6d/2d analogies: from Witten to Beilinson-Drinfeld via Deligne

Seminar: 
Quantum Topology and Field Theory
Event time: 
Thursday, October 2, 2025 - 4:30pm
Location: 
KT 801
Speaker: 
Owen Gwilliam
Speaker affiliation: 
U. Mass Amherst
Event description: 

Abstract: We formulate the holomorphic twists of the 6d N=(0,1) and (0,2) abelian superconformal theories as moduli spaces in derived algebraic geometry, using Deligne cohomology as a key tool. This description allows one to mimic the Beilinson-Drinfeld construction of lattice chiral algebras to quantize these 6d theories; their factorization homology on a projective complex 3-fold X relates to Witten’s construction of line bundles on intermediate Jacobian of X. This is work in progress with Chris Elliott, Ingmar Saberi, and Brian Williams.