Virtual fundamental classes and Batalin-Vilkovisky quantization from supersymmetric twists
Abstract
Supersymmetric localization allows one to reduce the computation of the partition function of a supersymmetric theory to a finite-dimensional integral, but the space over which one integrates is often singular. In this talk I will explain how one can use shifted symplectic geometry to get rigorous definitions of partition functions and state spaces in theories with extended supersymmetry. For instance, this gives a field-theoretic origin of DT invariants of CY4 manifolds. This is a report on joint work with Brian Williams.
Abelian Chern-Simons theory on the lattice
Abstract
I will discuss a formulation of an Abelian Chern-Simons theory on the lattice employing the modified Villain formalism. The theory suffers from a well-known problem of having extra zero modes in the Gaussian operator. I will argue that these zero modes are associated with a kind of subsystem symmetry which projects out almost all naive Wilson loops. The operators which survive are framed Wilson loops. These turn out to be topological charges of the associated one-form symmetry, and it has the correct topological spin and correlation functions.
Atmospheric Neutrinos with IceCube
Cohomological obstructions to lifting properties for full C*-algebras of property (T) groups
Abstract
A C*-algebra has the lifting property (LP) if any unital completely positive map into a quotient C*-algebra admits a completely positive lift. The local lifting property (LLP), introduced by Kirchberg in the early 1990s, is a weaker, local version of the LP. I will present a method, based on non-vanishing of second cohomology groups, for proving the failure of lifting properties for full C*-algebras of countable groups with (relative) property (T). This allows us to derive that the full C*-algebras of the groups $Z^2\rtimes SL_2(Z)$ and $SL_n(Z)$, for n>2, do not have the LLP. The same method allows us to prove that the full C*-algebras of a large class of groups with property (T), including those admitting a probability measure preserving action with non-vanishing second real-valued cohomology, do not have the LP. In a different direction, we prove that the full C*-algebras of any non-finitely presented groups with property (T) do not have the LP. Time permitting, I will also discuss a connection with the notion of Hilbert-Schmidt stability for countable groups. This is based on a joint work with Pieter Spaas and Matthew Wiersma.