# Grothendieckian Construction of K-Theory with a Bundle that is Topologically Trivial and Class that is Torsion.

All relativistic quantum theories contain “antiparticles,” and allow the process of particle-antiparticle annihilation. This inspires a physical version of the Grothendieck construction of K-theory. Physics uses topological K-theory of manifolds, whose motivation is to organize vector bundles over a space into an algebraic invariant, that turns out to be useful. Algebraic K-theory started from Ki defined for i, with relations to classical constructions in algebra and number theory, followed by Quillen’s homotopy-theoretic definition ∀ i. The connections to algebra and number theory often persist for larger values of i, but in ways that are subtle and conjectural, such as special values of zeta- and L-functions.

One could also use the conserved charges of a configuration which can be measured at asymptotic infinity. By definition, these are left invariant by any physical process. Furthermore, they satisfy quantization conditions, of which the prototype is the Dirac condition on allowed electric and magnetic charges in Maxwell theory.

There is an elementary construction which, given a physical theory T, produces an abelian group of conserved charges K(T). Rather than considering the microscopic dynamics of the theory, all that is needed to be known is a set S of “particles” described by T, and a set of “bound state formation/decay processes” by which the particles combine or split to form other particles. These are called “binding processes.” Two sets of particles are “physically equivalent” if some sequence of binding processes convert the one to the other. We then define the group K(T) as the abelian group ZS of formal linear combinations of particles, quotiented by this equivalence relation.

Suppose T contains the particles S = {A,B,C}.

If these are completely stable, we could clearly define three integral conserved charges, their individual numbers, so K(T) ≅ Z3.

Introducing a binding process

A + B ↔ C —– (1)

with the bidirectional arrow to remind us that the process can go in either direction. Clearly K(T) ≅ Z2 in this case.

One might criticize this proposal on the grounds that we have assumed that configurations with a negative number of particles can exist. However, in all physical theories which satisfy the constraints of special relativity, charged particles in physical theories come with “antiparticles,” with the same mass but opposite charge. A particle and antiparticle can annihilate (combine) into a set of zero charge particles. While first discovered as a prediction of the Dirac equation, this follows from general axioms of quantum field theory, which also hold in string theory.

Thus, there are binding processes

B + B̄ ↔ Z1 + Z2 + · · · .

where B̄ is the antiparticle to a particle B, and Zi are zero charge particles, which must appear by energy conservation. To define the K-theory, we identify any such set of zero charge particles with the identity, so that

B + B̄ ↔ 0

Thus the antiparticles provide the negative elements of K(T).

Granting the existence of antiparticles, this construction of K-theory can be more simply rephrased as the Grothendieck construction. We can define K(T) as the group of pairs (E, F) ∈ (ZS, ZS), subject to the relations (E, F) ≅ (E+B, F +B) ≅ (E+L, F +R) ≅ (E+R, F +L), where (L, R) are the left and right hand side of a binding process (1).

Thinking of these as particles, each brane B must have an antibrane, which we denote by B̄. If B wraps a submanifold L, one expects that B̄ is a brane which wraps a submanifold L of opposite orientation. A potential problem is that it is not a priori obvious that the orientation of L actually matters physically, especially in degenerate cases such as L a point.

Now, let us take X as a Calabi-Yau threefold for definiteness. A physical A-brane, which are branes of the A-model topological string and thereby a TQFT shadow of the D-branes of the superstring, is specified by a pair (L, E) of a special Lagrangian submanifold L with a flat bundle E. The obvious question could be: When are (L1, E1) and (L2, E2) related by a binding process? A simple heuristic answer to this question is given by the Feynman path integral. Two configurations are connected, if they are connected by a continuous path through the configuration space; any such path (or a small deformation of it) will appear in the functional integral with some non-zero weight. Thus, the question is essentially topological. Ignoring the flat bundles for a moment, this tells us that the K-theory group for A-branes is H3(Y, Z), and the class of a brane is simply (rank E)·[L] ∈ H3(Y, Z). This is also clear if the moduli space of flat connections on L is connected.

But suppose it is not, say π1(L) is torsion. In this case, we need deeper physical arguments to decide whether the K-theory of these D-branes is H3(Y, Z), or some larger group. But a natural conjecture is that it will be K1(Y), which classifies bundles on odd-dimensional submanifolds. Two branes which differ only in the choice of flat connection are in fact connected in string theory, consistent with the K-group being H3(Y, Z). For Y a simply connected Calabi-Yau threefold, K1(Y) ≅ H3(Y, Z), so the general conjecture is borne out in this case

There is a natural bilinear form on H3(Y, Z) given by the oriented intersection number

I(L1, L2) = #([L1] ∩ [L2]) —– (2)

It has symmetry (−1)n. In particular, it is symplectic for n = 3. Furthermore, by Poincaré duality, it is unimodular, at least in our topological definition of K-theory.

D-branes, which are extended objects defined by mixed Dirichlet-Neumann boundary conditions in string theory, break half of the supersymmetries of the type II superstring and carry a complete set of electric and magnetic Ramond-Ramond charges. The product of the electric and magnetic charges is a single Dirac unit, and that the quantum of charge takes the value required by string duality. Saying that a D-brane has RR-charge means that it is a source for an “RR potential,” a generalized (p + 1)-form gauge potential in ten-dimensional space-time, which can be verified from its world-volume action that contains a minimal coupling term,

∫C(p + 1) —–(3)

where C(p + 1) denotes the gauge potential, and the integral is taken over the (p+1)-dimensional world-volume of the brane. For p = 0, C(1) is a one-form or “vector” potential (as in Maxwell theory), and thus the D0-brane is an electrically charged particle with respect to this 10d Maxwell theory. Upon further compactification, by which, the ten dimensions are R4 × X, and a Dp-brane which wraps a p-dimensional cycle L; in other words its world-volume is R × L where R is a time-like world-line in R4. Using the Poincaré dual class ωL ∈ H2n−p(X, R) to L in X, to rewrite (3) as an integral

R × X C(p + 1) ∧ ωL —– (4)

We can then do the integral over X to turn this into the integral of a one-form over a world-line in R4, which is the right form for the minimal electric coupling of a particle in four dimensions. Thus, such a wrapped brane carries a particular electric charge which can be detected at asymptotic infinity. Summarizing the RR-charge more formally,

LC = ∫XC ∧ ωL —– (5)

where C ∈ H∗(X, R). In other words, it is a class in Hp(X, R).

In particular, an A-brane (for n = 3) carries a conserved charge in H3(X, R). Of course, this is weaker than [L] ∈ H3(X, Z). To see this physically, we would need to see that some of these “electric” charges are actually “magnetic” charges, and study the Dirac-Schwinger-Zwanziger quantization condition between these charges. This amounts to showing that the angular momentum J of the electromagnetic field satisfies the quantization condition J = ħn/2 for n ∈ Z. Using an expression from electromagnetism, J⃗ = E⃗ × B⃗ , this is precisely the condition that (2) must take an integer value. Thus the physical and mathematical consistency conditions agree. Similar considerations apply for coisotropic A-branes. If X is a genuine Calabi-Yau 3-fold (i.e., with strict SU(3) holonomy), then a coisotropic A-brane which is not a special Lagrangian must be five-dimensional, and the corresponding submanifold L is rationally homologically trivial, since H5(X, Q) = 0. Thus, if the bundle E is topologically trivial, the homology class of L and thus its K-theory class is torsion.

If X is a torus, or a K3 surface, the situation is more complicated. In that case, even rationally the charge of a coisotropic A-brane need not lie in the middle-dimensional cohomology of X. Instead, it takes its value in a certain subspace of ⊕p Hp(X, Q), where the summation is over even or odd p depending on whether the complex dimension of X is even or odd. At the semiclassical level, the subspace is determined by the condition

(L − Λ)α = 0, α ∈ ⊕p Hp(X, Q)

where L and Λ are generators of the Lefschetz SL(2, C) action, i.e., L is the cup product with the cohomology class of the Kähler form, and Λ is its dual.

# Sheaf Cohomology as the Mathematical Tool Necessary to Describe a Conformally Invariant Isomorphism. Twistors and Spinors Theoreticals. Note Quote.

The geometry of complex space-time in spinor form calculus is described in terms of spin-space formalism, i.e. a complex vector space endowed with a symplectic form and some fundamental isomorphisms. These mathematical properties enable one to raise and lower indices, define the conjugation of spinor fields in Lorentzian or Riemannian four-geometries, translate tensor fields into spinor fields (or the other way around). The standard two-spinor form of the Riemann curvature tensor is then obtained by relying on the (more) familiar tensor properties of the curvature.

Since the whole of twistor theory may be viewed as a holomorphic description of space-time geometry in a conformally invariant framework, the key results of conformal gravity, i.e. C-spaces, Einstein spaces and complex Einstein spaces necessitates a sufficient condition for a space-time to be conformal to a complex Einstein space.

On to twistor spaces, from the point of view of mathematical physics and relativity theory,  this is defined by twistors as α-planes in complexified compactified Minkowski space-time, and as α-surfaces in curved space-time. In the former case, one deals with totally null two-surfaces, in that the complexified Minkowski metric vanishes on any pair of null tangent vectors to the surface. Hence such null tangent vectors have the form λAπA′ , where λA is varying and πA′ is covariantly constant. This definition can be generalized to complex or real Riemannian four-manifolds, provided that the Weyl curvature is anti-self-dual. An alternative definition of twistors in Minkowski space-time is instead based on the vector space of solutions of a differential equation, which involves the symmetrized covariant derivative of an unprimed spinor field. Interestingly, a deep correspondence exists between flat space-time and twistor space. Hence complex space-time points correspond to spheres in the so-called projective twistor space, and this concept is carefully formulated. Sheaf cohomology can then be used as the mathematical tool necessary to describe a conformally invariant isomorphism between the complex vector space of holomorphic solutions of the wave equation on the forward tube of flat space-time, and the complex vector space of complex-analytic functions of three variables. These are arbitrary, in that they are not subject to any differential equation.

The generalization of Penrose’s non-linear graviton combines two-spinor techniques and twistor theory in a way, where it appears necessary to go beyond anti-self-dual space-times, since they are only a particular class of (complex) space-times, and they do not enable one to recover the full physical content of (complex) general relativity. This implies going beyond the original twistor theory, since the three-complex-dimensional space of α-surfaces only exists in anti-self-dual space-times. Roger Penrose defines twistors as charges for massless spin-3/2 fields. Such an approach has been considered since a vanishing Ricci tensor provides the consistency condition for the existence and propagation of massless helicity-3 fields in curved 2 space-time. Moreover, in Minkowski space-time the space of charges for such fields is naturally identified with the corresponding twistor space. The resulting geometric scheme in the presence of curvature is as follows. First, define a twistor for Ricci-flat space-time. Second, characterize the resulting twistor space. Third, reconstruct the original Ricci-flat space-time from such a twistor space. One of the main technical difficulties of the program proposed by Penrose is to obtain a global description of the space of potentials for massless spin-3/2 fields.

# Purely Random Correlations of the Matrix, or Studying Noise in Neural Networks

Expressed in the most general form, in essentially all the cases of practical interest, the n × n matrices W used to describe the complex system are by construction designed as

W = XYT —– (1)

where X and Y denote the rectangular n × m matrices. Such, for instance, are the correlation matrices whose standard form corresponds to Y = X. In this case one thinks of n observations or cases, each represented by a m dimensional row vector xi (yi), (i = 1, …, n), and typically m is larger than n. In the limit of purely random correlations the matrix W is then said to be a Wishart matrix. The resulting density ρW(λ) of eigenvalues is here known analytically, with the limits (λmin ≤ λ ≤ λmax) prescribed by

λmaxmin = 1+1/Q±2 1/Q and Q = m/n ≥ 1.

The variance of the elements of xi is here assumed unity.

The more general case, of X and Y different, results in asymmetric correlation matrices with complex eigenvalues λ. In this more general case a limiting distribution corresponding to purely random correlations seems not to be yet known analytically as a function of m/n. It indicates however that in the case of no correlations, quite generically, one may expect a largely uniform distribution of λ bound in an ellipse on the complex plane.

Further examples of matrices of similar structure, of great interest from the point of view of complexity, include the Hamiltonian matrices of strongly interacting quantum many body systems such as atomic nuclei. This holds true on the level of bound states where the problem is described by the Hermitian matrices, as well as for excitations embedded in the continuum. This later case can be formulated in terms of an open quantum system, which is represented by a complex non-Hermitian Hamiltonian matrix. Several neural network models also belong to this category of matrix structure. In this domain the reference is provided by the Gaussian (orthogonal, unitary, symplectic) ensembles of random matrices with the semi-circle law for the eigenvalue distribution. For the irreversible processes there exists their complex version with a special case, the so-called scattering ensemble, which accounts for S-matrix unitarity.

As it has already been expressed above, several variants of ensembles of the random matrices provide an appropriate and natural reference for quantifying various characteristics of complexity. The bulk of such characteristics is expected to be consistent with Random Matrix Theory (RMT), and in fact there exists strong evidence that it is. Once this is established, even more interesting are however deviations, especially those signaling emergence of synchronous or coherent patterns, i.e., the effects connected with the reduction of dimensionality. In the matrix terminology such patterns can thus be associated with a significantly reduced rank k (thus k ≪ n) of a leading component of W. A satisfactory structure of the matrix that would allow some coexistence of chaos or noise and of collectivity thus reads:

W = Wr + Wc —– (2)

Of course, in the absence of Wr, the second term (Wc) of W generates k nonzero eigenvalues, and all the remaining ones (n − k) constitute the zero modes. When Wr enters as a noise (random like matrix) correction, a trace of the above effect is expected to remain, i.e., k large eigenvalues and the bulk composed of n − k small eigenvalues whose distribution and fluctuations are consistent with an appropriate version of random matrix ensemble. One likely mechanism that may lead to such a segregation of eigenspectra is that m in eq. (1) is significantly smaller than n, or that the number of large components makes it effectively small on the level of large entries w of W. Such an effective reduction of m (M = meff) is then expressed by the following distribution P(w) of the large off-diagonal matrix elements in the case they are still generated by the random like processes

P(w) = (|w|(M-1)/2K(M-1)/2(|w|))/(2(M-1)/2Γ(M/2)√π) —– (3)

where K stands for the modified Bessel function. Asymptotically, for large w, this leads to P(w) ∼ e(−|w|) |w|M/2−1, and thus reflects an enhanced probability of appearence of a few large off-diagonal matrix elements as compared to a Gaussian distribution. As consistent with the central limit theorem the distribution quickly converges to a Gaussian with increasing M.

Based on several examples of natural complex dynamical systems, like the strongly interacting Fermi systems, the human brain and the financial markets, one could systematize evidence that such effects are indeed common to all the phenomena that intuitively can be qualified as complex.