Noncommutative geometric spaces with boundary: Spectral action

The principal object in noncommutative geometry is the spectral triple consisting of an algebra , a Hilbert space and a Dirac operator . Field theories are incorporated in this approach by the spectral action principle, which sets the field theory action to , where f is a real function such that the trace exists and Λ is a cutoff scale. In the low-energy (weak-field) limit, the spectral action reproduces reasonably well the known physics including the standard model. However, not much is known about the spectral action beyond the low-energy approximation. In this paper, after an extensive introduction to spectral triples and spectral actions, we study various expansions of the spectral actions (exemplified by the heat kernel). We derive the convergence criteria. For a commutative spectral triple, we compute the heat kernel on the torus up to the second order in gauge connection and consider limiting cases.This article is part of a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical in honour of Stuart Dowker’s 75th birthday devoted to ‘Applications of zeta functions and other spectral functions in mathematics and physics’.

We consider aspects of the noncommutative approach to the standard model based on the spectral action principle. We show that as a consequence of the incorporation of the Clifford structures in the formalism, the spectral action contains an extended scalar sector, with respect to the minimal standard model. This may have interesting phenomenological consequences. Some of these new scalar fields carry both weak isospin and color indices. We calculate the new terms in spectral action due to the presence of these fields. Our analysis demonstrates that the fermionic doubling in the noncommutative geometry is not just a presence of spurious degrees of freedom, but it is an interesting and peculiar property of the formalism, which leads to physically valuable conclusions. Some of the new fields do not contribute to the physical fermionic action, but they appear in the bosonic spectral action. Their contributions to the Dirac operator correspond to couplings with the spurious fermions, which are projected out.

We review a gravitational model based on noncommutative geometry and the spectral action principle. The space-time geometry is described by the tensor product of a four-dimensional Riemanian manifold by a discrete noncommutative space consisting of only two points. With a specific choice of the finite dimensional involutive algebra, the noncommutative spectral action leads to the standard model of electroweak and strong interactions minimally coupled to Einstein and Weyl gravity. We present the main mathematical ingredients of this model and discuss their physical implications. We argue that the doubling of the algebra is intimately related to dissipation and the gauge field structure. We then show how this noncommutative spectral geometry model, a purely classical construction, carries implicit in the doubling of the algebra the seeds of quantization. After a short review on the phenomenological consequences of this geometric model as an approach to unification, we discuss some of its cosmological consequences. In particular, we study deviations of the Friedmann equation, propagation of gravitational waves, and investigate whether any of the scalar fields in this model could play the role of the inflaton.

We study general relativity in the framework of non-commutative differential geometry. As a prerequisite we develop the basic notions of non-commutative Riemannian geometry, including analogues of Riemannian metric, curvature and scalar curvature. This enables us to introduce a generalized Einstein-Hilbert action for non-commutative Riemannian spaces. As an example we study a space-time which is the product of a four dimensional manifold by a two-point space, using the tools of non-commutative Riemannian geometry, and derive its generalized Einstein-Hilbert action. In the simplest situation, where the Riemannian metric is taken to be the same on the two copies of the manifold, one obtains a model of a scalar field coupled to Einstein gravity. This field is geometrically interpreted as describing the distance between the two points in the internal space.

Classical differential geometry can be encoded in spectral data, such as Connes' spectral triples, involving supersymmetry algebras. In this paper, we formulate non-commutative geometry in terms of supersymmetric spectral data. This leads to generalizations of Connes' non-commutative spin geometry encompassing non-commutative Riemannian, symplectic, complex-Hermitian and (Hyper-)Kaehler geometry. A general framework for non-commutative geometry is developed from the point of view of supersymmetry and illustrated in terms of examples. In particular, the non-commutative torus and the non-commutative 3-sphere are studied in some detail.

Motivated by the construction of spectral manifolds in noncommutative geometry, we introduce a higher degree Heisenberg commutation relation involving the Dirac operator and the Feynman slash of scalar fields. This commutation relation appears in two versions, one sided and two sided. It implies the quantization of the volume. In the one-sided case it implies that the manifold decomposes into a disconnected sum of spheres which will represent quanta of geometry. The two sided version in dimension 4 predicts the two algebras M_2(H) and M_4(C) which are the algebraic constituents of the Standard Model of particle physics. This taken together with the non-commutative algebra of functions allows one to reconstruct, using the spectral action, the Lagrangian of gravity coupled with the Standard Model. We show that any connected Riemannian Spin 4-manifold with quantized volume >4 (in suitable units) appears as an irreducible representation of the two-sided commutation relations in dimension 4 and that these representations give a seductive model of the "particle picture" for a theory of quantum gravity in which both the Einstein geometric standpoint and the Standard Model emerge from Quantum Mechanics. Physical applications of this quantization scheme will follow in a separate publication.

We present a model of (modified) gravity on spacetimes with fractal structure based on packing of spheres, which are (Euclidean) variants of the packed swiss cheese cosmology models. As the action functional for gravity we consider the spectral action of noncommutative geometry, and we compute its expansion on a space obtained as an Apollonian packing of three-dimensional spheres inside a four-dimensional ball. Using information from the zeta function of the Dirac operator of the spectral triple, we compute the leading terms in the asymptotic expansion of the spectral action. They consist of a zeta regularization of the divergent sum of the leading terms of the spectral actions of the individual spheres in the packing. This accounts for the contribution of points 1 and 3 in the dimension spectrum (as in the case of a 3-sphere). There is an additional term coming from the residue at the additional point in the real dimension spectrum that corresponds to the packing constant, as well as a series of fluctuations coming from log-periodic oscillations, created by the points of the dimension spectrum that are off the real line. These terms detect the fractality of the residue set of the sphere packing. We show that the presence of fractality influences the shape of the slow-roll potential for inflation, obtained from the spectral action. We also discuss the effect of truncating the fractal structure at a certain scale related to the energy scale in the spectral action.

We have obtained the supersymmetric extension of a spectral triple that specifies a noncommutative geometry. We assume that the functional space |$\mathcal {H}$| consists of wave functions of matter fields and their superpartners included in the minimum supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). We introduce the internal fluctuations of the Dirac operator on the finite space as well as on the manifold by elements of the algebra |$\mathcal {A}$| in the triple. So, we obtain not only the vector supermultiplets that mediate |${\rm SU}(3)\otimes {\rm SU}(2)\otimes {\rm U}(1)_Y$| gauge degrees of freedom but also Higgs supermultiplets that appear in the MSSM from the same standpoint. According to the supersymmetric version of the spectral action principle, we calculate the square of the fluctuated total Dirac operator and verify that the Seeley–DeWitt coefficients give the correct action of the vector and Higgs supermultiplets. We also verify that the relation between the coupling constants of |${\rm SU}(3)$|⁠, |${\rm SU}(2)$|⁠, and |${\rm U}(1)_Y$| is same as that of SU(5) unification theory.

Gauge fields have a natural metric interpretation in terms of horizontal distance. The latest, also called Carnot-Caratheodory or subriemannian distance, is by definition the length of the shortest horizontal path between points, that is to say the shortest path whose tangent vector is everywhere horizontal with respect to the gauge connection. In noncommutative geometry all the metric information is encoded within the Dirac operator D. In the classical case, i.e. commutative, Connes's distance formula allows to extract from D the geodesic distance on a riemannian spin manifold. In the case of a gauge theory with a gauge field A, the geometry of the associated U(n)-vector bundle is described by the covariant Dirac operator D+A. What is the distance encoded within this operator ? It was expected that the noncommutative geometry distance d defined by a covariant Dirac operator was intimately linked to the Carnot-Caratheodory distance dh defined by A. In this paper we precise this link, showing that the equality of d and dh strongly depends on the holonomy of the connection. Quite interestingly we exhibit an elementary example, based on a 2 torus, in which the noncommutative distance has a very simple expression and simultaneously avoids the main drawbacks of the riemannian metric (no discontinuity of the derivative of the distance function at the cut-locus) and of the subriemannian one (memory of the structure of the fiber).

Mathematics provides the structural foundation through which the universe’s expansion becomes intelligible. This review synthesizes the differential-geometric, dynamical, and computational formalisms that define modern relativistic cosmology. Beginning from the Einstein–Hilbert action, spacetime is described as a pseudo-Riemannian manifold whose curvature and energy content obey the Einstein field equations. Under symmetry reductions, these equations yield the Friedmann relations that govern the temporal evolution of the scale factor. Analytical and numerical studies of these equations have refined the ΛCDM paradigm and motivated extensions such as f(R) gravity, scalar–tensor, and Gauss–Bonnet models. Relativistic perturbation theory links these global frameworks to the growth of cosmic structure, while advances in numerical relativity and symbolic computation have transformed Einstein’s equations into solvable systems across regimes from linear perturbations to nonlinear curvature dynamics. The review further explores mathematical frontiers—singularity analysis, alternative geometries, and quantum corrections—highlighting how new tools such as fractional calculus, noncommutative geometry, and category theory seek to reconcile continuous spacetime with quantum discreteness. By uniting geometry, dynamics, and computation, this study positions mathematical innovation as the key driver of cosmological progress. The expanding universe thus emerges not merely as a physical phenomenon but as an evolving mathematical construct whose form and evolution are written in the language of geometry and logic

This brief Letter demonstrates that effects from a noncommutative spacetime geometry will measurably affect the value of (g−2)μ inferred from the decay of the muon to an electron plus two neutrinos. If the scale of noncommutativity is O (TeV), the alteration of the V–A structure of the lepton–lepton–W vertex is sufficient to shift the inferred value of (g−2)μ to one part in 108. This may account for the recently reported 2.6σ discrepancy between the BNL measurement aexpt=11659202(14)(6)×10−10 and the Standard Model prediction aSM=11659159.6(6.7)×10−10.

We consider the spectral action within the context of a 4-dimensional manifold with torsion and show that, in the vacuum case, the equations of motion reduce to Einstein's equations, securing the linear stability of the theory. To subsequently investigate the nonvacuum case, we consider the spectral action of an almost commutative torsion geometry and show that the Hamiltonian is bounded from below, a result which guarantees the linear stability of the theory.

We investigate cosmological predictions on the early universe based on the noncommutative geometry (NCG) models of gravity coupled to matter. Using the renormalization group analysis for the standard model with right-handed neutrinos and Majorana mass terms, which is the particle
\nphysics content of the most recent NCG models, we analyze the behavior of the coefficients of the gravitational and cosmological terms in the Lagrangian derived from the asymptotic expansion of the spectral action functional of NCG. We find emergent Hoyle–Narlikar and conformal
\ngravity at the see-saw scales and a running effective gravitational constant, which affects the propagation of gravitational waves and the evaporation law of primordial black holes and provides Linde models of negative gravity in the early universe. The same renormalization group
\nanalysis also governs the running of the effective cosmological constant of the model. The model also provides a Higgs-based slow-roll inflationary mechanism, for which one can explicitly compute the slow-roll parameters.
\nThe particle physics content allows for dark matter models based on sterile neutrinos with Majorana mass terms.

The study of spectral properties of natural geometric elliptic partial differential operators acting on smooth sections of vector bundles over Riemannian manifolds is a central theme in global analysis, differential geometry and mathematical physics. Instead of studying the spectrum of a differential operator [Formula: see text] directly one usually studies its spectral functions, that is, spectral traces of some functions of the operator, such as the spectral zeta function [Formula: see text] and the heat trace [Formula: see text]. The kernel [Formula: see text] of the heat semigroup [Formula: see text], called the heat kernel, plays a major role in quantum field theory and quantum gravity, index theorems, non-commutative geometry, integrable systems and financial mathematics. We review some recent progress in the study of spectral asymptotics. We study more general spectral functions, such as [Formula: see text], that we call quantum heat traces. Also, we define new invariants of differential operators that depend not only on the eigenvalues but also on the eigenfunctions, and, therefore, contain much more information about the geometry of the manifold. Furthermore, we study some new invariants, such as [Formula: see text], that contain relative spectral information of two differential operators. Finally, we show how the convolution of the semigroups of two different operators can be computed by using purely algebraic methods.

It is for the most part expected that dark matter is important to clarify the rotation of the galaxy, It has effectively been seen that the non-commutative geometry background can achieve this objective similarly. The objective of this study is to investigate a relationship between non-commutative geometry and certain aspect of dark matter. We are relying on a basic mathematical expression argument that indicates that the appearance of dark matter in galaxies and galaxy clusters with regard to flat rotation curves is similarly a result of non commutative geometry.