Topology Geometry And Gauge Fields

Topology, Geometry and Gauge fields

This is a book on topology and geometry and, like any books on subjects as vast as these, it has a point-of-view that guided the selection of topics. Naber takes the view that the rekindled interest that mathematics and physics have shown in each other of late should be fostered and that this is best accomplished by allowing them to cohabit. The book weaves together rudimentary notions from the classical gauge theory of physics with the topological and geometrical concepts that became the mathematical models of these notions. We ask the reader to come to us with some vague notion of what an electromagnetic field might be, a willingness to accept a few of the more elementary pronouncements of quantum mechanics, a solid background in real analysis and linear algebra and some of the vocabulary of modern algebra. To such a reader we offer an excursion that begins with the definition of a topological space and finds its way eventually to the moduli space of anti-self-dual SU(2) connections on S4 with instanton number -1. Iwould go over both volumes thoroughly and make some minor changes in terminology and notation and correct any errors I find. In this new edition, a chapter on Singular Homology will be added as well as minor changes in notation and terminology throughout and some sections have been rewritten or omitted. Reviews of First Edition: “It is unusual to find a book so carefully tailored to the needs of this interdisciplinary area of mathematical physics...Naber combines a knowledge of his subject with an excellent informal writing style." (NZMS Newletter) "...this book should be very interesting for mathematicians and physicists (as well as other scientists) who are concerned with gauge theories." (Zentralblatt Fuer Mathematik)

Topology, Geometry, and Gauge Fields

This volume is intended to carryon the program initiated in Topology, Geometry, and Gauge Fields: Foundations (henceforth, [N4]). It is written in much the same spirit and with precisely the same philosophical motivation: Mathematics and physics have gone their separate ways for nearly a century now and it is time for this to end. Neither can any longer afford to ignore the problems and insights of the other. Why are Dirac magnetic monopoles in one-to-one correspondence with the principal U(l) bundles over S2? Why do Higgs fields fall into topological types? What led Donaldson, in 1980, to seek in the Yang-Mills equations of physics for the key that unlocks the mysteries of smooth 4-manifolds and what phys ical insights into quantum field theory led Witten, fourteen years later, to propose the vastly simpler, but apparently equivalent Seiberg-Witten equations as an alternative? We do not presume to answer these questions here, but only to promote an atmosphere in which both mathematicians and physicists recognize the need for answers. More succinctly, we shall endeavor to provide an exposition of elementary topology and geometry that keeps one eye on the physics in which our concepts either arose in dependently or have been found to lead to a deeper understanding of the phenomena. Chapter 1 provides a synopsis of the geometrical background we assume of our readers (manifolds, Lie groups, bundles, connections, etc. ).

Topology, Geometry, and Gauge Fields