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From topological string theory to algebraic geometry

Mathematical Physics Seminar

Speaker: Motohico Mulase, UCDavis, Math. Dept
Location: 2112 MSB
Start time: Tue, Mar 13 2012, 4:10PM

String theory has influenced algebraic geometry from its beginning in the 1980s. One of the newest of these trends is the Remodeling Conjecture due to physicists Marino, Eynard, Bouchard, Klemm, and others. This conjecture provides, for the first time, a universal and effective mechanism of calculating the Gromov-Witten invariants of various target spaces, most notably toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds. Despite of the beauty of the conjecture, only a few rigorous results have been established by mathematicians, including my work. In this talk I will give an introduction to this new, universal, formalism of Gromov-Witten theory.