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Mathematical methods in classical mechanics, classical and quantum field theory, quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, condensed matter, nuclear and atomic physics.

20 votes
2 answers
2k views

Cohomology rings and 2D TQFTs

There is a "folk theorem" (alternatively, a fun and easy exercise) which asserts that a 2D TQFT is the same as a commutative Frobenius algebra. Now, to every compact oriented manifold $X$ we can assoc …
Kevin H. Lin's user avatar
25 votes
1 answer
4k views

What are Gromov-Witten invariants in terms of physics?

What do Gromov-Witten invariants (of say a Calabi-Yau 3-fold) represent, or what are they supposed to represent, in terms of string theory? When I compute GW invariants, am I actually computing some i …
Kevin H. Lin's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
3k views

Where does the Givental reconstruction formula come from?

In (for example) Semisimple Frobenius structures at higher genus (section 1.2) and Gromov-Witten invariants and quantization of quadratic Hamiltonians (section 6.8), Givental gives a conjectural formu …
Kevin H. Lin's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
2k views

Are Fukaya categories Calabi-Yau categories?

Let X be a compact symplectic manifold. There is an idea, I think probably originally due to Kontsevich, that we should be able to get Gromov-Witten invariants of X out of the Fukaya category of X. On …
Kevin H. Lin's user avatar
21 votes
5 answers
4k views

Mirror symmetry mod p?! ... Physics mod p?!

In his answer to this question, Scott Carnahan mentions "mirror symmetry mod p". What is that? (Some kind of) Gromov-Witten invariants can be defined for varieties over fields other than $\mathbb{C} …
Kevin H. Lin's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
1k views

Stable graphs: Feynman diagrams and Deligne-Mumford space

I do not know very much about quantum field theory, but I have seen, in my reading, that stable graphs can appear in QFT in the form of, I think, Feynman diagrams. By stable graph I mean a "graph with …
Kevin H. Lin's user avatar
46 votes
4 answers
16k views

What is Chern-Simons theory?

What is Chern-Simons theory? I have read the wikipedia entry, but it's pretty physics-y and I wasn't really able to get any sense for what Chern-Simons theory really is in terms of mathematics. Chern …
Kevin H. Lin's user avatar
13 votes
6 answers
2k views

Gromov-Witten theory and compactifications of the moduli of curves

Why, from a string theory perspective, is it natural to consider the Deligne-Mumford (resp. Kontsevich) compactification of the moduli of curves (resp. maps [from curves to a target space X]) rather t …
Kevin H. Lin's user avatar
15 votes
2 answers
2k views

Higher genus closed string B-model

The closed string A-model is mathematically described by Gromov-Witten invariants of a compact symplectic manifold $X$. The genus 0 GW invariants give the structure of quantum cohomology of $X$, which …
Kevin H. Lin's user avatar