No Arabic abstract
This paper builds on the theory of generalised functions begun in [1]. The Colombeau theory of generalised scalar fields on manifolds is extended to a nonlinear theory of generalised tensor fields which is diffeomorphism invariant and has the sheaf property. The generalised Lie derivative for generalised tensor fields is introduced and it is shown that this commutes with the embedding of distributional tensor fields. It is also shown that the covariant derivative of generalised tensor fields commutes with the embedding at the level of association. The concept of generalised metric is introduced and used to develop a nonsmooth theory of differential geometry. It is shown that the embedding of a continuous metric results in a generalised metric with well defined connection and curvature. It is also shown that a twice continuously differentiable metric which is a solution of the vacuum Einstein equations may be embedded into the algebra of generalised tensor fields and has generalised Ricci curvature associated to zero. Thus, the embedding preserves the Einstein equations at the level of association. Finally, we consider an example of a metric which lies outside the Geroch-Traschen class and show that in our diffeomorphism invariant theory the curvature of a cone is associated to a delta function.
This paper lays the foundations for a nonlinear theory of differential geometry that is developed in a subsequent paper which is based on Colombeau algebras of tensor distributions on manifolds. We adopt a new approach and construct a global theory of algebras of generalised functions on manifolds based on the concept of smoothing operators. This produces a generalisation of previous theories in a form which is suitable for applications to differential geometry. The generalised Lie derivative is introduced and shown to commute with the embedding of distributions. It is also shown that the covariant derivative of a generalised scalar field commutes with this embedding at the level of association.
We review the remarkable progress that has been made the last 15 years towards the classification of supersymmetric solutions with emphasis on the description of the bilinears and spinorial geometry methods. We describe in detail the geometry of backgrounds of key supergravity theories, which have applications in the context of black holes, string theory, M-theory and the AdS/CFT correspondence unveiling a plethora of existence and uniqueness theorems. Some other aspects of supersymmetric solutions like the Killing superalgebras and the homogeneity theorem are also presented, and the non-existence theorem for certain smooth supergravity flux compactifications is outlined. Amongst the applications described is the proof of the emergence of conformal symmetry near black hole horizons and the classification of warped AdS backgrounds that preserve more than 16 supersymmetries.
The physics of classical particles in a Lorentz-breaking spacetime has numerous features resembling the properties of Finsler geometry. In particular, the Lagrange function plays a role similar to that of a Finsler structure function. A summary is presented of recent results, including new calculable Finsler structures based on Lagrange functions appearing in the Lorentz-violation framework known as the Standard-Model Extension.
These lecture notes review the topological string theory and its applications to mathematics and physics. They expand on material presented at the Takagi Lectures of the Mathematical Society of Japan on 21 June 2008 at Department of Mathematics, Kyoto University.
These are lecture notes for the course Poisson geometry and deformation quantization given by the author during the fall semester 2020 at the University of Zurich. The first chapter is an introduction to differential geometry, where we cover manifolds, tensor fields, integration on manifolds, Stokes theorem, de Rhams theorem and Frobenius theorem. The second chapter covers the most important notions of symplectic geometry such as Lagrangian submanifolds, Weinsteins tubular neighborhood theorem, Hamiltonian mechanics, moment maps and symplectic reduction. The third chapter gives an introduction to Poisson geometry where we also cover Courant structures, Dirac structures, the local splitting theorem, symplectic foliations and Poisson maps. The fourth chapter is about deformation quantization where we cover the Moyal product, $L_infty$-algebras, Kontsevichs formality theorem, Kontsevichs star product construction through graphs, the globalization approach to Kontsevichs star product and the operadic approach to formality. The fifth chapter is about the quantum field theoretic approach to Kontsevichs deformation quantization where we cover functional integral methods, the Moyal product as a path integral quantization, the Faddeev-Popov and BRST method for gauge theories, infinite-dimensional extensions, the Poisson sigma model, the construction of Kontsevichs star product through a perturbative expansion of the functional integral quantization for the Poisson sigma model for affine Poisson structures and the general construction.