MINI SPRING SCHOOL

"AN INTRODUCTION TO THE
MATHEMATICS OF STRING THEORY"

18-22 November 2002

String Theory is arguably the most exciting research area in modern mathematical physics. There is prolific research done in String Theory world-over, see the hep-th archive for the daily list of nearly 40-50 research papers. String Theory is known to the general public as the "Theory Of Everything", thanks to its great success in unifying Relativity and Quantum Field Theory, yielding a theory of Quantum Gravity. The impact of String Theory is not just felt in physics, but also in modern mathematics. It has profound connections with a broad spectrum of modern mathematics, including algebraic geometry, differential geometry, noncommutative geometry, K-theory, index theory and representation theory. Research in String Theory has created several interesting open problems both in this rapidly developing field, and in the related areas of modern mathematics.

We have organized a series of expository lectures, for students in both mathematics and mathematical physics, at the level of beginning postgraduate students.


Lecturers and Titles:

• Per Berglund (CITUSC Center for Theoretical Physics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles)
  Titles:
  • 1. Complex Manifolds and Calabi-Yau manifolds I
  • 2. Complex Manifolds and Calabi-Yau manifolds II
  • 3. N=2 SCFT and Mirror Symmetry from a physics point of view
  • 4. Batyrev's construction of Mirror Symmetry, toric geometry and the linear sigma model
  • 5. Special geometry, periods and the Pichard-Fuchs equations
• Christian Römelsberger (CITUSC Center for Theoretical Physics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles)
  Titles:
  • 1. D-branes on Calabi-Yau/Gepner models
  • 2. Index/intersection numbers
  • 3. Matching (using periods)
  • 4. Stability and Quivers I
  • 5. Stability and Quivers II
• Peter Bouwknegt (University of Adelaide)
  Title: String Theory: Abstract Nonsense?
• Michael Murray (University of Adelaide)
  Title: Introduction to bundle gerbes
• Danny Stevenson (University of Adelaide)
  Title: K-theory
• Mathai Varghese (University of Adelaide)
  Title: Noncommutative Geometry
• Paul Norbury (University of Melbourne)
  Title: Symplectic Toric Varieties
• Mike Eastwood (University of Adelaide)
  Title: Conformal Geometry and the AdS/CFT correspondence
• Sergei Kuzenko (University of Western Australia)
  Title: Introduction to Superspace

Click HERE for a set of maps of the Adelaide Region, Adelaide City and North Adelaide, and the University of Adelaide Campus.

SCHEDULE

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
9:30		Berglund	Römelsberger	Berglund	Römelsberger
10:30	refreshments	refreshments	refreshments	refreshments	refreshments
11:00	Bouwknegt	Römelsberger	Berglund	Römelsberger	Römelsberger
12:00	Berglund	Kuzenko	Kuzenko	Murray	Murray
13:00	lunch	lunch	lunch	lunch	lunch
14:00	Berglund	Eastwood	Eastwood	Norbury	Norbury
15:00	refreshments	refreshments	refreshments	refreshments	refreshments
15:15	Mathai	Mathai	Stevenson	Stevenson
16:15

In addition there will be a Mathematical Physics Seminar on Friday November 22, at 4:00pm, by Michael Kroyter (Tel Aviv University) on "Squeezed State Projectors in String Field Theory" (CSSM Seminar Room, Level 4, 10 Pulteney Str).

Organisers:

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