During the 2023–24 academic year, the CMSA will be hosting a seminar on Algebraic Geometry in String Theory, organized by Chuck Doran and Iacopo Brivio. During Spring 2024, this seminar will take place on Thursdays from 10:30–11:30 am (Eastern Time). There will be a pre-seminar from 10:00–10:30 am. The meetings will take place in Room G10 at the CMSA, 20 Garden Street, Cambridge MA 02138, and some meetings will take place virtually on Zoom or be held in hybrid formats. To join the Algebraic Geometry in String Theory Listserv, please visit this LINK.
The schedule will be updated as talks are confirmed.
Algebraic Geometry in String Theory Seminar Speaker: Max Weinreich (Harvard) Title: Algebraic billiards and dynamical degrees Abstract: Billiards is one of the most-studied dynamical systems, modeling the behavior of a point particle bouncing around some space. If the space is a plane region bounded by an algebraic curve, then we may use techniques from algebraic geometry […]
Algebraic Geometry in String Theory Seminar Speaker: Iacopo Brivio (Harvard CMSA) Title: On (semi)stable reduction and KSBA moduli in positive characteristic Abstract: The moduli space M_g of genus g stable curves is perhaps the most studied of all algebraic varieties. Its higher-dimensional generalization is the moduli functor M_{n,v} of n-dimension stable varieties of volume v. It […]
Algebraic Geometry in String Theory Seminar Speaker: Yan Zhou, Northeastern Title: Geometric origins of values of the Riemann Zeta functions at positive integers Abstract: Given a Fano manifold, Iritani proposed that the asymptotic behavior of solutions to the quantum differential equation of the Fano should be given by the so-called ‘Gamma class’ in its cohomology ring. […]
Algebraic Geometry in String Theory Seminar Speaker: Brian Lehmann (Boston College) Title: Classifying curves on Fano varieties Abstract: How can we understand the set of curves on a Fano variety? One perspective is provided by Geometric Manin's Conjecture, a collection of conjectures with roots in arithmetic and topology. While I will mention some recent progress, the main […]
Algebraic Geometry in String Theory Seminar Speaker: Jesse Huang, University of Alberta Title: Geometric construction of toric NCRs Abstract: The Rouquier dimension of a toric variety is recently shown to be achieved by the Frobenius pushforward of O via coherent-constructible correspondence. From the perspective of noncommutative geometry, this result leads to a geometric construction of toric NCR […]
Algebraic Geometry in String Theory Seminar Speaker: Pierrick Bousseau, University of Georgia Title: The KSBA moduli space of log Calabi-Yau surfaces Abstract: The KSBA moduli space, introduced by Kollár--Shepherd-Barron, and Alexeev, is a natural generalization of "the moduli space of stable curves" to higher dimensions. It parametrizes stable pairs (X,B), where X is a projective algebraic […]
Algebraic Geometry in String Theory Seminar Speaker: Jonathan Rosenberg, University of Maryland Title: Derived categories of genus one curves and torsors over abelian varieties Abstract: Studying orientifold string theories on elliptic curves or abelian varieties motivates studying the derived category of coherent sheaves on a genus one curve or a torsor over an abelian variety over the […]
Algebraic Geometry in String Theory Seminar Speaker: Alan Thompson (Loughborough University) Title: Mirror symmetry for fibrations and degenerations of K3 surfaces Abstract: In 2016, Doran, Harder, and I conjectured a mirror symmetric relationship between Tyurin degenerations and splittings of codimension 1 fibrations on Calabi-Yau manifolds. In this talk I will discuss recent work to make this […]
Algebraic Geometry in String Theory Seminar Speaker: Aaron Landesman, MIT Title: Geometric local systems on very general curves Abstract: What is the smallest genus h of a non-isotrivial curve over the generic genus g curve? In joint work with Daniel Litt, we show h is more than $\sqrt{g}$ by proving amore general result about variations of […]
Algebraic Geometry in String Theory Seminar Speaker: Alessandro Chiodo, IMJ-Paris Rive Gauche (Jussieu) Title: The logarithmic double ramification locus Abstract: Given a family of smooth curves C -> S with a line bundle L on C, it is natural to study the locus of points x in S where L_x is trivial on C_x. When the family […]
Algebraic Geometry in String Theory Seminar Speaker: Eric Pichon-Pharabod, Universite Paris-Saclay Title: Computing periods of hypersurfaces and elliptic surfaces via effective homology Abstract: The period matrix of a smooth complex projective variety X encodes the isomorphism between its singular homology and its algebraic De Rham cohomology. Numerical approximations with sufficient precision of the entries of this […]
Algebraic Geometry in String Theory Seminar Speaker: Franco Rota, University of Glasgow Title: Mirror symmetry and log del Pezzo surfaces Abstract: The homological mirror symmetry conjecture predicts a duality, expressed in terms of categorical equivalences, between the complex geometry of a variety X (the B side) and the symplectic geometry of its mirror object Y (the A side). Motivated […]