Semyon Klevtsov

Geometric adiabatic transport in quantum Hall states

We argue that in addition to the Hall conductance and the nondissipative component of the viscous tensor, there exists a third independent transport coefficient, which is precisely quantized. It takes constant values along quantum Hall plateaus. We show that the new coefficient is the Chern number of a vector bundle over moduli space of surfaces of genus 2 or higher and therefore cannot change continuously along the plateau. As such, it does not transpire on a sphere or a torus. In the linear response theory, this coefficient determines intensive forces exerted on electronic fluid by adiabatic deformations of geometry and represents the effect of the gravitational anomaly. We also present the method of computing the transport coefficients for quantum Hall states.

FQHE on curved backgrounds, free fields and large N

A bstractWe study the free energy of the Laughlin state on curved backgrounds, starting from the free field representation. A simple argument, based on the computation of the gravitational effective action from the transformation properties of Green functions under the change of the metric, allows to compute the first three terms of the expansion in large magnetic field. The leading and subleading contributions are given by the Aubin-Yau and Mabuchi functionals respectively, whereas the Liouville action appears at next-to-next-to-leading order. We also derive a path integral representation for the remainder terms. They correspond to a large mass expansion for a related interacting scalar field theory and are thus given by local polynomials in curvature invariants.

Quantum Hall Effect and Quillen Metric

We study the generating functional, the adiabatic curvature and the adiabatic phase for the integer quantum Hall effect (QHE) on a compact Riemann surface. For the generating functional we derive its asymptotic expansion for the large flux of the magnetic field, i.e., for the large degree k of the positive Hermitian line bundle Lk. The expansion consists of the anomalous and exact terms. The anomalous terms are the leading terms of the expansion. This part is responsible for the quantization of the adiabatic transport coefficients in QHE. We then identify the non-local (anomalous) part of the expansion with the Quillen metric on the determinant line bundle, and the subleading exact part with the asymptotics of the regularized spectral determinant of the Laplacian for the line bundle Lk, at large k. Finally, we show how the generating functional of the integer QHE is related to the gauge and gravitational (2+1)d Chern–Simons functionals. We observe the relation between the Bismut-Gillet-Soulé curvature formula for the Quillen metric and the adiabatic curvature for the electromagnetic and geometric adiabatic transport of the integer Quantum Hall state. We then obtain the geometric part of the adiabatic phase in QHE, given by the Chern–Simons functional.

Random normal matrices, Bergman kernel and projective embeddings

A bstractWe investigate the analogy between the large N expansion in normal matrix models and the asymptotic expansion of the determinant of the Hilb map, appearing in the study of critical metrics on complex manifolds via projective embeddings. This analogy helps to understand the geometric meaning of the expansion of matrix model free energy and its relation to gravitational effective actions in two dimensions. We compute the leading terms of the free energy expansion in the pure bulk case, and make some observations on the structure of the expansion to all orders. As an application of these results, we propose an asymptotic formula for the Liouville action, restricted to the space of the Bergman metrics.

Gravitational actions in two dimensions and the Mabuchi functional

Abstract The Mabuchi energy is an interesting geometric functional on the space of Kahler metrics that plays a crucial role in the study of the geometry of Kahler manifolds. We show that this functional, as well as other related geometric actions, contribute to the effective gravitational action when a massive scalar field is coupled to gravity in two dimensions in a small mass expansion. This yields new theories of two-dimensional quantum gravity generalizing the standard Liouville models.

Random Kähler metrics

Abstract The purpose of this article is to propose a new method to define and calculate path integrals over metrics on a Kahler manifold. The main idea is to use finite dimensional spaces of Bergman metrics, as an approximation to the full space of Kahler metrics. We use the theory of large deviations to decide when a sequence of probability measures on the spaces of Bergman metrics tends to a limit measure on the space of all Kahler metrics. Several examples are considered.

Random geometry, quantum gravity and the Kähler potential

We propose a new method to define theories of random geometries, using an explicit and simple map between metrics and large hermitian matrices. We outline some of the many possible applications of the formalism. For example, a background-independent measure on the space of metrics can be easily constructed from first principles. Our framework suggests the relevance of a new gravitational effective action and we show that it occurs when coupling the massive scalar field to two-dimensional gravity. This yields new types of quantum gravity models generalizing the standard Liouville case.

Lowest Landau level on a cone and zeta determinants

We consider the integer QH state on Riemann surfaces with conical singularities, with the main objective of detecting the effect of the gravitational anomaly directly from the form of the wave function on a singular geometry. We suggest the formula expressing the normalisation factor of the holomorphic state in terms of the regularized zeta determinant on conical surfaces and check this relation for some model geometries. We also comment on possible extensions of this result to the fractional QH states.

2D Quantum Gravity at One Loop with Liouville and Mabuchi Actions

Abstract We study a new two-dimensional quantum gravity theory, based on a gravitational action containing both the familiar Liouville term and the Mabuchi functional, which has been shown to be related to the coupling of non-conformal matter to gravity. We compute the one-loop string susceptibility from a first-principle, path integral approach in the Kahler parameterization of the metrics and discuss the particularities that arise in the case of the pure Mabuchi theory. While we mainly use the most convenient spectral cutoff regularization to perform our calculations, we also discuss the interesting subtleties associated with the multiplicative anomaly in the familiar ζ -function scheme, which turns out to have a genuine physical effect for our calculations. In particular, we derive and use a general multiplicative anomaly formula for Laplace-type operators on arbitrary compact Riemann surfaces.

Stability and integration over Bergman metrics

A bstractWe study partition functions of random Bergman metrics, with the actions defined by a class of geometric functionals known as ‘stability functions’. We introduce a new stability invariant — the critical value of the coupling constant — defined as the minimal coupling constant for which the partition function converges. It measures the minimal degree of stability of geodesic rays in the space the Bergman metrics, with respect to the action. We calculate this critical value when the action is the ν-balancing energy, and show that γkcrit=k−h