Related papers: Topological Quantum Field Theory: A Progress Repor…
We study three-dimensional gauge theories based on orthogonal groups. Depending on the global form of the group these theories admit discrete $\theta$-parameters, which control the weights in the sum over topologically distinct gauge…
While general quantum field theories (QFTs) have yet to be rigorously defined in mathematics, they have generated new mathematics and have served as a unifying principle connecting different branches of the subject. In 1989, Witten made a…
The goal of this work is to describe a categorical formalism for (Extended) Topological Quantum Field Theories (TQFTs) and present them as functors from a suitable category of cobordisms with corners to a linear category, generalizing 2d…
We consider here the Chern-Simons field theory with gauge group SU(N) in the presence of a gravitational background that describes a two-dimensional expanding ``universe". Two special cases are treated here in detail: the spatially flat…
We study a tentative generally covariant quantum field theory, denoted the T-Theory, as a tool to investigate the consistency of quantum general relativity. The theory describes the gravitational field and a minimally coupled scalar field;…
A new type of topological matter interactions involving second-rank antisymmetric tensor matter fields with an underlying $N_T \geq 1$ topological supersymmetry are proposed. The construction of the 4-dimensional, $N_T = 1$ Donaldson-Witten…
We broaden the scope of quantum field theory by introducing a general class of discrete gauge theories that realize either topological order or fracton behavior across dimensions. We start from translation-invariant systems endowed with…
These theories, which are surely some of the simplest possible quantum field theories, were introduced in a paper of Dijkgraaf and Witten. The path integral reduces to a finite sum, so it is quite amenable to direct mathematical study.…
((1+1)-dimensional ${\cal N}=1$ super-symmetric field theory and (3+1)-dimensional ${\cal N}=2$ super-symmetric gauge theory are discussed in a, more or less, unified way, designed to identify the quantum BPS states in both systems.…
We introduce an unrolled quantization $U_q^E(\mathfrak{gl}(1 \vert 1))$ of the complex Lie superalgebra $\mathfrak{gl}(1 \vert 1)$ and use its categories of weight modules to construct and study new three dimensional non-semisimple…
A class of two dimensional field theories, based on (generically degenerate) Poisson structures and generalizing gravity-Yang-Mills systems, is presented. Locally, the solutions of the classical equations of motion are given. A general…
In this talk some recent results in the quantization of Chern-Simons field theories in the Coulomb gauge will be presented. In the first part, the consistency of the Chern-Simons field theories in this gauge is proven using the Dirac's…
Recent developments concerning canonical quantisation and gauge invariant quantum mechanical systems and quantum field theories are briefly discussed. On the one hand, it is shown how diffeomorphic covariant representations of the…
The goal of this paper is to give a new proof of a theorem of Meng and Taubes that identifies the Seiberg-Witten invariants of 3-manifolds with Milnor torsion. The point of view here will be that of topological quantum field theory. In…
This is the first of a series of two papers devoted to the partition function realization of Wilson surfaces in strict higher gauge theory. A higher version of the Kirillov-Kostant-Souriau theory of coadjoint orbits is presented based on…
Canonical quantization of abelian BF-type topological field theory coupled to extended sources on generic d-dimensional manifolds and with curved line bundles is studied. Sheaf cohomology is used to construct the appropriate topological…
Chern-Simons theories, which are topological quantum field theories, provide a field theoretic framework for the study of knots and links in three dimensions. These are rare examples of quantum field theories which can be exactly and…
We derive (quasi-)quantum groups in 2+1 dimensional topological field theory directly from the classical action and the path integral. Detailed computations are carried out for the Chern-Simons theory with finite gauge group. The principles…
"Quantum Topology" deals with the general quantum theory as the theory of the functional quantum space; space time and energy momentum forms form a connected manifold; a functional quantum space on the quantum level. The general quantum…
We reformulate and motivate AKSZ-type topological field theories in pedestrian terms, explaining how they arise as the most general Schwartz-type topological actions subject to a simple constraint, and how they generalize Chern$-$Simons…