Stolz–Teichner's geometric description of topological modular forms

Let XX be a manifold. Write N=(0,1)\mathcal N=(0,1) boundary conditions for the nnth power of the c=12c=\frac12 invertible fermionic (2+1)(2+1)-dimensional topological field theory that couple to a background scalar field valued in XX.

Stolz–Teichner conjecture. The degree-nn topological modular forms of XX are

TMFn(X)=π0{N=(0,1) boundary conditions for the nth power of the c=12 invertible fermionic (2+1)-dimensional TFT which couple to a background scalar field valued in X}.\mathrm{TMF}^n(X)=\pi_0\left\{\text{$\mathcal N=(0,1)$ boundary conditions for the $n$th power of the $c=\frac12$ invertible fermionic $(2+1)$-dimensional TFT which couple to a background scalar field valued in $X$}\right\}.

Here π0\pi_0 denotes connected components of the resulting space of boundary conditions. This is a conjectural geometric description of TMF, relating it to supersymmetric boundary conditions in invertible fermionic field theories; the supplied source gives no evidence that the conjecture has been resolved.

Sources & referencesView supporting material

Primary source

Davide Gaiotto and Theo Johnson-Freyd, “Holomorphic SCFTs with small index”, arXiv:1811.00589 (2018).

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