## August 10, 2007

### String and Chern-Simons Lie 3-Algebras

#### Posted by Urs Schreiber

String and Chern-Simons Lie 3-Algebras
a slide show

Posted at August 10, 2007 6:01 PM UTC

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### Re: String and Chern-Simons Lie 3-Algebras

I’ll see you in Vienna! I’m staying at the Pension ANI, Kinderspitalgasse 1, 9th district — arriving on Saturday the 18th and leaving on Sunday the 26th. I seem to recall you’re staying there too. My wife won’t be coming along, so I’ll be free for endless conversations.

Do you know when you’re giving your talk? I don’t see you on this schedule, but that may cover only the “Poisson geometry and sigma-models” section of the workshop — it’s a bit confusing. I’m speaking on Wednesday the 22nd at 9 am. Too bad your talk isn’t right after that: I’m talking about Lie 2-algebras, while you’re doing Lie 3-algebras!

Posted by: John Baez on August 12, 2007 9:33 AM | Permalink | Reply to this

### Re: String and Chern-Simons Lie 3-Algebras

I’ll see you in Vienna!

Am looking forward to it!

Im staying at the Pension ANI

Yes, so am I. I arrived already last Saturday, spending the weekend with Claudia here in Vienna.

I thought maybe I’d warn you: first time I was in Vienna I stayed in “Kaiser Franz Joseph”. The difference between the two places is pretty much what the difference in their names suggests. Pension Ani is a very simple place. It’s clean and all, but – simple.

We arrived late at night and were let in by a funny guy who seemed to have been left over from the penultimate century. He began or/and ended each of his sentences dead seriously with “dear Mr. Doctor”. No joke! I didn’t know how irritating this can be.

So be prepared. No telling what happens when he runs into a professor! :-)

Do you know when you’re giving your talk?

I don’t see you on this schedule,

I am on the other schedule! :-)

Too bad your talk isn’t right after that: I’m talking about Lie 2-algebras, while you’re doing Lie 3-algebras!

Yes, I know. The two talks would fit nicely together, in fact.

Posted by: Urs Schreiber on August 13, 2007 9:44 AM | Permalink | Reply to this

### Re: String and Chern-Simons Lie 3-Algebras

Apart from a general dislike of the overlay functionality (I’ll drop that in my next slides talk, I promise! :-) there was generally a desire to understand more of the details behind the stuff which I mention.

As a reaction to that, I have now included a couple of hyperlinks inside the pdf of the talk (new version here:

which lead those who follow them to slides which contain a little more details (and which contain a “back” button to take you back to the main text).

This is meant as a service to those who read this talk on the screen.

In general, for getting started with the qDGCA technology which the computations are based on, the inclined reader should please take a look at the first part of our Zoo of Lie $n$-algebras . This summarizes everything that is needed. Further literature is referenced.

Posted by: Urs Schreiber on August 13, 2007 4:56 PM | Permalink | Reply to this
Read the post The Canonical 1-Particle, Part II
Weblog: The n-Category Café
Excerpt: More on the canonical quantization of the charged n-particle for the case of a 1-particle propagating on a lattice.
Tracked: August 15, 2007 2:49 PM

### Re: String and Chern-Simons Lie 3-Algebras

• You write ‘Jacoby’ one place where you mean ‘Jacobi’.
• You write ‘Gray category’ where you mean ‘Gray-category’. The point here is that Gray is a monoidal category, and for any monoidal category $V$ people call a category enriched over $V$ a ‘$V$-category’. I don’t insist on the boldface, but I insist on the hyphen!

Okay… now, the important part: could you say a little about the best way to get rom the airport to Pension ANI at Kinderspitalgasse 1, 9th district? Is it hard to get from the airport to the Alser Strasse U-Bahn stop?

Also: if you give me your room number (perhaps by email) I can give you a knock when I arrive. With luck, my flight may arrive at 18:10 on Saturday the 18th despite the demonstrations at Heathrow. I’d be interested in going out to dinner if that sounds fun. I can promise Claudia that I’m able to discuss subjects other than math and physics — but alas, only in English. If you’d prefer to meet sometime on Sunday, that would be great too.

Posted by: John Baez on August 16, 2007 5:00 PM | Permalink | Reply to this

### Re: String and Chern-Simons Lie 3-Algebras

Thanks! Fixed version is now available.

the best way to get from the airport to Pension ANI

There are, I think, two main possibilities to get from the airport into the city: the slow and cheap option is to take the ordinary train, the other is to take what is called the CAT (City Airport Train).

You need to change one or two times then to different subways.

Here is the map of the subway and “S-Bahn” system.

Finally, take the subway U6 and get off at station Alser Strasse. The hotel is just a few meters from there.

I’ll prepare a Google Map for you with all the details in about an hour, when the first talk is over.

if you give me your room number (perhaps by email) I can give you a knock when I arrive. With luck, my flight may arrive at 18:10 on Saturday the 18th despite the demonstrations at Heathrow. I’d be interested in going out to dinner if that sounds fun.

Yes, let’s do that.

Claudia left this morning, in fact, and I will change from a double room to a single room tomorrow morning. Therefore I actually cannot tell you right now which room number I’ll be in.

My mobile phone number is

+49 (0)152 0858 1866

If everything fails, we could simply agree to meet at, let’s see, 20:30 or so in the hotel lobby.

Posted by: Urs Schreiber on August 17, 2007 8:26 AM | Permalink | Reply to this

### Re: String and Chern-Simons Lie 3-Algebras

Thanks! When I show up, I’ll try to find out which room you’re in. If you’re not in yet, or I fail to find you, let’s try to meet in the lobby at 20:30.

Posted by: John Baez on August 17, 2007 9:29 AM | Permalink | Reply to this

### Re: String and Chern-Simons Lie 3-Algebras

Here is now a quick GoogleMap into which I entered some hopefully useful information.

I am a bit in a hurry. Maybe check the link again later. I’ll try to improve the information a little more.

Posted by: Urs Schreiber on August 17, 2007 9:47 AM | Permalink | Reply to this
Read the post Higher Gauge Theory and Elliptic Cohomology
Weblog: The n-Category Café
Excerpt: A talk leading up to the concept of 'characteristic classes for 2-bundles', and a nice problem involving them.
Tracked: August 17, 2007 5:57 PM
Read the post On BV Quantization. Part I.
Weblog: The n-Category Café
Excerpt: On BV-formalism applied to Chern-Simons theory and its apparent relation to 3-functorial extentended QFT.
Tracked: August 17, 2007 10:08 PM
Read the post Lie n-Algebra Cohomology
Weblog: The n-Category Café
Excerpt: On characteristic classes of n-bundles.
Tracked: September 7, 2007 6:05 PM
Read the post Obstructions for n-Bundle Lifts
Weblog: The n-Category Café
Excerpt: On obstructions to lifting the structure n-group of n-bundles.
Tracked: September 14, 2007 10:59 AM
Read the post Obstructions, tangent categories and Lie n-tegration
Weblog: The n-Category Café
Excerpt: Thoughts on n-bundle theory in terms of Lie n-algebras.
Tracked: September 24, 2007 10:00 PM
Read the post On String- and Chern-Simons n-Transport
Weblog: The n-Category Café
Excerpt: Slides on String- and Chern-Simons n-Transport.
Tracked: October 23, 2007 9:50 PM
Read the post Lie oo-Connections and their Application to String- and Chern-Simons n-Transport
Weblog: The n-Category Café
Excerpt: A discussion of connections for general L-infinity algebras and their application to String- and Chern-Simons n-transport.
Tracked: January 30, 2008 11:29 AM

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