Partition functions of Chern-Simons theory on handlebodies by radial quantization

We use radial quantization to compute Chern-Simons partition functions on handlebodies of arbitrary genus. The partition function is given by a particular transition amplitude between two states which are defined on the Riemann surfaces that define the (singular) foliation of the handlebody. The final state is a coherent state while on the initial state the holonomy operator has zero eigenvalue. The latter choice encodes the constraint that the gauge fields must be regular everywhere inside the handlebody. By requiring that the only singularities of the gauge field inside the handlebody must be compatible with Wilson loop insertions, we find that the Wilson loop shifts the holonomy of the initial state. Together with an appropriate choice of normalization, this procedure selects a unique state in the Hilbert space obtained from a Kähler quantization of the theory on the constant-radius Riemann surfaces. Radial quantization allows us to find the partition functions of Abelian Chern-Simons theories for handlebodies of arbitrary genus. For non-Abelian compact gauge groups, we show that our method reproduces the known partition function at genus one.

Mazur’s rational torsion result for pointless genus one curves: examples

This note reformulates Mazur’s result on the possible orders of rational torsion points on elliptic curves over $$\mathbb {Q}$$ Q in a way that makes sense for arbitrary genus one curves, regardless whether or not the curve contains a rational point. The main result is that explicit examples are provided of ‘pointless’ genus one curves over $$\mathbb {Q}$$ Q corresponding to the torsion orders 7, 8, 9, 10, 12 (and hence, all possibilities) occurring in Mazur’s theorem. In fact three distinct methods are proposed for constructing such examples, each involving different in our opinion quite nice ideas from the arithmetic of elliptic curves or from algebraic geometry.

Maximally inflected real trigonal curves on Hirzebruch surfaces

In 2014 A. Degtyarev, I. Itenberg, and the author gave a description, up to fiberwise equivariant deformations, of maximally inflected real trigonal curves of type I (over a base B B of an arbitrary genus) in terms of the combinatorics of sufficiently simple graphs and for B = P 1 B=\mathbb {P}^1 obtained a complete classification of such curves. In this paper, the mentioned results are extended to maximally inflected real trigonal curves of type II over B = P 1 B=\mathbb {P}^1 .

Brill-Noether theory for curves of a fixed gonality

We prove a generalisation of the Brill-Noether theorem for the variety of special divisors $W^r_d(C)$ on a general curve C of prescribed gonality. Our main theorem gives a closed formula for the dimension of $W^r_d(C)$ . We build on previous work of Pflueger, who used an analysis of the tropical divisor theory of special chains of cycles to give upper bounds on the dimensions of Brill-Noether varieties on such curves. We prove his conjecture, that this upper bound is achieved for a general curve. Our methods introduce logarithmic stable maps as a systematic tool in Brill-Noether theory. A precise relation between the divisor theory on chains of cycles and the corresponding tropical maps theory is exploited to prove new regeneration theorems for linear series with negative Brill-Noether number. The strategy involves blending an analysis of obstruction theories for logarithmic stable maps with the geometry of Berkovich curves. To show the utility of these methods, we provide a short new derivation of lifting for special divisors on a chain of cycles with generic edge lengths, proved using different techniques by Cartwright, Jensen, and Payne. A crucial technical result is a new realisability theorem for tropical stable maps in obstructed geometries, generalising a well-known theorem of Speyer on genus $1$ curves to arbitrary genus.

Schiffer Comparison Operators and Approximations on Riemann Surfaces Bordered by Quasicircles

We consider a compact Riemann surface R of arbitrary genus, with a finite number of non-overlapping quasicircles, which separate R into two subsets: a connected Riemann surface $$\Sigma $$ Σ , and the union $$\mathcal {O}$$ O of a finite collection of simply connected regions. We prove that the Schiffer integral operator mapping the Bergman space of anti-holomorphic one-forms on $$\mathcal {O}$$ O to the Bergman space of holomorphic forms on $$\Sigma $$ Σ is an isomorphism onto the exact one-forms, when restricted to the orthogonal complement of the set of forms on all of R. We then apply this to prove versions of the Plemelj–Sokhotski isomorphism and jump decomposition for such a configuration. Finally we obtain some approximation theorems for the Bergman space of one-forms and Dirichlet space of holomorphic functions on $$\Sigma $$ Σ by elements of Bergman space and Dirichlet space on fixed regions in R containing $$\Sigma $$ Σ .

Gas of Baby Universes in JT Gravity and Matrix Models

It has been shown recently by Saad, Shenker and Stanford that the genus expansion of a certain matrix integral generates partition functions of Jackiw-Teitelboim (JT) quantum gravity on Riemann surfaces of arbitrary genus with any fixed number of boundaries. We use an extension of this integral for studying gas of baby universes or wormholes in JT gravity. To investigate the gas nonperturbatively we explore the generating functional of baby universes in the matrix model. The simple particular case when the matrix integral includes the exponential potential is discussed in some detail. We argue that there is a phase transition in the gas of baby universes.

DNA origami and unknotted A-trails in torus graphs

Motivated by problem of determining the unknotted routes for the scaffolding strand in DNA origami self-assembly, we examine the existence and knottedness of A-trails in graphs embedded on the torus. We show that any A-trail in a checkerboard-colorable torus graph is unknotted and characterizes the existence of A-trails in checkerboard-colorable torus graphs in terms of pairs of quasitrees in associated embeddings. Surface meshes are frequent targets for DNA nanostructure self-assembly, and so we study both triangular and rectangular torus grids. We show that aside from one exceptional family, a triangular torus grid contains an A-trail if and only if it has an odd number of vertices, and that such an A-trail is necessarily unknotted. On the other hand, while every rectangular torus grid contains an unknotted A-trail, we also show that any torus knot can be realized as an A-trail in some rectangular grid. Lastly, we use a gluing operation to construct infinite families of triangular and rectangular grids containing unknotted A-trails on surfaces of arbitrary genus. We also give infinite families of triangular grids containing no unknotted A-trail on surfaces of arbitrary nonzero genus.