Bücher der Reihe Springerbriefs in Mathematical

The book addresses a key question in topological field theory and logarithmic conformal field theory: In the case where the underlying modular category is not semisimple, topological field theory appears to suggest that mapping class groups do not only act on the spaces of chiral conformal blocks, which arise from the homomorphism functors in the category, but also act on the spaces that arise from the corresponding derived functors. It is natural to ask whether this is indeed the case. The book carefully approaches this question by first providing a detailed introduction to surfaces and their mapping class groups. Thereafter, it explains how representations of these groups are constructed in topological field theory, using an approach via nets and ribbon graphs. These tools are then used to show that the mapping class groups indeed act on the so-called derived block spaces. Toward the end, the book explains the relation to Hochschild cohomology of Hopf algebras and the modular group.

Hermite's theorem makes it known that there are three levels of mathematical frames in which a simple addition formula is valid. They are rational, q-analogue, and elliptic-analogue. Based on the addition formula and associated mathematical structures, productive studies have been carried out in the process of q-extension of the rational (classical) formulas in enumerative combinatorics, theory of special functions, representation theory, study of integrable systems, and so on. Originating from the paper by Date, Jimbo, Kuniba, Miwa, and Okado on the exactly solvable statistical mechanics models using the theta function identities (1987), the formulas obtained at the q-level are now extended to the elliptic level in many research fields in mathematics and theoretical physics. In the present monograph, the recent progress of the elliptic extensions in the study of statistical and stochastic models in equilibrium and nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and probability theory is shown. At the elliptic level, many special functions are used, including Jacobi's theta functions, Weierstrass elliptic functions, Jacobi's elliptic functions, and others. This monograph is not intended to be a handbook of mathematical formulas of these elliptic functions, however. Thus, use is made only of the theta function of a complex-valued argument and a real-valued nome, which is a simplified version of the four kinds of Jacobi's theta functions. Then, the seven systems of orthogonal theta functions, written using a polynomial of the argument multiplied by a single theta function, or pairs of such functions, can be defined. They were introduced by Rosengren and Schlosser (2006), in association with the seven irreducible reduced affine root systems. Using Rosengren and Schlosser's theta functions, non-colliding Brownian bridges on a one-dimensional torus and an interval are discussed, along with determinantal point processes on a two-dimensional torus. Their scaling limitsare argued, and the infinite particle systems are derived. Such limit transitions will be regarded as the mathematical realizations of the thermodynamic or hydrodynamic limits that are central subjects of statistical mechanics.

This book is based on the author's mini course delivered at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology in March 2019. The shuffle approach to Drinfeld¿Jimbo quantum groups of finite type (embedding their "positive" subalgebras into q-deformed shuffle algebras) was first developed independently in the 1990s by J. Green, M. Rosso, and P. Schauenburg. Motivated by similar ideas, B. Feigin and A. Odesskii proposed a shuffle approach to elliptic quantum groups around the same time. The shuffle algebras in the present book can be viewed as trigonometric degenerations of the Feigin¿Odesskii elliptic shuffle algebras. They provide combinatorial models for the "positive" subalgebras of quantum affine algebras in their loop realizations. These algebras appeared first in that context in the work of B. Enriquez.Over the last decade, the shuffle approach has been applied to various problems in combinatorics (combinatorics of Macdonald polynomials and Dyck paths, generalization to wreath Macdonald polynomials and operators), geometric representation theory (especially the study of quantum algebras¿ actions on the equivariant K-theories of various moduli spaces such as affine Laumon spaces, Nakajima quiver varieties, nested Hilbert schemes), and mathematical physics (the Bethe ansatz, quantum Q-systems, and quantized Coulomb branches of quiver gauge theories, to name just a few).While this area is still under active investigation, the present book focuses on quantum affine/toroidal algebras of type A and their shuffle realization, which have already illustrated a broad spectrum of techniques. The basic results and structures discussed in the book are of crucial importance for studying intrinsic properties of quantum affinized algebras and are instrumental to the aforementioned applications.