0000000000139797
AUTHOR
Daniel Sternheimer
Closedness of Star Products and Cohomologies
We first review the introduction of star products in connection with deformations of Poisson brackets and the various cohomologies that are related to them. Then we concentrate on what we have called “closed star products” and their relations with cyclic cohomology and index theorems. Finally we shall explain how quantum groups, especially in their recent topological form, are in essence examples of star products.
Analytic vectors, anomalies and star representations
It is hinted that anomalies are not really anomalous since (at least in characteristic examples) they can be related to a lack of common analytic vectors for the Hamiltonian and the observables. We reanalyze the notions of analytic vectors and of local representations of Lie algebras in this light, and show how the notion of preferred observables introduced in the deformation (star product) approach to quantization may help give an anomaly-free formulation to physical problems. Finally, some remarks are made concerning the applicability of these considerations to field theory, especially in two dimensions.
Deformation Quantization: Genesis, Developments and Metamorphoses
We start with a short exposition of developments in physics and mathematics that preceded, formed the basis for, or accompanied, the birth of deformation quantization in the seventies. We indicate how the latter is at least a viable alternative, autonomous and conceptually more satisfactory, to conventional quantum mechanics and mention related questions, including covariance and star representations of Lie groups. We sketch Fedosov's geometric presentation, based on ideas coming from index theorems, which provided a beautiful frame for developing existence and classification of star-products on symplectic manifolds. We present Kontsevich's formality, a major metamorphosis of deformation qu…
Topological Hopf algebras, quantum groups and deformation quantization
After a presentation of the context and a brief reminder of deformation quantization, we indicate how the introduction of natural topological vector space topologies on Hopf algebras associated with Poisson Lie groups, Lie bialgebras and their doubles explains their dualities and provides a comprehensive framework. Relations with deformation quantization and applications to the deformation quantization of symmetric spaces are described
Quantum Groups, Star Products and Cyclic Cohomology
After some historical remarks, we start with a rapid overview of the star-product theory (deformation of algebras of functions on phase space) and its applications to deformation-quantization. We then concentrate on Poisson-Lie groups and their “quantization”, give a star-product realization of quantum groups and discuss uniqueness and the rigidity as bialgebra of a universal model for the quantum SL(2) groups. In the last part we develop the notion of closed star-product (for which a trace can be defined on the algebra), show that it is classified by cyclic cohomology, permits to define a character and that there always exists one; finally we show that the pseudodifferential calculus on a …
“The Important Thing is not to Stop Questioning”, Including the Symmetries on Which is Based the Standard Model
New fundamental physical theories can, so far a posteriori, be seen as emerging from existing ones via some kind of deformation. That is the basis for Flato’s “deformation philosophy”, of which the main paradigms are the physics revolutions from the beginning of the twentieth century, quantum mechanics (via deformation quantization) and special relativity. On the basis of these facts we describe two main directions by which symmetries of hadrons (strongly interacting elementary particles) may “emerge” by deforming in some sense (including quantization) the Anti de Sitter symmetry (AdS), itself a deformation of the Poincare group of special relativity. The ultimate goal is to base on fundame…
On a possible origin of quantum groups
A Poisson bracket structure having the commutation relations of the quantum group SLq(2) is quantized by means of the Moyal star-product on C∞(ℝ2), showing that quantum groups are not exactly quantizations, but require a quantization (with another parameter) in the background. The resulting associative algebra is a strongly invariant nonlinear star-product realization of the q-algebra Uq(sl(2)). The principle of strong invariance (the requirement that the star-commutator is star-expressed, up to a phase, by the same function as its classical limit) implies essentially the uniqueness of the commutation relations of Uq(sl(2)).
From where do quantum groups come?
The phase space realizations of quantum groups are discussed using *-products. We show that on phase space, quantum groups appear necessarily as two-parameter deformation structures, one parameter (v) being concerned with the quantization in phase space, the other (η) expressing the quantum groups as “deformation” of their Lie counterparts. Introducing a strong invariance condition, we show the uniqueness of the η-deformation. This suggests that the strong invariance condition is a possible origin of the quantum groups.
Poisson Geometry in Mathematics and Physics
We realize quantized anti de Sitter space black holes, building Connes spectral triples, similar to those used for quantized spheres but based on Universal Deformation Quantization Formulas (UDF) obtained from an oscillatory integral kernel on an appropriate symplectic symmetric space. More precisely we first obtain a UDF for Lie subgroups acting on a symplectic symmetric space M in a locally simply transitive manner. Then, observing that a curvature contraction canonically relates anti de Sitter geometry to the geometry of symplectic symmetric spaces, we use that UDF to define what we call Dirac-isospectral noncommutative deformations of the spectral triples of locally anti de Sitter black…
Remembering Ludwig Dmitrievich Faddeev, Our Lifelong Partner in Mathematical Physics
International audience; We briefly recount the long friendship that developed between Ludwig and us (Moshé Flato and I), since we first met at ICM 1966 in Moscow. That friendship extended to his school and family, and persists to this day. Its strong personal impact and main scientific components are sketched, including reflections on what mathematical physics is (or should be).
Closed star products and cyclic cohomology
We define the notion of a closed star product. A (generalized) star product (deformation of the associative product of functions on a symplectic manifold W) is closed iff integration over W is a trace on the deformed algebra. We show that for these products the cyclic cohomology replaces the Hochschild cohomology in usual star products. We then define the character of a closed star product as the cohomology class (in the cyclic bicomplex) of a well-defined cocycle, and show that, in the case of pseudodifferential operators (standard ordering on the cotangent bundle to a compact Riemannian manifold), the character is defined and given by the Todd class, while in general it fails to satisfy t…
The Reasonable Effectiveness of Mathematical Deformation Theory in Physics
This is a brief reminder, with extensions, from a different angle and for a less specialized audience, of my presentation at WGMP32 in July 2013, to which I refer for more details on the topics hinted at in the title, mainly deformation theory applied to quantization and symmetries (of elementary particles).
The Geometry of Space-Time and Its Deformations from a Physical Perspective
We start with an epistemological introduction on the evolution of the concepts of space and time and more generally of physical concepts in the context of the relation between mathematics and physics from the point of view of deformation theory. The concepts of relativity, including anti de Sitter space-time, and of quantization, are important paradigms; we briefly present these and some consequences. The importance of symmetries and of space-time in fundamental physical theories is stressed. The last section deals with “composite elementary particles” in anti de Sitter space-time and ends with speculative ideas around possible quantized anti de Sitter structures in some parts of the univer…
Topological Hopf Algebras, Quantum Groups and Deformation Quantization
After a presentation of the context and a brief reminder of deformation quantization, we indicate how the introduction of natural topological vector space topologi es on Hopf algebras associated with Poisson Lie groups, Lie bialgebras and their doubles explains their dualities a nd provides a comprehensive framework. Relations with deformation quantization and applications to the deformation quantization of symmetric spaces are described.