Gerd Rudolph

The book is devoted to the study of the geometrical and topological structure of gauge theories. It consists of the following three building blocks:- Geometry and topology of fibre bundles,- Clifford algebras, spin structures and Dirac operators,- Gauge theory. Written in the style of a mathematical textbook, it combines a comprehensive presentation of the mathematical foundations with a discussion of a variety of advanced topics in gauge theory. The first building block includes a number of specific topics, like invariant connections, universal connections, H-structures and the Postnikov approximation of classifying spaces. Given the great importance of Dirac operators in gauge theory, a complete proof of the Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem is presented. The gauge theory part contains the study of Yang-Mills equations (including the theory of instantons and the classical stability analysis), the discussion of variousmodels with matter fields (including magnetic monopoles, the Seiberg-Witten model and dimensional reduction) and the investigation of the structure of the gauge orbit space. The final chapter is devoted to elements of quantum gauge theory including the discussion of the Gribov problem, anomalies and the implementation of the non-generic gauge orbit strata in the framework of Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory. The book is addressed both to physicists and mathematicians. It is intended to be accessible to students starting from a graduate level.

The book is devoted to the study of the geometrical and topological structure of gauge theories. It consists of the following three building blocks:- Geometry and topology of fibre bundles,- Clifford algebras, spin structures and Dirac operators,- Gauge theory. Written in the style of a mathematical textbook, it combines a comprehensive presentation of the mathematical foundations with a discussion of a variety of advanced topics in gauge theory. The first building block includes a number of specific topics, like invariant connections, universal connections, H-structures and the Postnikov approximation of classifying spaces. Given the great importance of Dirac operators in gauge theory, a complete proof of the Atiyah-Singer Index Theorem is presented. The gauge theory part contains the study of Yang-Mills equations (including the theory of instantons and the classical stability analysis), the discussion of variousmodels with matter fields (including magnetic monopoles, the Seiberg-Witten model and dimensional reduction) and the investigation of the structure of the gauge orbit space. The final chapter is devoted to elements of quantum gauge theory including the discussion of the Gribov problem, anomalies and the implementation of the non-generic gauge orbit strata in the framework of Hamiltonian lattice gauge theory. The book is addressed both to physicists and mathematicians. It is intended to be accessible to students starting from a graduate level.

Starting from an undergraduate level, this book systematically develops the basics of• Calculus on manifolds, vector bundles, vector fields and differential forms,• Lie groups and Lie group actions,• Linear symplectic algebra and symplectic geometry,• Hamiltonian systems, symmetries and reduction, integrable systems and Hamilton-Jacobi theory. The topics listed under the first item are relevant for virtually all areas of mathematical physics. The second and third items constitute the link between abstract calculus and the theory of Hamiltonian systems. The last item provides an introduction to various aspects of this theory, including Morse families, the Maslov class and caustics. The book guides the reader from elementary differential geometry to advanced topics in the theory of Hamiltonian systems with the aim of making current research literature accessible. The style is that of a mathematical textbook,with full proofs given in the text or as exercises. The material is illustrated by numerous detailed examples, some of which are taken up several times for demonstrating how the methods evolve and interact.

This monograph presents in detail the reduction method for studying the unification of fundamental actions. The mathematical (differential geometrical) methods make extensive use of Lie Groups and the concept of homogeneous spaces. The main topic of the book is the dimensional reduction of pure Yang-Mills theories. A rather complete analysis of the structure of the scalar field potential is given and a general procedure for solving the equations of spontaneous compactification within Einstein-Yang-Mills systems is presented. The authors also discuss gravity and theories with fermions included and they review attempts to construct realistic models. The book presents the basic ideas and the calculations in detail and should be of interest to researchers and graduate students in mathematical physics.

Starting from an undergraduate level, this book systematically develops the basics of• Calculus on manifolds, vector bundles, vector fields and differential forms,• Lie groups and Lie group actions,• Linear symplectic algebra and symplectic geometry,• Hamiltonian systems, symmetries and reduction, integrable systems and Hamilton-Jacobi theory. The topics listed under the first item are relevant for virtually all areas of mathematical physics. The second and third items constitute the link between abstract calculus and the theory of Hamiltonian systems. The last item provides an introduction to various aspects of this theory, including Morse families, the Maslov class and caustics. The book guides the reader from elementary differential geometry to advanced topics in the theory of Hamiltonian systems with the aim of making current research literature accessible. The style is that of a mathematical textbook,with full proofs given in the text or as exercises. The material is illustrated by numerous detailed examples, some of which are taken up several times for demonstrating how the methods evolve and interact.