantum Computation Zhenghan Wang Microsoft Research Station Q, CNSI Bldg Rm 2237, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-6105, U.S.A. E-mail address: [email protected] 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 57-02, 18-02; Secondary 68-02, 81-02 Key words and phrases. Temperley-Lieb category, Jones polynomial, quantum circuit model, modular tensor category, topological quantum field theory, fractional quantum Hall effect, anyonic system, topological phases of matter To my parents, who gave me life. To my teachers, who changed my life. To my family and Station Q, where I belong. Contents Preface xi Acknowledgments xv Chapter 1. Temperley-Lieb-Jones Theories 1 1.1. Generic Temperley-Lieb-Jones algebroids 1 1.2. Jones algebroids 13 1.3. Yang-Lee theory 16 1.4. Unitarity 17 1.5. Ising and Fibonacci theory 19 1.6. Yamada and chromatic polynomials 22 1.7. Yang-Baxter equation 22 Chapter 2. Quantum Circuit Model 25 2.1. Quantum framework 26 2.2. Qubits 27 2.3. n-qubits and computing problems 29 2.4. Universal gate set 29 2.5. Quantum circuit model 31 2.6. Simulating quantum physics 32 Chapter 3. Approximation of the Jones Polynomial 35 3.1. Jones evaluation as a computing problem 35 3.2. FP#P-completeness of Jones evaluation 36 3.3. Quantum approximation 37 3.4. Distribution of Jones evaluations 39 Chapter 4. Ribbon Fusion Categories 41 4.1. Fusion rules and fusion categories 41 4.2. Graphical calculus of RFCs 44 4.3. Unitary fusion categories 48 4.4. Link and 3-manifold invariants 49 4.5. -
Quantum Topology and Quantum Computing by Louis H. Kauffman
Quantum Topology and Quantum Computing by Louis H. Kauffman Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science 851 South Morgan Street University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago, Illinois 60607-7045 [email protected] I. Introduction This paper is a quick introduction to key relationships between the theories of knots,links, three-manifold invariants and the structure of quantum mechanics. In section 2 we review the basic ideas and principles of quantum mechanics. Section 3 shows how the idea of a quantum amplitude is applied to the construction of invariants of knots and links. Section 4 explains how the generalisation of the Feynman integral to quantum fields leads to invariants of knots, links and three-manifolds. Section 5 is a discussion of a general categorical approach to these issues. Section 6 is a brief discussion of the relationships of quantum topology to quantum computing. This paper is intended as an introduction that can serve as a springboard for working on the interface between quantum topology and quantum computing. Section 7 summarizes the paper. This paper is a thumbnail sketch of recent developments in low dimensional topology and physics. We recommend that the interested reader consult the references given here for further information, and we apologise to the many authors whose significant work was not mentioned here due to limitations of space and reference. II. A Quick Review of Quantum Mechanics To recall principles of quantum mechanics it is useful to have a quick historical recapitulation. Quantum mechanics really got started when DeBroglie introduced the fantastic notion that matter (such as an electron) is accompanied by a wave that guides its motion and produces interference phenomena just like the waves on the surface of the ocean or the diffraction effects of light going through a small aperture. -
How Is the Hypersimplex Like the Amplituhedron?
How is the hypersimplex like the amplituhedron? Lauren K. Williams, Harvard Slides at http://people.math.harvard.edu/~williams/Williams.pdf Based on: \The positive tropical Grassmannian, the hypersimplex, and the m = 2 amplituhedron," with Tomasz Lukowski and Matteo Parisi, arXiv:2002.06164 \The positive Dressian equals the positive tropical Grassmannian," with David Speyer, arXiv:2003.10231 Lauren K. Williams (Harvard) The hypersimplex and the amplituhedron 2020 1 / 36 Overview of the talk I. Hypersimplex and moment map '87 II. Amplituhedron '13 Gelfand-Goresky-MacPherson-Serganova Arkani-Hamed{Trnka matroids, torus orbits on Grk;n N = 4 SYM III. Positive tropical Grassmannian '05 Speyer{W. associahedron, cluster algebras Lauren K. Williams (Harvard) The hypersimplex and the amplituhedron 2020 2 / 36 Overview of the talk I. Hypersimplex and moment map '87 II. Amplituhedron '13 Gelfand-Goresky-MacPherson-Serganova Arkani-Hamed{Trnka matroids, torus orbits on Grk;n N = 4 SYM III. Positive tropical Grassmannian '05 Speyer{W. associahedron, cluster algebras Lauren K. Williams (Harvard) The hypersimplex and the amplituhedron 2020 2 / 36 Overview of the talk I. Hypersimplex and moment map '87 II. Amplituhedron '13 Gelfand-Goresky-MacPherson-Serganova Arkani-Hamed{Trnka matroids, torus orbits on Grk;n N = 4 SYM III. Positive tropical Grassmannian '05 Speyer{W. associahedron, cluster algebras Lauren K. Williams (Harvard) The hypersimplex and the amplituhedron 2020 2 / 36 Program Geometry of Grassmannian and the moment map. GGMS '87. Hypersimplex, matroid stratification, matroid polytopes. Add positivity to the previous picture. Postnikov '06. Positroid stratification of (Grkn)≥0, positroid polytopes, plabic graphs. Simultaneous generalization of (Grk;n)≥0 and polygons: amplituhedron. -
Deep Into the Amplituhedron: Amplitude Singularities at All Loops and Legs
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 122, 051601 (2019) Editors' Suggestion Deep Into the Amplituhedron: Amplitude Singularities at All Loops and Legs Nima Arkani-Hamed,1 Cameron Langer,2 Akshay Yelleshpur Srikant,3 and Jaroslav Trnka2 1School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey 08540, USA 2Center for Quantum Mathematics and Physics (QMAP), University of California, Davis, California 95616, USA 3Department of Physics, Princeton University, New Jersey 08544, USA (Received 23 October 2018; revised manuscript received 12 December 2018; published 7 February 2019) In this Letter we compute a canonical set of cuts of the integrand for maximally helicity violating amplitudes in planar N ¼ 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, where all internal propagators are put on shell. These “deepest cuts” probe the most complicated Feynman diagrams and on-shell processes that can possibly contribute to the amplitude, but are also naturally associated with remarkably simple geometric facets of the amplituhedron. The recent reformulation of the amplituhedron in terms of combinatorial geometry directly in the kinematic (momentum-twistor) space plays a crucial role in understanding this geometry and determining the cut. This provides us with the first nontrivial results on scattering amplitudes in the theory valid for arbitrarily many loops and external particle multiplicities. DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.051601 Introduction.—The past decade has revealed a variety of There has also been an ongoing effort to use the surprising mathematical and physical structures underlying amplituhedron picture to make all-loop order predictions particle scattering amplitudes, providing, with various for loop integrands. This effort was initiated in Ref. [10], degrees of completeness, reformulations of this physics which calculated certain all-loop order cuts for four point where the normally foundational principles of locality amplitudes that were impossible to obtain using any other and unitarity are derivative from ultimately combina- methods. -
Quantum Gravity: a Primer for Philosophers∗
Quantum Gravity: A Primer for Philosophers∗ Dean Rickles ‘Quantum Gravity’ does not denote any existing theory: the field of quantum gravity is very much a ‘work in progress’. As you will see in this chapter, there are multiple lines of attack each with the same core goal: to find a theory that unifies, in some sense, general relativity (Einstein’s classical field theory of gravitation) and quantum field theory (the theoretical framework through which we understand the behaviour of particles in non-gravitational fields). Quantum field theory and general relativity seem to be like oil and water, they don’t like to mix—it is fair to say that combining them to produce a theory of quantum gravity constitutes the greatest unresolved puzzle in physics. Our goal in this chapter is to give the reader an impression of what the problem of quantum gravity is; why it is an important problem; the ways that have been suggested to resolve it; and what philosophical issues these approaches, and the problem itself, generate. This review is extremely selective, as it has to be to remain a manageable size: generally, rather than going into great detail in some area, we highlight the key features and the options, in the hope that readers may take up the problem for themselves—however, some of the basic formalism will be introduced so that the reader is able to enter the physics and (what little there is of) the philosophy of physics literature prepared.1 I have also supplied references for those cases where I have omitted some important facts.