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Full-Text Articles in Algebra
Classification Of Topological Defects In Cosmological Models, Abigail Swanson
Classification Of Topological Defects In Cosmological Models, Abigail Swanson
Student Research Submissions
In nature, symmetries play an extremely significant role. Understanding the symmetries of a system can tell us important information and help us make predictions. However, these symmetries can break and form a new type of symmetry in the system. Most notably, this occurs when the system goes through a phase transition. Sometimes, a symmetry can break and produce a tear, known as a topological defect, in the system. These defects cannot be removed through a continuous transformation and can have major consequences on the system as a whole. It is helpful to know what type of defect is produced when …
General Covariance With Stacks And The Batalin-Vilkovisky Formalism, Filip Dul
General Covariance With Stacks And The Batalin-Vilkovisky Formalism, Filip Dul
Doctoral Dissertations
In this thesis we develop a formulation of general covariance, an essential property for many field theories on curved spacetimes, using the language of stacks and the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism. We survey the theory of stacks, both from a global and formal perspective, and consider the key example in our work: the moduli stack of metrics modulo diffeomorphism. This is then coupled to the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism–a formulation of field theory motivated by developments in derived geometry–to describe the associated equivariant observables of a theory and to recover and generalize results regarding current conservation.
Some 2-Categorical Aspects In Physics, Arthur Parzygnat
Some 2-Categorical Aspects In Physics, Arthur Parzygnat
Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
2-categories provide a useful transition point between ordinary category theory and infinity-category theory where one can perform concrete computations for applications in physics and at the same time provide rigorous formalism for mathematical structures appearing in physics. We survey three such broad instances. First, we describe two-dimensional algebra as a means of constructing non-abelian parallel transport along surfaces which can be used to describe strings charged under non-abelian gauge groups in string theory. Second, we formalize the notion of convex and cone categories, provide a preliminary categorical definition of entropy, and exhibit several examples. Thirdly, we provide a universal description …