EVENT DETAILS AND ABSTRACT

Title: Supersymmetric string vacua and complex geometry
Speaker: Duong Phong
Speaker Info: Columbia University
Brief Description:
Special Note:
Abstract:

Superstring theory requires a 10-dimensional space-time, and thus a fundamental issue in this theory is to find compactifications to an effective 4-dimensional theory which preserve supersymmetry. This problem from high energy physics turns out to be one of complex geometry, because the infinitesimal generator of supersymmetry transformations produces a complex structure for the compactification space. We discuss the case of the heterotic string, and a system of equations proposed by C. Hull and A. Strominger which generalizes the classical Calabi-Yau solutions found in 1985 by P. Candelas, G. Horowitz, A. Strominger, and Witten. These equations allow metrics with torsion, so they may also be interesting from the point of view of non-K\”ahler geometry and the theory of partial differential equations. We discuss a geometric flow approach, proposed recently in joint work with S. Picard and X.W. Zhang.