Generalized negligible morphisms and their tensor ideals

We introduce a generalization of the notion of a negligible morphism and study the associated tensor ideals and thick ideals. These ideals are defined by considering deformations of a given monoidal category $${\mathcal {C}}$$ C over a local ring R. If the maximal ideal of R is generated by a single element, we show that any thick ideal of $${\mathcal {C}}$$ C admits an explicitly given modified trace function. As examples we consider various Deligne categories and the categories of tilting modules for a quantum group at a root of unity and for a semisimple, simply connected algebraic group in prime characteristic. We prove an elementary geometric description of the thick ideals in quantum type A and propose a similar one in the modular case.

The Shortest Path to Network Geometry

Real networks comprise from hundreds to millions of interacting elements and permeate all contexts, from technology to biology to society. All of them display non-trivial connectivity patterns, including the small-world phenomenon, making nodes to be separated by a small number of intermediate links. As a consequence, networks present an apparent lack of metric structure and are difficult to map. Yet, many networks have a hidden geometry that enables meaningful maps in the two-dimensional hyperbolic plane. The discovery of such hidden geometry and the understanding of its role have become fundamental questions in network science giving rise to the field of network geometry. This Element reviews fundamental models and methods for the geometric description of real networks with a focus on applications of real network maps, including decentralized routing protocols, geometric community detection, and the self-similar multiscale unfolding of networks by geometric renormalization.

From Geometry to Coherent Dissipative Dynamics in Quantum Mechanics

Starting from the geometric description of quantum systems, we propose a novel approach to time-independent dissipative quantum processes according to which energy is dissipated but the coherence of the states is preserved. Our proposal consists of extending the standard symplectic picture of quantum mechanics to a contact manifold and then obtaining dissipation by using appropriate contact Hamiltonian dynamics. We work out the case of finite-level systems for which it is shown, by means of the corresponding contact master equation, that the resulting dynamics constitute a viable alternative candidate for the description of this subclass of dissipative quantum systems. As a concrete application, motivated by recent experimental observations, we describe quantum decays in a 2-level system as coherent and continuous processes.

Swampland geometry and the gauge couplings

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First we review in detail the geometric aspects of the swampland program for supersymmetric 4d effective theories using a new and unifying language we dub “domestic geometry”, the generalization of special Kähler geometry which does not require the underlying manifold to be Kähler or have a complex structure. All 4d SUGRAs are described by domestic geometry. As special Kähler geometries, domestic geometries carry formal brane amplitudes: when the domestic geometry describes the supersymmetric low-energy limit of a consistent quantum theory of gravity, its formal brane amplitudes have the right properties to be actual branes. The main datum of the domestic geometry of a 4d SUGRA is its gauge coupling, seen as a map from a manifold which satisfies the geometric Ooguri-Vafa conjectures to the Siegel variety; to understand the properties of the quantum-consistent gauge couplings we discuss several novel aspects of such “Ooguri-Vafa” manifolds, including their Liouville properties.Our second goal is to present some novel speculation on the extension of the swampland program to non-supersymmetric effective theories of gravity. The idea is that the domestic geometric description of the quantum-consistent effective theories extends, possibly with some qualifications, also to the non-supersymmetric case.

Principal Bundle Structure of Matrix Manifolds

In this paper, we introduce a new geometric description of the manifolds of matrices of fixed rank. The starting point is a geometric description of the Grassmann manifold Gr(Rk) of linear subspaces of dimension r<k in Rk, which avoids the use of equivalence classes. The set Gr(Rk) is equipped with an atlas, which provides it with the structure of an analytic manifold modeled on R(k−r)×r. Then, we define an atlas for the set Mr(Rk×r) of full rank matrices and prove that the resulting manifold is an analytic principal bundle with base Gr(Rk) and typical fibre GLr, the general linear group of invertible matrices in Rk×k. Finally, we define an atlas for the set Mr(Rn×m) of non-full rank matrices and prove that the resulting manifold is an analytic principal bundle with base Gr(Rn)×Gr(Rm) and typical fibre GLr. The atlas of Mr(Rn×m) is indexed on the manifold itself, which allows a natural definition of a neighbourhood for a given matrix, this neighbourhood being proved to possess the structure of a Lie group. Moreover, the set Mr(Rn×m) equipped with the topology induced by the atlas is proven to be an embedded submanifold of the matrix space Rn×m equipped with the subspace topology. The proposed geometric description then results in a description of the matrix space Rn×m, seen as the union of manifolds Mr(Rn×m), as an analytic manifold equipped with a topology for which the matrix rank is a continuous map.

Do all 5d SCFTs descend from 6d SCFTs?

We present examples of 5d SCFTs that serve as counter-examples to a recently actively studied conjecture according to which it should be possible to obtain all 5d SCFTs by integrating out BPS particles from 6d SCFTs compactified on a circle. We further observe that it is possible to obtain these 5d SCFTs from 6d SCFTs if one allows integrating out BPS strings as well. Based on this observation, we propose a revised version of the conjecture according to which it should be possible to obtain all 5d SCFTs by integrating out both BPS particles and BPS strings from 6d SCFTs compactified on a circle. We describe a general procedure to integrate out BPS strings from a 5d theory once a geometric description of the 5d theory is given. We also discuss the consequences of the revised conjecture for the classification program of 5d SCFTs.

Bootstrapping BPS spectra of 5d/6d field theories

We propose a systematic approach to computing the BPS spectrum of any 5d/6d supersymmetric quantum field theory in Coulomb phases, which admits either gauge theory descriptions or geometric descriptions, based on the Nakajima-Yoshioka’s blowup equations. We provide a significant generalization of the blowup equation approach in terms of both properly quantized magnetic fluxes on the blowup $$ \hat{\mathrm{\mathbb{C}}} $$ ℂ ̂ 2 and the effective prepotential for 5d/6d field theories on the Omega background which is uniquely determined by the Chern-Simons couplings on their Coulomb branches. We employ our method to compute BPS spectra of all rank-1 and rank-2 5d Kaluza-Klein (KK) theories descending from 6d $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = (1, 0) superconformal field theories (SCFTs) compactified on a circle with/without twist. We also discuss various 5d SCFTs and KK theories of higher ranks, which include a few exotic cases such as new rank-1 and rank-2 5d SCFTs engineered with frozen singularity as well as the 5d SU(3)8 gauge theory currently having neither a brane web nor a smooth shrinkable geometric description. The results serve as non-trivial checks for a large class of non-trivial dualities among 5d theories and also as independent evidences for the existence of certain exotic theories.

Moduli spaces for Lamé functions and Abelian differentials of the second kind

The topology of the moduli space for Lamé functions of degree [Formula: see text] is determined: this is a Riemann surface which consists of two connected components when [Formula: see text]; we find the Euler characteristics and genera of these components. As a corollary we prove a conjecture of Maier on degrees of Cohn’s polynomials. These results are obtained with the help of a geometric description of these Riemann surfaces, as quotients of the moduli spaces for certain singular flat triangles. An application is given to the study of metrics of constant positive curvature with one conic singularity with the angle [Formula: see text] on a torus. We show that the degeneration locus of such metrics is a union of smooth analytic curves and we enumerate these curves.

Manin Involutions for Elliptic Pencils and Discrete Integrable Systems

We contribute to the algebraic-geometric study of discrete integrable systems generated by planar birational maps: (a) we find geometric description of Manin involutions for elliptic pencils consisting of curves of higher degree, birationally equivalent to cubic pencils (Halphen pencils of index 1), and (b) we characterize special geometry of base points ensuring that certain compositions of Manin involutions are integrable maps of low degree (quadratic Cremona maps). In particular, we identify some integrable Kahan discretizations as compositions of Manin involutions for elliptic pencils of higher degree.