CURRENT ALGEBRAS AND QP-MANIFOLDS

Generalized current algebras introduced by Alekseev and Strobl in two dimensions are reconstructed by a graded manifold and a graded Poisson brackets. We generalize their current algebras to higher dimensions. QP-manifolds provide the unified structures of current algebras in any dimension. Current algebras give rise to structures of Leibniz/Loday algebroids, which are characterized by QP-structures. Especially, in three dimensions, a current algebra has a structure of a Lie algebroid up to homotopy introduced by Uchino and one of the authors, which has a bracket of a generalization of the Courant–Dorfman bracket. Anomaly cancellation conditions are reinterpreted as generalizations of the Dirac structure.