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Aharanov-Bohm Type Arbitrage and Homological Obstructions in Financial Markets

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· 2026 · q-fin.MF · arXiv 2604.10492

We introduce a new perspective on arbitrage based on global loop effects in filtered market systems, providing a conceptual extension of classical arbitrage theory beyond local consistency conditions. Given a filtration modeled as a contravariant functor $F : \mathcal{T}^{op} \to \mathrm{Prob}$, we consider the associated conditional expectation functor $\mathcal{E} \circ F$ and show that it induces a canonical multiplicative distortion $dF(i) := (\mathcal{E} \circ F)(i)(1)$, which measures the failure of constant functions to be preserved under non-measure-preserving transitions. We define the holonomy of $dF$ along loops in $\mathcal{T}$ and interpret non-trivial holonomy as a global inconsistency that is invisible at the level of individual transitions. This leads to a notion of Aharonov--Bohm (AB) arbitrage, in which arbitrage arises from loop effects rather than local price discrepancies. We further show that, under suitable admissibility conditions, non-trivial holonomy can be converted into a predictable self-financing trading strategy. This establishes a connection between cohomological structures and economically realizable arbitrage, highlighting the role of global invariants in the structure of financial markets.