The Decomposition Of Global Conformal Invariants Am 182

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This book addresses a basic question in differential geometry that was first considered by physicists Stanley Deser and Adam Schwimmer in 1993 in their study of conformal anomalies. The question concerns conformally invariant functionals on the space of Riemannian metrics over a given manifold. These functionals act on a metric by first constructing a Riemannian scalar out of it, and then integrating this scalar over the manifold. Suppose this integral remains invariant under conformal re-scalings of the underlying metric. What information can one then deduce about the Riemannian scalar? Deser and Schwimmer asserted that the Riemannian scalar must be a linear combination of three obvious candidates, each of which clearly satisfies the required property: a local conformal invariant, a divergence of a Riemannian vector field, and the Chern-Gauss-Bonnet integrand. This book provides a proof of this conjecture. The result itself sheds light on the algebraic structure of conformal anomalies, which appear in many settings in theoretical physics. It also clarifies the geometric significance of the renormalized volume of asymptotically hyperbolic Einstein manifolds. The methods introduced here make an interesting connection between algebraic properties of local invariants--such as the classical Riemannian invariants and the more recently studied conformal invariants--and the study of global invariants, in this case conformally invariant integrals. Key tools used to establish this connection include the Fefferman-Graham ambient metric and the author's super divergence formula.

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Genre : Mathematics
Author : Spyros Alexakis
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Release : 2012-05-06
File : 568 Pages
ISBN-13 : 9781400842728


Mathematical Reviews

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Genre : Mathematics
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Release : 2003
File : 1296 Pages
ISBN-13 : UOM:39015058562359


Applied Mechanics Reviews

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Genre : Mechanics, Applied
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Release : 1948
File : 400 Pages
ISBN-13 : OSU:32435026160655


Physics Briefs

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Genre : Physics
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Release : 1984
File : 824 Pages
ISBN-13 : UOM:39015026184328


The Decomposition Of Global Conformal Invariants

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Genre : Conformal invariants
Author : Spyros Alexakis
Publisher :
Release : 1940
File : 464 Pages
ISBN-13 : MINN:31951D03571508L