Questions tagged [chern-simons-theory]
Chern-Simons theory is an example of a topological quantum field theory. Its describes the field dynamics through the so-called Chern-Simons-form, hence its name.
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Wiedemann-Franz law generalized to quantum Hall effects in electronic systems
Wiedemann-Franz law states a relation in a conductor between the thermal and electric conductivities by their ratio as $\kappa/\sigma=LT$ where $T$ is the temperature and $L$ is the Lorenz number ...
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Factor of 2 issue in the non-gauge invariance of Chern-Simons theory with a boundary
It is well known that the Chern-Simons (CS) theory by itself is not gauge invariant in the presence of a spacetime boundary. Concretely, suppose the flat half space $\mathcal{M}$ with $x\in \mathbb{R},...
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Angular momentum in the Maxwell field theory/Chern-Simons theory?
I'm trying to calculate the angular momentum in the chern simons theory. But equivalently, I was trying a calculation of angular momentum in the Maxwell field theory, which will hopefully be ...
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Chern-Simons theory with a discrete gauge symmetry
Let us consider a Chern-Simons theory on a $3$-manifold $M$ (can be a spin manifold with a given spin structure if needed) with a discrete-symmetry gauge field e.g. $\mathbb{Z}_n$ symmetry. It can be ...
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What is meant by the vacuum structure of ABJM theory?
I was reading the paper Large $N$ behavior of mass deformed ABJM theory. It talks about the vacuum structure of the (mass deformed) ABJM thoery. What does vacuum structure mean in general or in ...
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How to know which topological invariant is in play?
I'm currently working on the Haldane model where I've worked through the math to find that when the condition
$$
\frac{M}{t_2} = 3 \sqrt{3} sin (\phi)
$$
is satisfied the gap closes, meaning there ...
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Chern-Simons theory on a plane/sphere with a single charge insertion
Consider the pure Chern-Simons theory on the plane $\mathbb{R}^2$ with a single charge insertion in some representation $\rho$ of the group $G$. What does the Hilbert space look like? Is it null or ...
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The relation between Chern-Simons Theory and Yang-Mills Theory
So from this page, I know that there is a relation between Chern-Simons Theory and Yang-Mills Theory, but I have difficulty proving the identities in the document.
I was going to prove $$\partial_\...
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Why does the Holst term not affect gravitational dynamics?
The general first-order Palatini action in four dimensions is given by
$$S[e,\omega]=\frac{1}{2\kappa}\int_{\mathcal{M}} F_{IJ}[\omega]\wedge\left(\star+\frac{1}{\gamma}\right)\left(e^I\wedge e^J\...
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Meaning of mass-deformation in string theory and quantum field theories
I was reading some papers in the ABJM theory. I keep reading the term mass deformation but am not sure what it really means. I think the papers assume the reader is familiar with the term. Example ...
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What is the trace in the Chern-Simons action
I have been looking at the Chern-Simons Lagrangian in $(2+1)$-dimensional spacetime $M$ in terms of a gauge field $A$:
$$ S[A] = \frac{k}{4 \pi}\int_M \text{Tr}(A \wedge \text{d}A+ \frac{2}{3}A \...
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Gauge and global symmetries in Chern-Simons/WZW correspondence
I am trying to understand how bulk gauge symmetry in 3d Chern-Simons theory becomes a global symmetry in the boundary 2d WZW theory. In particular, I am trying to understand the papers by Elitzur et ...
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Induced Chern Simons terms
In a three dimensional U(1) gauge theory with massive fermions, one can integrate out the fermion fields with the result that the effective action for the gauge field now has an additional Chern ...
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Chern-Simons equation of motion
How do I get the equation of motion of the Chern-Simons Lagrangian below? Is there the product rule at work? Do I have to sum over the indices?
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Gapping out edge modes by backscattering
I was reading this paper by Michael Levin about protected edge states without symmetry. In the introduction, he makes the argument that backscattering terms or other perturbations gap out left and ...
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Quantization of Chiral Boson
I am trying to understand the edge modes of fractional quantum Hall(FQH) effect from ChernSmions theory picture. Chern-Simons action with a boundary along $y$ produces the following action
$ \...
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Statistics of a quasiparticle
I was trying to understand the Chern-Simons theory description of the fractional quantum Hall effect. I was trying to follow this article. After integrating out Lagrangian the mutual statistics of two ...
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Integer quantum Hall conductance and time-reversal symmetry
If we have a (2+1)-dimensional electronic gapped system with a unique ground state and it has a nonzero integer quantum Hall conductance, then the system (or its ground state) must break the time-...
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Path integral measure in Chern-Simons/WZW correspondence
The relationship between 3d Chern-Simons theory on the product of the disk and the real line ($D\times \mathbb{R}$) and the chiral WZW model on $S^1\times \mathbb{R}$ was shown in Elitzur et al Nucl....
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Aharony-Bernman-Jafferis-Maldacena (ABJM) and k=1 Chern Simons matter
I have read recently that the partition function / half-BPS wilson vev (w/ NG probe) of a Chern-Simons matter theory with N=6 U(N)k x U(N)-k super-conformal symmetry (ABJM) on S3 is proportional to ...
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Maxwell-Chern-Simons equation: Translating from differential form to component form
I am trying to solve the scalar-coupled Maxwell-CS equations (which is one of the equation of motions in $N=2$ supergravity coupled to 3 vector multiplets), which is written in this form in the ...
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Is a constant electric field CP violating?
Consider, for instance, a fundamental massless three-form field $C_{\alpha\beta\gamma}$ in the Coulomb phase:
$$
\mathcal L = E_{\mu\alpha\beta\gamma}E^{\mu\alpha\beta\gamma} + C_{\alpha\beta\gamma}J^...
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Effective theory of hierarchial fractional quantum hall state
In describing the effective field theory picture of the hierarchical fractional quantum Hall states in Tong's lecture notes, page 165 he gives the expression for filling fraction, quasi-particle ...
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Lifting 3d Chern-Simons theory to 4d
For simplicity, let us only consider abelian Chern-Simons theory.
The usual way of lifting 3d Chern-Simons theory to 4d is achieved through the Stokes' theorem. Say, if the original Chern-Simons ...
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About Witten's path integral formulation of Jones polynomial
In his landmark paper Quantum field theory and the Jones polynomial, Witten proposed that the Jones polynomial can be obtained by the expectation value of the Wilson loop operators over links in the ...
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Braiding matrix from CFT first principles
Various CFT models are known to produce representations of braid groups.
A famous example is the $SU(2)$ WZW model at level $k$, for which the braiding matrix for the case of two fundamental irreps ...
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Number of Physical States of a $U(1)$ Chern-SImons Theory on a Riemann Surface of Genus $g$
In A Duality Web in 2+1 Dimensions and Condensed Matter Physics, the authors claimed in Appendix B that for a $U(1)_{k}$ Chern-Simons theory defined on a Riemann surface $\Sigma$ of genus $g$, the ...
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Chern-Simons Gravity term in 3D and equations of motion
In the book "Quantum Gravity in 2+1 dimensions" by Steven Carlip he writes down a possible modification to the Einstein-Hilbert Action in 3d (eq. 1.16 to eq. 1.18)
\begin{equation}
I_{GCS}=-\frac{1}{...
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Chern-Simons and framing dependence$.$
According to ref.1, the correlation functions of a Chern-Simons theory are topological invariants, up to the so-called framing, that is, the trivialisation of $TM\oplus TM$. The origin of this framing ...
asked Nov 23 '18 at 15:07
AccidentalFourierTransform
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How does extending a Chern-Simons theory to the bulk fix potential singularities?
According to ref.1 (§A.3), the naive definition of Chern-Simons
$$
S[A]=k\int_M \mathrm{CS}[A]\tag{A.17}
$$
is ill-defined, because $A$ may have "Dirac string singularities". The solution is to extend ...
asked Nov 20 '18 at 3:46
AccidentalFourierTransform
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A question about Witten's paper on QFT and Jones polynomial
So I have been reading the famous paper on quantum field theory and Jones polynomial and have the following questions:
On P.31 (381), it was said that the eigenvalues of $B$ are $$λ_i =
±\exp(i\...
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How exactly does a spin TQFT depend on the spin structure?
Take a spin Chern-Simons TQFT, such as $U(N)$ or $SO(N)$ with odd level. Such system depends on the spin structure of the underlying manifold.
But how exactly does the theory depend on the spin ...
asked Nov 13 '18 at 1:19
AccidentalFourierTransform
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1answer
209 views
Intepreting Fermions as Differential Forms?
In this paper on path-integral quantization of Chern-Simons theory, on page 434 (equation 4.17), the authors used fermions to interpret wedge product and contractions of differential forms.
Let $M$ ...
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Deriving Chern-Simons term from path integral representation of the first quantized non interacting many body Hamiltonian
This is an exercise from condensed matter filed theory book of altland and simons.
Exercise
Subject the first quantized many particle hamiltonian $H=\sum_{i=1}^{N}\frac{p^{i}{^{2}}}{2m}+V(x^i)$ to ...
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Hamiltonian Structure of Chern Simons Electrodynamics
I am reading the review paper "Aspects of Chern-Simons Theory" by Gerald Dunne
https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9902115
Starting from p. 17, Dunne works on the Hamiltonian structure of the CS ...
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Is $U(2)_{2, 1}$ Chern Simons Theory Completely Trivial?
I am using the method outlined in appendix C4 of a paper by Seiberg and Witten [1] to calculate the statistics of lines in $U(2)_{2, 1}$. However, this method shows that all lines are trivial.
...
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1answer
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Second Chern class in 2D Haldane model from Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem?
I was reading through a physics-centered exposition of the Atiyah-Singer index theorem and I wondered what it would mean to talk about Haldane's model for the case of a manifold with a boundary. It is ...
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Lattice QFT of the Jones Polynomial
Start with a gauge theory with Chern-Simons action
$$ S[A] = \frac{k}{4 \pi} \text{Tr} \intop_{M} \left( A \wedge dA + \frac{2}{3} A \wedge A \wedge A \right) $$
and a Wilson loop observable in the ...
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About the Level of Non-Abelian Chern Simon theory
The Lagrangian of the non-Abelian Chern Simons theory is the following
$$\mathcal{L}=\frac{k}{4\pi}\int \text{tr}(AdA+\frac{2}{3}AAA)$$
What is the definition of tr here? Namely, which representation ...
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Is it possible to couple an odd number of Dirac fermions, at finite density, to a massless gauge field in 2+1d?
In a beautiful paper by A. N. Redlich (PRL $\bf{52}$, 18 (1984)) on the parity anomaly, the author indicates that an odd number of Dirac fermions can never be coupled to a massless gauge field in 2+1d ...
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Understanding the fractional quantum Hall effect in Chern-Simons formalism described in Wen's book
So I study fractional quantum hall effect with Chern-Simons formalism by using Wen's book, this is an excellent book, but it assumes that you know field theory very well thus it has gaps between steps....
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Twisted Chern-Simons, and Twisted Wess-Zumino Term
I am asking this question about Chern-Simons theory from the paper "Quantum Field Theory and Jones Polynomial" by Edward Witten.
Let $M$ be a closed three dimensional manifold, and $P\rightarrow M$ ...
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1answer
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Chern-Simons action for non-abelian brane worldvolume and Tsetlyn's symmetric trace prescription
I am trying to reproduce the results of the (famous) Myer's paper "Dielectric Branes" https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9910053. I am struggling a bit to obtain the numerical factors in the equations. When ...
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Faddeev-Popov Determinant of Chern-Simons Theory
I am asking this question in order to figure out the expression of the Faddeev-Popov determinant given by Edward Witten is his paper "Quantum Field Theory and Jones Polynomial".
Starting from the ...
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2D Chern Simons action by integrating out fermions
In Qi, Hughes, and Zhang's paper (https://arxiv.org/abs/0802.3537), they show how the Chern number appears as a coefficient of response function. Given the Hamiltonian (49) of a (2+1) or (4+1)D ...
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The Hilbert space of Chern-Simons on a torus, part one$.$
There is a key result in 2+1 dimensional Chern-Simons theory, which was first discussed in ref.1.: the Hilbert space of the theory, when quantised on $T^2\times\mathbb R$, is isomorphic to
$$
\frac{\...
asked Jul 5 '18 at 14:32
AccidentalFourierTransform
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Gauge anomaly from conformal dimension?
According to ref.1, the Chern-Simons theory $\mathrm{SU}(N)_k$ has a $\mathbb Z_N$ one-form symmetry with anomaly
$$
\eta=\exp\left[-2\pi i \frac{k}{N}\right]\tag{4.12}
$$
which, apparently, can be ...
asked Jun 27 '18 at 16:57
AccidentalFourierTransform
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3
votes
1answer
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Does a SUSY Chern-Simons term prevent the dualising of the gauge potential to a scalar?
In 3D $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric field theory with abelian gauge fields, the gauge field $A_{\mu}$ is often dualised to a real scalar $\gamma$. Does a Chern-Simons term prevent this dual ...
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Does a Chern-Simons term break the $F \rightarrow \star F$ symmetry?
When is the electro-magnetic duality $F \rightarrow \star F$ a symmetry of a theory? I know it holds for free Yang-Mills, but would for instance a Chern-Simons term break it or a coupling to matter? ...
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Formalization of the concept of a topological charge
I want to write precisely in mathematical terms what a topological charge is.
This is what I have, but I am not sure of how correct it is. Let $M$ be spacetime. Quantization of $M$ in some QFT will ...
