Enumerative Invariants In Algebraic Geometry And String Theory

Starting in the middle of the 80s, there has been a growing and fruitful interaction between algebraic geometry and certain areas of theoretical high-energy physics, especially the various versions of string theory. Physical heuristics have provided inspiration for new mathematical definitions (such as that of Gromov-Witten invariants) leading in turn to the solution of problems in enumerative geometry. Conversely, the availability of mathematically rigorous definitions and theorems has benefited the physics research by providing the required evidence in fields where experimental testing seems problematic. The aim of this volume, a result of the CIME Summer School held in Cetraro, Italy, in 2005, is to cover part of the most recent and interesting findings in this subject.

Starting in the middle of the 80s, there has been a growing and fruitful interaction between algebraic geometry and certain areas of theoretical high-energy physics, especially the various versions of string theory. Physical heuristics have provided inspiration for new mathematical definitions (such as that of Gromov-Witten invariants) leading in turn to the solution of problems in enumerative geometry. Conversely, the availability of mathematically rigorous definitions and theorems has benefited the physics research by providing the required evidence in fields where experimental testing seems problematic. The aim of this volume, a result of the CIME Summer School held in Cetraro, Italy, in 2005, is to cover part of the most recent and interesting findings in this subject.

Starting in the middle of the 80s, there has been a growing and fruitful interaction between algebraic geometry and certain areas of theoretical high-energy physics, especially the various versions of string theory. Physical heuristics have provided inspiration for new mathematical definitions (such as that of Gromov-Witten invariants) leading in turn to the solution of problems in enumerative geometry. Conversely, the availability of mathematically rigorous definitions and theorems has benefited the physics research by providing the required evidence in fields where experimental testing seems problematic. The aim of this volume, a result of the CIME Summer School held in Cetraro, Italy, in 2005, is to cover part of the most recent and interesting findings in this subject.

Perhaps the most famous example of how ideas from modern physics have revolutionized mathematics is the way string theory has led to an overhaul of enumerative geometry, an area of mathematics that started in the eighteen hundreds. Century-old problems of enumerating geometric configurations have now been solved using new and deep mathematical techniques inspired by physics! The book begins with an insightful introduction to enumerative geometry. From there, the goal becomes explaining the more advanced elements of enumerative algebraic geometry. Along the way, there are some crash courses on intermediate topics which are essential tools for the student of modern mathematics, such as cohomology and other topics in geometry. The physics content assumes nothing beyond a first undergraduate course. The focus is on explaining the action principle in physics, the idea of string theory, and how these directly lead to questions in geometry. Once these topics are in place, the connection between physics and enumerative geometry is made with the introduction of topological quantum field theory and quantum cohomology.

This book consists of five chapters presenting problems of current research in mathematics, with its history and development, current state, and possible future direction. Four of the chapters are expository in nature while one is based more directly on research. All deal with important areas of mathematics, however, such as algebraic geometry, topology, partial differential equations, Riemannian geometry, and harmonic analysis. This book is addressed to researchers who are interested in those subject areas. Young-Hoon Kiem discusses classical enumerative geometry before string theory and improvements after string theory as well as some recent advances in quantum singularity theory, Donaldson–Thomas theory for Calabi–Yau 4-folds, and Vafa–Witten invariants. Dongho Chae discusses the finite-time singularity problem for three-dimensional incompressible Euler equations. He presents Kato's classical local well-posedness results, Beale–Kato–Majda's blow-up criterion, and recent studies on the singularity problem for the 2D Boussinesq equations. Simon Brendle discusses recent developments that have led to a complete classification of all the singularity models in a three-dimensional Riemannian manifold. He gives an alternative proof of the classification of noncollapsed steady gradient Ricci solitons in dimension 3. Hyeonbae Kang reviews some of the developments in the Neumann–Poincare operator (NPO). His topics include visibility and invisibility via polarization tensors, the decay rate of eigenvalues and surface localization of plasmon, singular geometry and the essential spectrum, analysis of stress, and the structure of the elastic NPO. Danny Calegari provides an explicit description of the shift locus as a complex of spaces over a contractible building. He describes the pieces in terms of dynamically extended laminations and of certain explicit “discriminant-like” affine algebraic varieties.

The conference String-Math 2014 was held from June 9–13, 2014, at the University of Alberta. This edition of String-Math is the first to include satellite workshops: “String-Math Summer School” (held from June 2–6, 2014, at the University of British Columbia), “Calabi-Yau Manifolds and their Moduli” (held from June 14–18, 2014, at the University of Alberta), and “Quantum Curves and Quantum Knot Invariants” (held from June 16–20, 2014, at the Banff International Research Station). This volume presents the proceedings of the conference and satellite workshops. For mathematics, string theory has been a source of many significant inspirations, ranging from Seiberg-Witten theory in four-manifolds, to enumerative geometry and Gromov-Witten theory in algebraic geometry, to work on the Jones polynomial in knot theory, to recent progress in the geometric Langlands program and the development of derived algebraic geometry and n-category theory. In the other direction, mathematics has provided physicists with powerful tools, ranging from powerful differential geometric techniques for solving or analyzing key partial differential equations, to toric geometry, to K-theory and derived categories in D-branes, to the analysis of Calabi-Yau manifolds and string compactifications, to modular forms and other arithmetic techniques. Articles in this book address many of these topics.

In this monograph, we de?ne and investigate an algebro-geometric analogue of Donaldson invariants by using moduli spaces of semistable sheaves with arbitrary ranks on a polarized projective surface. We may expect the existence of interesting “universal relations among invariants”, which would be a natural generalization of the “wall-crossing formula” and the “Witten conjecture” for classical Donaldson invariants. Our goal is to obtain a weaker version of such relations, in other brief words, to describe a relation as the sum of integrals over the products of m- uli spaces of objects with lower ranks. Fortunately, according to a recent excellent work of L. Gottsche, ̈ H. Nakajima and K. Yoshioka, [53], a wall-crossing formula for Donaldson invariants of projective surfaces can be deduced from such a weaker result in the rank two case. We hope that our work in this monograph would, at least tentatively, provides a part of foundation for the further study on such universal relations. In the rest of this preface, we would like to explain our motivation and some of important ingredients of this study. See Introduction for our actual problems and results. Donaldson Invariants Let us brie?y recall Donaldson invariants. We refer to [22] for more details and precise. We also refer to [37], [39], [51] and [53]. LetX be a compact simply con- ? nected oriented real 4-dimensional C -manifold with a Riemannian metric g. Let P be a principalSO(3)-bundle on X.

Over the course of his distinguished career, Nicolai Reshetikhin has made a number of groundbreaking contributions in several fields, including representation theory, integrable systems, and topology. The chapters in this volume – compiled on the occasion of his 60th birthday – are written by distinguished mathematicians and physicists and pay tribute to his many significant and lasting achievements. Covering the latest developments at the interface of noncommutative algebra, differential and algebraic geometry, and perspectives arising from physics, this volume explores topics such as the development of new and powerful knot invariants, new perspectives on enumerative geometry and string theory, and the introduction of cluster algebra and categorification techniques into a broad range of areas. Chapters will also cover novel applications of representation theory to random matrix theory, exactly solvable models in statistical mechanics, and integrable hierarchies. The recent progress in the mathematical and physicals aspects of deformation quantization and tensor categories is also addressed. Representation Theory, Mathematical Physics, and Integrable Systems will be of interest to a wide audience of mathematicians interested in these areas and the connections between them, ranging from graduate students to junior, mid-career, and senior researchers.