English

Chern characters for supersymmetric field theories

Algebraic Topology 2023-08-02 v2 Mathematical Physics Differential Geometry math.MP

Abstract

We construct a map from d1d|1-dimensional Euclidean field theories to complexified K-theory when d=1d=1 and complex analytic elliptic cohomology when d=2d=2. This provides further evidence for the Stolz--Teichner program, while also identifying candidate geometric models for Chern characters within their framework. The construction arises as a higher-dimensional and parameterized generalization of Fei Han's realization of the Chern character in K-theory as dimensional reduction for 111|1-dimensional Euclidean field theories. In the elliptic case, the main new feature is a subtle interplay between the geometry of the super moduli space of 212|1-dimensional tori and the derived geometry of complex analytic elliptic cohomology. As a corollary, we obtain an entirely geometric proof that partition functions of N=(0,1)\mathcal{N}=(0,1) supersymmetric quantum field theories are weak modular forms, following a suggestion of Stolz and Teichner.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2010.03663,
  title  = {Chern characters for supersymmetric field theories},
  author = {Daniel Berwick-Evans},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2010.03663},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

24 pages, to appear in Geometry and Topology

R2 v1 2026-06-23T19:08:55.642Z