Using methods of formal geometry, the Poisson sigma model on a closed surface is studied in perturbation theory. The effective action, as a function on vacua, is shown to have no quantum corrections if the surface is a torus or if the Poisson structu
re is regular and unimodular (e.g., symplectic). In the case of a Kahler structure or of a trivial Poisson structure, the partition function on the torus is shown to be the Euler characteristic of the target; some evidence is given for this to happen more generally. The methods of formal geometry introduced in this paper might be applicable to other sigma models, at least of the AKSZ type.
The perturbative Chern-Simons theory is studied in a finite-dimensional version or assuming that the propagator satisfies certain properties (as is the case, e.g., with the propagator defined by Axelrod and Singer). It turns out that the effective BV
action is a function on cohomology (with shifted degrees) that solves the quantum master equation and is defined modulo certain canonical transformations that can be characterized completely. Out of it one obtains invariants.
Recently the first two authors constructed an L-infinity morphism using the S^1-equivariant version of the Poisson Sigma Model (PSM). Its role in deformation quantization was not entirely clear. We give here a good interpretation and show that the re
sulting formality statement is equivalent to formality on cyclic chains as conjectured by Tsygan and proved recently by several authors.
Kontsevichs formality theorem states that the differential graded Lie algebra of multidifferential operators on a manifold M is L-infinity-quasi-isomorphic to its cohomology. The construction of the L-infinity map is given in terms of integrals of di
fferential forms on configuration spaces of points in the upper half-plane. Here we consider configuration spaces of points in the disk and work equivariantly with respect to the rotation group. This leads to considering the differential graded Lie algebra of multivector fields endowed with a divergence operator. In the case of R^d with standard volume form, we obtain an L-infinity morphism of modules over this differential graded Lie algebra from cyclic chains of the algebra of functions to multivector fields. As a first application we give a construction of traces on algebras of functions with star-products associated with unimodular Poisson structures. The construction is based on the Batalin--Vilkovisky quantization of the Poisson sigma model on the disk and in particular on the treatment of its zero modes.
