The fuzzy space construction kit

Abstract

Fuzzy spaces like the fuzzy sphere or the fuzzy torus have received remarkable attention, since they appeared as objects in string theory. Although there are many higher dimensional examples, the most known and most studied fuzzy spaces are realized as matrix algebras defined by three Hermitian matrices, which may be seen as fuzzy membranes or fuzzy surfaces. We give a mapping between directed graphs and matrix algebras defined by three Hermitian matrices and show that the matrix algebras of known two-dimensional fuzzy spaces are associated with unbranched graphs. By including branchings into the graphs we find matrix algebras that represent fuzzy spaces associated with surfaces having genus 2 and higher.