Deformation Quantization And Index Theory

In the monograph a new approach to deformation quantization on a symplectic manifold is developed. This approach gives rise to an important invariant, the so-called Weyl curvature, which is a formal deformation of the symplectic form. The isomophy classes of the deformed algebras are classified by the cohomology classes of the coefficients of the Weyl curvature. These algebras have many common features with the algebra of complete symbols of pseudodifferential operators except that in general there are no corresponding operator algebras. Nevertheless, the developed calculus allows to define the notion of an elliptic element and its index as well as to prove an index theorem similar to that of Atiyah-Singer for elliptic operators. The corresponding index formula contains the Weyl curvature and the usual ingredients entering the Atiyah-Singer formula. Applications of the index theorem are connected with the so-called asymptotic operator representation of the deformed algebra (the operator quantization), the formal deformation parameter h should be replaced by a numerical one ranging over some admissible set of the unit interval having 0 as its limit point. The fact that the index of any elliptic operator is an integer results in necessary quantization conditions: the index of any elliptic element should be asymptotically integer-valued as h tends to 0 over the admissible set. For a compact manifold a direct construction of the asymptotic operator representation shows that these conditions are also sufficient. Finally, a reduction theorem for deformation quantization is proved generalizing the classical Marsden-Weinstein theorem. In this case the index theorem gives the Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization rule and the multiplicities of eigenvalues.

In the monograph a new approach to deformation quantization on a symplectic manifold is developed. This approach gives rise to an important invariant, the so-called Weyl curvature, which is a formal deformation of the symplectic form. The isomophy classes of the deformed algebras are classified by the cohomology classes of the coefficients of the Weyl curvature. These algebras have many common features with the algebra of complete symbols of pseudodifferential operators except that in general there are no corresponding operator algebras. Nevertheless, the developed calculus allows to define the notion of an elliptic element and its index as well as to prove an index theorem similar to that of Atiyah-Singer for elliptic operators. The corresponding index formula contains the Weyl curvature and the usual ingredients entering the Atiyah-Singer formula. Applications of the index theorem are connected with the so-called asymptotic operator representation of the deformed algebra (the operator quantization), the formal deformation parameter h should be replaced by a numerical one ranging over some admissible set of the unit interval having 0 as its limit point. The fact that the index of any elliptic operator is an integer results in necessary quantization conditions: the index of any elliptic element should be asymptotically integer-valued as h tends to 0 over the admissible set. For a compact manifold a direct construction of the asymptotic operator representation shows that these conditions are also sufficient. Finally, a reduction theorem for deformation quantization is proved generalizing the classical Marsden-Weinstein theorem. In this case the index theorem gives the Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization rule and the multiplicities of eigenvalues.

This book is a survey of the theory of formal deformation quantization of Poisson manifolds, in the formalism developed by Kontsevich. It is intended as an educational introduction for mathematical physicists who are dealing with the subject for the first time. The main topics covered are the theory of Poisson manifolds, star products and their classification, deformations of associative algebras and the formality theorem. Readers will also be familiarized with the relevant physical motivations underlying the purely mathematical construction.

This book contains eleven refereed research papers on deformation quantization by leading experts in the respective fields. These contributions are based on talks presented on the occasion of the meeting between mathematicians and theoretical physicists held in Strasbourg in May 2001. Topics covered are: star-products over Poisson manifolds, quantization of Hopf algebras, index theorems, globalization and cohomological problems. Both the mathematical and the physical approach ranging from asymptotic quantum electrodynamics to operads and prop theory will be presented. Historical remarks and surveys set the results presented in perspective. Directed at research mathematicians and theoretical physicists as well as graduate students, the volume will give an overview of a field of research that has seen enourmous acticity in the last years, with new ties to many other areas of mathematics and physics.

This work describes a general construction of a deformation quantization for any Poisson bracket on a manifold which comes from an action of $R^d$ on that manifold. These deformation quantizations are strict, in the sense that the deformed product of any two functions is again a function and that there are corresponding involutions and operator norms. Many of the techniques involved are adapted from the theory of pseudo-differential operators. The construction is shown to have many favorable properties. A number of specific examples are described, ranging from basic ones such as quantum disks, quantum tori, and quantum spheres, to aspects of quantum groups.

This book provides an introduction to deformation quantization and its relation to quantum field theory, with a focus on the constructions of Kontsevich and Cattaneo & Felder. This subject originated from an attempt to understand the mathematical structure when passing from a commutative classical algebra of observables to a non-commutative quantum algebra of observables. Developing deformation quantization as a semi-classical limit of the expectation value for a certain observable with respect to a special sigma model, the book carefully describes the relationship between the involved algebraic and field-theoretic methods. The connection to quantum field theory leads to the study of important new field theories and to insights in other parts of mathematics such as symplectic and Poisson geometry, and integrable systems. Based on lectures given by the author at the University of Zurich, the book will be of interest to graduate students in mathematics or theoretical physics. Readers will be able to begin the first chapter after a basic course in Analysis, Linear Algebra and Topology, and references are provided for more advanced prerequisites.

Quantum groups are not groups at all, but special kinds of Hopf algebras of which the most important are closely related to Lie groups and play a central role in the statistical and wave mechanics of Baxter and Yang. Those occurring physically can be studied as essentially algebraic and closely related to the deformation theory of algebras (commutative, Lie, Hopf, and so on). One of the oldest forms of algebraic quantization amounts to the study of deformations of a commutative algebra $A$ (of classical observables) to a noncommutative algebra $A_h$ (of operators) with the infinitesimal deformation given by a Poisson bracket on the original algebra $A$. This volume grew out of an AMS-IMS-SIAM Joint Summer Research Conference, held in June 1990 at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. The conference brought together leading researchers in the several areas mentioned and in areas such as ``$q$ special functions'', which have their origins in the last century but whose relevance to modern physics has only recently been understood. Among the advances taking place during the conference was Majid's reconstruction theorem for Drinfeld's quasi-Hopf algebras. Readers will appreciate this snapshot of some of the latest developments in the mathematics of quantum groups and deformation theory.

This volume, based on lectures and short communications at a summer school in Villa de Leyva, Colombia (July 2005), offers an introduction to some recent developments in several active topics at the interface between geometry, topology and quantum field theory. It is aimed at graduate students in physics or mathematics who might want insight in the following topics (covered in five survey lectures): Anomalies and noncommutative geometry, Deformation quantisation and Poisson algebras, Topological quantum field theory and orbifolds. These lectures are followed by nine articles on various topics at the borderline of mathematics and physics ranging from quasicrystals to invariant instantons through black holes, and involving a number of mathematical tools borrowed from geometry, algebra and analysis.