The Quaternions and Bott Periodicity Are Quantum Hamiltonian Reductions

Abstract

We show that the Morita equivalences $\mathrm{Cliff}(4) \simeq {\mathbb H}$, $\mathrm{Cliff}(7) \simeq \mathrm{Cliff}(-1)$, and $\mathrm{Cliff}(8) \simeq {\mathbb R}$ arise from quantizing the Hamiltonian reductions ${\mathbb R}^{0|4} // \mathrm{Spin}(3)$, ${\mathbb R}^{0|7} // G_2$, and ${\mathbb R}^{0|8} // \mathrm{Spin}(7)$, respectively.