Raghu Mahajan (Stanford) ” Semiclassical evaluation of the vacuum sphere and the FZZT disk path integrals in noncritical string theory”
Abstract: The vacuum-to-vacuum genus-zero string graph is expected to be related to the thermodynamics of the target spacetime, and is thus an interesting quantity to compute. However, this quantity is very confusing in critical string theory. In order to understand it better, we compute the vacuum sphere partition function in noncritical string theory in the semiclassical limit, where a saddle point approximation … Read More
Samuel DeHorty (Columbia University) “Enumerative Geometry, Geometric Representation Theory and Elliptic Surfaces”
Abstract: I will discuss algebraic structures associated to moduli of sheaves on elliptic surfaces, and describe their relation with other parts of mathematical physics. These algebraic structures control the enumerative geometry of these moduli spaces analogous to how quantum groups control enumerative invariants of quiver varieties. The main results discussed will include a description of the quantum differential equation in … Read More