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ICMP 2003 > Sessions > String and M theory |
Session organized by D. Morrison (Durham), H. Ooguri (Berkeley & Caltech).
| M. Douglas | Rutgers and I.H.E.S. |
| J. Gomis | Caltech |
| B. Julia | Paris |
| M. Marino | CERN |
| N. Nekrasov | IHES |
| P. Townsend | Cambridge |
Counting critical points and supersymmetric vacua
We define and study natural Gaussian ensembles of "random holomorphic sections" of a line bundle L, along lines developed by Bleher, Shiffman and Zelditch, and get results on the expected density of critical points. We then apply these methods to get an estimate for the number of "flux vacua" in compactification of type II superstrings on Calabi-Yau manifolds, which becomes exact for large flux.
[Based on joint work with Bernard Shiffman and Steve Zelditch (Johns Hopkins) and with Sujay Ashok (Rutgers).]
String interactions from gauge fields
In this talk we make a proposal for how to compute string interactions in a certain plane wave geometry from gauge theory considerations, concretely realizing 't Hooft's intuition on large N gauge theory. We will present the necessary string theory and gauge theory calculations and confirm the proposal for the entire set of interactions of open+closed string theory. We will discuss the significance of this correspondence for holography.
A duality between M-theory and algebraic surfaces: BPS superalgebras
The U-dualities of compactified M-theory have their root lattices realised in middle dimension homology of 4-manifolds. We consider the relevance for physics of del Pezzo surfaces, their real forms and possible singularities. The restriction to positive genus real 2-cycles seems largely unexplored.
The topological vertex
In this talk I will present the full solution of topological string theory on noncompact, toric Calabi-Yau threefolds. This solution is encoded in a cubic field theory in which each Feynman diagram encodes a different Calabi-Yau threefold. The Feynman rules for this theory give the all-genus answer for the string amplitudes, therefore providing explicit expressions for the Gromov-Witten invariants of these threefolds.
Four dimensional mirror symmetry
Seiberg-Witten theory states that gauge instantons have something to do with families of curves. We formulate the precise mathematical content of this correspondence and prove the main theorem, which expresses equivariant intersection theory on the moduli spaces of instantons on R4 in terms of the action variables of the periodic Toda chain. Based on the work by A. Okounkov and the author.
Cosmic acceleration and M-theory
I will review efforts to get accelerating cosmologies by compactification of M-theory; discuss the cosmology of the Salam-Sezgin model; exhibit accelerating cosmologies without future event horizons.
Hermitean-holomorphic classes and tame symbols related to uniformization, the dilogarithm and the Liouville action
Quantum dielectric branes
The Seiberg-Witten map for a time-dependent background
Explicit hyperkahler metrics from string theory
Wrapped D-branes and special holonomy manifolds
Spacetime supersymmetry and the super Higgs mechanism in string theory
"New" Veneziano amplitudes from "old" fermat (hyper) surfaces
A tachyon-graviton scattering amplitude within the framework of string theory
Spin foam models of string theory
"Barely" G2-manifolds, (orientifold) of a compact Calabi-Yau and nonperturbative N=1 superpotentials
WZW branes and gerbes
On modular spaces of Drinfeld doubles
(Non)commutative Finsler geometry from string/M-theory
Holography and the Deligne conjecture