English

The Fermionic integral on loop space and the Pfaffian line bundle

Differential Geometry 2024-06-19 v5 Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

As the loop space of a Riemannian manifold is infinite-dimensional, it is a non-trivial problem to make sense of the "top degree component" of a differential form on it. In this paper, we show that a formula from finite dimensions generalizes to assign a sensible "top degree component" to certain composite forms, obtained by wedging with the exponential (in the exterior algebra) of the canonical 2-form on the loop space. The result is a section on the Pfaffian line bundle on the loop space. We then identify this with a section of the line bundle obtained by transgression of the spin lifting gerbe. These results are a crucial ingredient for defining the fermionic part of the supersymmetric path integral on the loop space.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1709.10028,
  title  = {The Fermionic integral on loop space and the Pfaffian line bundle},
  author = {Florian Hanisch and Matthias Ludewig},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1709.10028},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

Clarified and corrected proof of main proposition; several smaller changes throughout; changed abstract and title

R2 v1 2026-06-22T21:57:58.360Z