Gauge theory on noncommutative Riemannian principal bundles

Abstract

We present a new, general approach to gauge theory on principal G-spectral triples, where G is a compact connected Lie group. We introduce a notion of vertical Riemannian geometry for G-C*-algebras and prove that the resulting noncommutative orbitwise family of Kostant's cubic Dirac operators defines a natural unbounded KKG-cycle in the case of a principal G-action. Then, we introduce a notion of principal G-spectral triple and prove, in particular, that any such spectral triple admits a canonical factorisation in unbounded KKG-theory with respect to such a cycle: up to a remainder, the total geometry is the twisting of the basic geometry by a noncommutative superconnection encoding the vertical geometry and underlying principal connection. Using these notions, we formulate an approach to gauge theory that explicitly generalises the classical case up to a groupoid cocycle and is compatible in general with this factorisation; in the unital case, it correctly yields a real affine space of noncommutative principal connections with affine gauge action. Our definitions cover all locally compact classical principal G-bundles and are compatible with theta-deformation; in particular, they cover the theta-deformed quaternionic Hopf fibration C-infinity(S-theta(7))hooked left arrow C-infinity(S-theta(4)) as a noncommutative principal SU(2)-bundle.