Related papers: An algebraic analog of the Virasoro group
We present a three-dimensional geometric construction of the Virasoro-Bott group, which is a central extension of the group of diffeomorphisms of the circle. Our approach is analogous to the well-known construction of a central extension of…
The group $Diff$ of diffeomorphisms of the circle is an infinite dimensional analog of the real semisimple Lie groups $U(p,q)$, $Sp(2n,R)$, $SO^*(2n)$; the space $\Xi$ of univalent functions is an analog of the corresponding classical…
A set of coordinates in the non parametric loop-space is introduced. We show that these coordinates transform under infinite dimensional linear representations of the diffeomorphism group. An extension of the group of loops in terms of…
Integration of Kirillov form on a coadjoint orbit of Virasoro algebra yields the coupling of a background field to Polyakov's two dimensional quantum gravity. This background field is used to be called the diffeomorphism field. Einstein's…
We approach the question of complexification of the diffeomorphism group of the circle by considering real-analytic maps from the circle into the punctured complex plane with winding number +1. Such complex deformations form an…
Field-theoretic pure gravitational anomalies only exist in $4k+2$ dimensions. However, canonical quantization of non-field-theoretic systems may give rise to diffeomorphism anomalies in any number of dimensions. I present a simple example,…
The representation theory of non-centrally extended Lie algebras of Noether symmetries, including spacetime diffeomorphisms and reparametrizations of the observer's trajectory, has recently been developped. It naturally solves some…
Based on a family of indefinite unitary representations of the diffeomorphism group of an oriented smooth $4$-manifold, a manifestly covariant $4$ dimensional and non-perturbative algebraic quantum field theory formulation of gravity is…
The Virasoro operations in Witten's theory of two-dimensional topological gravity have a homotopy-theoretic interpretation as endomorphisms of an ordinary cohomology theory with coefficients in a localization of I. Schur's ring \Delta of…
The quantum theory of a massless spin two particle is strongly constrained by diffeomorphism invariance, which is in turn implied by unitarity. We explicitly exhibit the space-time diffeomorphism algebra of string theory, realizing it in…
Loop quantum gravity is an approach to quantum gravity that starts from the Hamiltonian formulation in terms of a connection and its canonical conjugate. Quantization proceeds in the spirit of Dirac: First one defines an algebra of basic…
We consider groups of orientation-preserving real analytic diffeomorphisms of the circle which have a finite image under the rotation number function. We show that if such a group is nondiscrete with respect to the $C^1$-topology then it…
The two-category with three-manifolds as objects, h-cobordisms as morphisms, and diffeomorphisms of these as two-morphisms, is extremely rich; from the point of view of classical physics it defines a nontrivial topological model for general…
If G is a (connected) complex Lie Group and Z is a generalized flag manifold for G, the the open orbits D of a (connected) real form G_0 of G form an interesting class of complex homogeneous spaces, which play an important role in the…
This is the extended version of a lecture course given at the University of Vienna in the spring term 2005. The main aim of this course was to understand the papers \cite{10} and \cite{11} and to give a complete account of existence and…
We are interested in classifying groups of local biholomorphisms (or even formal diffeomorphisms) that can be endowed with a canonical structure of algebraic group up to add extra formal diffeomorphisms. We show that this is the case for…
We address the role of large diffeomorphisms in Witten's 2+1 gravity on the manifold ${\bf R} \times T^2$. In a ``spacelike sector" quantum theory that treats the large diffeomorphisms as a symmetry, rather than as gauge, the Hilbert space…
The w_\infty algebra is a particular generalization of the Virasoro algebra with generators of higher spin 2,3,...,\infty. It can be viewed as the algebra of a class of functions, relative to a Poisson bracket, on a suitably chosen surface.…
A model for 2D-quantum gravity from the Virasoro symmetry is studied. The notion of space-time naturally arises as a homogeneous space associated with the kinematical (non-dynamical) SL(2,R) symmetry in the kernel of the Lie-algebra central…
We construct an explicit representation of the algebra of local diffeomorphisms of a manifold with realistic dimensions. This is achieved in the setting of a general approach to the (quantum) dynamics of a physical system which is…