Related papers: Deformation of string topology into homotopy skein…
The $\theta$-deformed Hopf fibration $\mathbb{S}^3_\theta\to \mathbb{S}^2$ over the commutative $2$-sphere is compared with its classical counterpart. It is shown that there exists a natural isomorphism between the corresponding associated…
We set up a Batalin-Vilkovisky Quantum Master Equation for open-closed string theory and show that the corresponding moduli spaces give rise to a solution, a generating function for their fundamental chains. The equation encodes the…
The purpose of this article is to embed the string topology bracket developed by Chas-Sullivan and Menichi on negative cyclic cohomology groups as well as the dual bracket found by de Thanhoffer de Voelcsey-Van den Bergh on negative cyclic…
We show that we can release the rigidity of the skew Howe duality process for ${\mathfrak sl}_n$ knot invariants by rescaling the quantum Weyl group action, and recover skein modules for web-tangles. This skew Howe duality phenomenon can be…
I present arguments to the affect that the topological phase of string theory must be event-symmetric. This motivates a search for a universal string group for discrete strings in event-symmetric space-time which unifies space-time symmetry…
We find further evidence for the conjecture relating large N Chern-Simons theory on S^3 with topological string on the resolved conifold geometry by showing that the Wilson loop observable of a simple knot on S^3 (for any representation)…
We show that refined Chern-Simons theory and large N duality can be used to study the refined topological string with and without branes. We derive the refined topological vertex of hep-th/0701156 and hep-th/0502061 from a link invariant of…
We elaborate on the recent proposal that intersection numbers of certain cohomology classes on the moduli space of genus-zero Riemann surfaces with punctures compute tree-level scattering amplitudes in quantum field theories. The relevant…
We develop the theory of arrangements of spheres. Consider a finite collection of codimension-$1$ subspheres in a positive-dimensional sphere. There are two posets associated with this collection: the poset of faces and the poset of…
Homotopy algebra and its involutive generalisation plays an important role in the construction of string field theory. I will review recent progress in these applications of homotopy algebra and its relation to moduli spaces.
This paper gives insight into intriguing connections between two apparently unrelated theories: the theory of skein modules of 3-manifolds and the theory of representations of groups into special linear groups of 2 by 2 matrices. Let R be a…
In this paper, I give a generalized analogue of the string topology results of Chas and Sullivan, and of Cohen and Jones. For a finite simplicial complex $X$ and $k \geq 1$, I construct a spectrum $Maps(S^k, X)^{S(X)}$, and show that the…
We demonstrate that type II string theory compactified on a singular Calabi-Yau manifold is related to $c=1$ string theory compactified at the self-dual radius. We establish this result in two ways. First we show that complex structure…
Gopakumar, Ooguri and Vafa famously proposed the existence of a correspondence between a topological gauge theory on one hand ($U(N)$ Chern-Simons theory on the three-sphere) and a topological string theory on the other (the topological…
We consider an open string version of the topological twist previously proposed for sigma-models with G2 target spaces. We determine the cohomology of open strings states and relate these to geometric deformations of calibrated submanifolds…
By adding or removing appropriate structures to Gauss diagram, one can create useful objects related to virtual links. In this paper few objects of this kind are studied: twisted virtual links generalizing virtual links; signed chord…
Let G be a compact Lie group. By work of Chataur and Menichi, the homology of the space of free loops in the classifying space of G is known to be the value on the circle in a homological conformal field theory. This means in particular…
We show that the mod $\ell$ cohomology of any finite group of Lie type in characteristic $p$ different from $\ell$ admits the structure of a module over the mod $\ell$ cohomology of the free loop space of the classifying space $BG$ of the…
We use Khovanov-Rozansky gl(N) link homology to define invariants of oriented smooth 4-manifolds, as skein modules constructed from certain 4-categories with well-behaved duals. The technical heart of this construction is a proof of the…
Using Saito's theory of mixed Hodge modules, we study a generalization of Hellus-Schenzel's "cohomologically complete intersection" property. This property is equivalent to perversity of the shifted constant sheaf. We relate the generalized…