Questions tagged [string-theory]

A class of theories that attempt to explain all existing particles (including force carriers) as vibrational modes of extended objects, such as the 1-dimensional fundamental string.

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19 votes
1 answer
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Anomaly in QFT physics v.s. determinant line bundle

In a quantum field theory (QFT) lecture, a math-physics professor explains the anomaly in physics, say the non-invariance of the partition function of an anomalous theory under background field ...
19 votes
1 answer
2k views

What are "branes", and why do they form a category?

I've been trying to read Kapustin–Witten - Electric–Magnetic Duality And The Geometric Langlands Program recently, as someone whose mathematical interests are in the Langlands program. I have some ...
1 vote
0 answers
51 views

Comparison between two volume forms on genus zero Teichmüller space

Consider a sphere with $n$ punctures. If you pick a holomorphic cotangent vector at each puncture, you can canonically construct a holomorphic top form in the corresponding moduli space. (The specific ...
6 votes
2 answers
1k views

Manifolds with negative dimension – Definition, References

Does the concept of differential manifold with negative dimension make sense, in differential geometry? If yes, how is it defined? Do you have any reference to recommend? My problem was born in ...
28 votes
1 answer
2k views

In M-theory, what can hypothesis H tell us that quantization in ordinary cohomology cannot?

In classical field theory, many fields and related objects are described as differential forms. For example, in electromagnetism, the field $F := B - \mathrm dt\wedge E$ is a 2-form, and Maxwell's ...
3 votes
0 answers
126 views

What is this correspondence between composition algebras over R and superstring theories?

In the page for superstring theory, Wikipedia states: Another approach to the number of superstring theories refers to the mathematical structure called composition algebra. In the findings of ...
0 votes
0 answers
233 views

how to derive this elliptic integral?

I am reading the article arXiv: 2207.09961, there are some interesting elliptic integrals, i.e. the formula (3.7) and (3.8). You can also see this image where $p_0(z)=\sqrt{-Q_0(z)}$ and $Q_0(z)=-\...
30 votes
2 answers
1k views

On determinants of Laplacians on Riemann surfaces

History of the formula: In their famous paper "On determinants of Laplacians on Riemann surfaces" (1986), D'Hoker and Phong computed the determinant of the Laplacian $\Delta_n^+$ on the ...
1 vote
0 answers
174 views

Divisor cohomology through spectral sequences

I don't know if it belongs here but anyway, I need to compute arithmetic genus of divisors pulled back from a Fano base space to a bundle (which may or mayn't be trivial) defined through the ...
11 votes
3 answers
1k views

Navier-Stokes fluid dynamics, Einstein gravity and holography

There was some activity a while ago, like 10 years ago, string theoreists try to relate the fluid dynamics, for example, governed by Navier-Stokes equation, to the Einstein gravity, and its ...
71 votes
3 answers
9k views

What exactly is the relation between string theory and conformal field theory?

Maybe it would be helpful for me to summarize the little bit I think know. A 2D CFT assigns a Hilbert space ${\cal H}$ to a circle and an operator $$A(X): {\cal H}^{\otimes n}\rightarrow {\cal H}^{\...
44 votes
6 answers
11k views

Book on mathematical "rigorous" String Theory?

I've been looking high and low for a mathematical book on String Theory. The only book I could find was "A Mathematical Introduction to String Theory" by Albeverio, Jost, Paycha and ...
1 vote
0 answers
91 views

NSR superstring as a map of supermanifolds

On one hand, I know that the NSR superstring is described by a map $\Phi: \Sigma \to X$, where $\Sigma$ is a supermanifold with local coordinates $(\sigma,\theta)=(\sigma^0,\sigma^1 | \bar{\theta},\...
6 votes
2 answers
2k views

Freeman Dyson's approach to string theory [closed]

Context: In celebrating the centenary of Ramanujan's birth, Freeman Dyson presented the following career advice for talented young physicists [1]: My dream is that I will live to see the day when our ...
3 votes
1 answer
478 views

The Fuchsian monodromy problem

I want to understand the argument being made from equation 6.1 to 6.5 in this paper between pages 27-28 6.2, 6.4 and 6.5 are completely out-of-the-blue to me and I have no clue as to from where they ...
4 votes
0 answers
275 views

Axiomatic string theory?

There have been many proposal of a mathematical definition of Quantum Field Theory, for instance through Wightman or Osterwalder-Schrader axioms. Were there any efforts toward doing the same for ...
4 votes
0 answers
218 views

What is known about the cohomology of the U-duality group?

$\newcommand{\Es}{E_{7(7)}}\newcommand{\Z}{\mathbb Z}$Let $\Es$ denote the split form of $E_7$, which is a real Lie group. It can be characterized as the subgroup of $\mathrm{Sp}_{56}(\mathbb R)$ ...
2 votes
0 answers
126 views

Enumerative geometry and restricted plane partitions

Donaldson-Thomas theory is an enumerative theory for virtual counts of ideal sheaves (with trivial determinant) of the structural sheaf $\mathcal{O}_{X}$ of some smooth projective manifold $X$. There ...
10 votes
0 answers
256 views

Physical Approach to Knot Categorification

Some recent work by Aganagic on knot categorification, Knot Categorification from Mirror Symmetry, Part II: Lagrangians, discusses two categorical approaches to categorification of quantum link ...
2 votes
0 answers
272 views

L-infinity algebra of deformations of an L-infinity algebra?

From Schlessinger-Stasheff we know that a deformation problem should come with an associated $L_\infty$-algebra, so that gauge-equivalence classes of solutions to its Maurer-Cartan equation (the "MC ...
5 votes
0 answers
141 views

Associating noncommutative geometries to 2D conformal field theories

I have recently been reading a bit about noncommutative geometry and string theory and it looked to be an open question (or at least this was open two decades ago) whether there are constructions ...
3 votes
0 answers
166 views

Lifting in String Theory and QFT

I'm posting this here instead of Physics Stack as my question is on the precise mathematical meaning of a word which is often used in the physics literature. In theoretical physics (especially string ...
3 votes
2 answers
503 views

On how to diagonalize a Casimir element

$\DeclareMathOperator\U{U}\DeclareMathOperator\SU{SU}\DeclareMathOperator\SO{SO}$I'm trying to read the physics paper Two Dimensional QCD as a String Theory. I'm struggling with my ignorance about ...
7 votes
1 answer
279 views

Affine Kac-Moody algebra from quantum group exchange algebra

In `Hidden Quantum Groups Inside Kac-Moody Algebra', by Alekseev, Faddeev, and Semenov-Tian-Shansky, a relationship between quantum groups and affine Kac-Moody algebras is shown for the WZW model. ...
21 votes
4 answers
2k views

Mathematical predictions of AdS/CFT

What sorts of mathematical statements are predicted by the AdS/CFT correspondence? My "understanding" (term used very loosely) is that this correspondence isn't a mathematically rigorous ...
2 votes
0 answers
151 views

Holomorphic anomaly at genus 1

For computing instantons contributions from worldsheet torus to target torus, one can evaluate zero modes contribution of genus 1 partition function given by following expression: $$Tr(-1)^FF_LF_Rq^{...
2 votes
0 answers
167 views

Perverse sheaves and maximal genus Gopakumar-Vafa invariants

Let $f: X \to Y$ be a proper morphism between complex varieties (the varieties as well as the map may be non-smooth) and let $\phi \in \text{Perv}(X)$ be a perverse sheaf on $X$. Given this data, it ...
11 votes
1 answer
2k views

Vafa-Witten invariants for mathematicians

As Richard Thomas has written (we paraphrase just slightly), mathematical physicists Vafa and Witten introduced new "invariants" of four-dimensional spaces in a paper: A Strong Coupling Test of S-...
3 votes
1 answer
231 views

Supersymmetry charge $Q$ as anti-linear and anti-unitary operator

We know the supersymmetry (SUSY) charge $Q$ satisfies the following relation respect to fermion parity operator $(-1)^F$: $$ (-1)^F Q + Q (-1)^F :=\{Q, (-1)^F \} =0 $$ which defines the anti-...
6 votes
0 answers
208 views

References for superhomology

This question concerns topological string theory. It was known sice its outset, that the BRST-cohomology ("observables") of the weakly coupled topological string B-model on a Calabi-Yau ...
3 votes
1 answer
412 views

Derive how the level quantization for 3d quantum Chern-Simons theory path integrals?

Let us consider abelian and non-abelian 3d quantum Chern-Simons theory path integrals: abelian Chern-Simons theory on non-spin manifolds --- $$ \int [DA]\exp(i \frac{k}{2\pi} \int_X (A \wedge dA )) ...
3 votes
1 answer
195 views

GKO (or coset) construction - all possible highest weights $h$

I am reading the famous paper "Unitary Representations of the Virasoro and Super-Virasoro Algebras" by Goddard, Kent, Olive. From a compact simple Lie algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ and a Lie subalgebra $\...
4 votes
2 answers
244 views

Spectral Flow Invariance for Calabi-Yau Sigma Models

I am a mathematician who has become interested in some of the mathematics of string theory, of which I am largely ignorant, so please excuse any idiocies in what follows. If $X$ is a Calabi-Yau $d$-...
8 votes
1 answer
607 views

References for quivers and derived categories of coherent sheaves for a string theory student

I'm a student mostly from physics knowledge hoping to learn about the math involved the string theory paper Topological Quiver Matrix Models and Quantum Foam. Context: The topological string theory ...
5 votes
0 answers
216 views

Calabi-Yau structures on dg-categories

A (smooth) dg algebra is called (left) Calabi-Yau if (see for example here) $$ A^! = A[-n]$$ Here we use the inverse dualizing complex $A^!=\mathbf{R}\operatorname{Hom}_{(A^e)^{op}}(A,A^e)$. In ...
0 votes
1 answer
260 views

Anti-symmetric operators for the Dirac or Majorana spinors

In a Zoom lecture given by a mathematical physics professor, if I recalled correctly, he explained that the in 1+1 dimensional spacetime (or 2 dimensions in short), the "action" of fermions (spinors) ...
7 votes
1 answer
783 views

Why is the inertia stack of a smooth Deligne-Mumford stacks called inertia?

Let $\mathcal{X}$ be a smooth Deligne-Mumford stack. Then there is an associated stack $I\mathcal{X}$, called the inertia stack of $\mathcal{X}$. Why is the inertia stack called "inertia"? We can ...
2 votes
0 answers
103 views

Possible Context for this "Siegel-like" Modular Form Construction?

The following construction of something very nearly a Siegel modular form of degree 2 arose in my research. I'm outside the worlds of automorphic forms and number theory, so I'm wondering if it ...
4 votes
0 answers
195 views

Bridgeland stability for restricted Kahler moduli?

Let $X$ be a simply-connected, smooth, projective Calabi-Yau threefold. To my understanding, Bridgeland introduced stability conditions on triangulated categories to give a proper mathematical ...
18 votes
0 answers
529 views

Donaldson-Thomas Theory and "Quantum Foam" for Mathematicians

Let $X$ be a smooth, projective Calabi-Yau threefold. From an algebro-geometric perspective, the Donaldson-Thomas invariants $\text{DT}_{\beta, n}(X)$ are virtual counts of ideal sheaves on $X$ with ...
34 votes
4 answers
5k views

Mathematical uses of string theory

It is widely believed that correctness of string theory as a physical theory will not be decided in the near future. Regardless whether this will turn out to be correct or not, mathematical concepts ...
14 votes
2 answers
2k views

what is the stringy Kähler moduli space?

I saw the stringy moduli space mentioned in a few papers but with little no explanation. I vaguely understand it is supposed to be the moduli space of complex structures on the mirror manifold. Could ...
4 votes
1 answer
219 views

Are there some known identities of elliptic polylogarithms similar to the Abel identity of polylogarithm?

Let \begin{align} Li_2(z) = \sum_{n=1}^{\infty} \frac{z^n}{n^2}. \end{align} This polylogarithm satisfies the following Abel identity: \begin{align} & Li_2(-x) + \log x \log y \\ & + Li_2(-...
6 votes
1 answer
656 views

Degree-3 curves on the Calabi–Yau quintic

Robbert Dijkgraaf said,1 concerning the simplest Calabi–Yau space, the quintic: "A classical result from the 19th century states that the number of lines — degree-one curves — is equal to 2,875. ...
1 vote
0 answers
79 views

GKO construction for (Super-)Virasoro algebras

I am reading the paper "Unitary Representations of the Virasoro and Super-Virasoro Algebras" by Goddard, Kent, Olive. In many places, the authors claim results without any justification, or with ...
36 votes
3 answers
4k views

What are D-branes, really?

In the past couple years, I've read many words pertaining to "D-branes" without feeling I have fully comprehended them. In broad terms, I think I get what they're about: They're supposed to serve as ...
9 votes
3 answers
736 views

What is the definition of picture changing operation?

What is the definition of picture changing operation? What is a standard reference where it is defined - not just used?
11 votes
0 answers
587 views

The Grassmannian Gr(2,8) and an E7 surprise

Are there any mathematical explanations for the following surprising facts? $$\int_{Gr(2,8)} c_{\text{top}}(TX(-2)) = 6556 = \frac{1}{2} \deg(E_7/P(\alpha_7)) + 1,$$ and $$\int_{Gr(2,6)} c_{\text{top}}...
5 votes
0 answers
119 views

GSO projection and $H^d(M, \mathbb{Z}_2)$

This follows up the comment which suggests that asking the later 2nd part of subquestion in "GSO (Gliozzi-Scherk-Olive) projection and its Mathematics" as a new different question GSO (...
7 votes
0 answers
227 views

GSO (Gliozzi-Scherk-Olive) projection and its Mathematics?

GSO (Gliozzi-Scherk-Olive) projection is an ingredient used in constructing a consistent model in superstring theory. The projection is a selection of a subset of possible vertex operators in the ...