Mathematical Physics

The advent of topological materials has brought with it unexpected new connections between physics and pure mathematics. In particular, algebraic topology has played a significant role in the classification of topological materials. In this talk, I will offer a brief look at an emerging chapter in this story in which algebraic geometry — in particular the algebraic geometry of moduli spaces associated with complex curves — is used to anticipate new forms of quantum matter arising from 2-dimensional hyperbolic lattices.  In the process, I will explain my recent joint works with each of J. Maciejko, E. Kienzle, and A. Nagy that establishes an electronic band theory for 2-dimensional hyperbolic matter.

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/98074477672?pwd=bmVScWx1M09EaGx2ZXZrRit6NXF5dz09

I will first review the construction of quiver Yangians for the quiver and superpotential from string theory on general toric Calabi-Yau threefolds; they serve as BPS algebras of these systems and their characters reproduce the unrefined BPS indices. I will then explain how to generalize the construction to arbitrary quivers and how to incorporate refined BPS indices. The entire construction allows for straightforward generalizations to trigonometric, elliptic, and generalized cohomologies. Time permitting, I will discuss some applications, such as on BPS counting and on Gauge/Bethe correspondence. 

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/96812116687?pwd=RjlsSVhDaUVBREtUUnd5S04rQjhpZz09

The (derived) geometric Satake equivalence plays a central role in the geometric Langlands program: roughly, it describes the category of constructible sheaves of C-vector spaces on Bun_G(S^2) in terms of the Langlands dual group G^. In this talk, I will describe some ideas connecting chromatic homotopy theory to the derived geometric Satake equivalence. For example, we will describe the category of locally constant sheaves of A-modules on Bun_G(S^2), where A is complex K-theory or an elliptic cohomology theory, in Langlands
dual terms. Some of this work was motivated by considerations from physics, and I hope to say what little I know about this, as well as sketch its relationship to the Ben-Zvi-Sakellaridis-Venkatesh program.

Zoom Link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/94926220665?pwd=bVZFUFlvZGxVSG0xUFc1SGNaTDBKZz09

Cluster structure on a quantum group allows one to work with its positive representations, a special class of modules similar in spirit to principal series representations but closed under tensor multiplication. On the other hand, cluster techniques proved inadequate for the study of finite-dimensional representation theory. I will discuss how one can reconcile positive and finite-dimensional representations into one theory by studying moduli spaces of local systems with non-generic monodromies.

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/97677905324?pwd=Tkxlei9wN1llYVpncHA2cnpYKzlhUT09

I will describe a general categorical approach to constructing Hamiltonian actions on moduli spaces. In particular cases, this specializes to give a ``universal" Hitchin integrable system as well as the Calogero-Moser system.  Moreover, I will describe a generalization to higher dimensions of a classical result of Goldman which says that the Goldman Lie algebra of free loops on a surface acts by Hamiltonian vector fields on the character variety of the surface.  A key input is a description of deformations of Calabi-Yau structures, which is of independent interest. This is joint work with Chris Brav.

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/92929253744?pwd=WGFNQmRJck5NdzFFdU8xcXRlN3RRQT09

There is a by now standard procedure for calculating twisted spin, spin^c, and string bordism groups for applications in physics: realize the twist as arising from a vector bundle, which allows one to split the corresponding Thom spectrum and greatly simplify the Adams spectral sequence computation. Not all twists arise from vector bundles, but Matthew Yu and I noticed that if you ignore this fact and pretend that everything is OK, you still get the right answer! In this talk, I'll discuss a theorem Matthew and I proved explaining this, by calculating the input to Baker-Lazarev's version of the Adams spectral sequence. Then I will discuss applications to anomalies of some quantum field theories and supergravity theories.

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/93508575689?pwd=YVV6VlRwL1RGSG55V0cwTzdpUWROUT09

On smooth schemes, every coherent sheaf admits a finite resolution by vector bundles, but on singular schemes, this is no longer true. The Arinkin-Gaitsgory singular support of coherent sheaves is an invariant of coherent sheaves on certain singular spaces that measures how far a particular coherent sheaf is from having such a resolution. In this talk, I will explain how the Arinkin-Gaitsgory theory of singular support decategorifies to a notion of singular support for chains on the associated complex analytic space of our scheme, measuring the difference between cohomology and Borel-Moore homology on singular spaces. In order to do so, we take advantage of the relationship between coherent sheaves and certain categories of matrix factorizations, also know as D-branes in Landau-Ginzburg models.

Zoom link: https://pitp.zoom.us/j/95698955865?pwd=Rm9ld3FUK3hiWGUzenBuZnQyTTRYZz09

Symplectic duality predicts that symplectic singularities should come in pairs. For example, Nakajima quiver varieties are conjecturally dual to BFN Coulomb branches (of the corresponding quiver theories). Another family of potentially symplectically dual pairs was described recently in the works of Losev, Mason-Brown, and Matvieievskyi: they describe symplectically duals to Slodowy slices to nilpotent orbits.

In this talk, we will discuss the Hikita-Nakajima conjecture that relates the geometry of symplectically dual varieties. We will restrict to the cases of certain quiver varieties and Slodowy slices and discuss the picture in these cases.

Based on the joint work with Pavel Shlykov (arXiv:2202.09934) and the work in progress with Do Kien Hoang and Dmytro Matvieievskyi.

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/98651907502?pwd=ODA1K3NKVHFLdkp6TEtaSnJXdThVZz09

The rich interplay between three-dimensional topological quantum field theories (TQFTs) and vertex operator algebras (VOAs) has been a useful bridge in understanding aspects of both subjects. In this talk, I will describe some aspects of this correspondence focusing on the simple, yet surprisingly rich, examples of Chern-Simons theories based on the Lie superalgebra gl(1|1).

Zoom Link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/97698409749?pwd=ZkdzUHI2YXJEYk53VDQyZm1ERzJHUT09

Trace map on deformation quantized algebra leads to the algebraic index theorem. We investigate a two-dimensional chiral analogue of the algebraic index theorem via the theory of chiral algebras developed by Beilinson and Drinfeld. We construct a trace map on the elliptic chiral homology of the free beta gamma-bc system using the BV quantization framework. As an example, we compute the trace evaluated on the unit constant chiral chain and obtain the formal Witten genus in the Lie algebra cohomology. This talk is based on joint work with Si Li.

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/91920988875?pwd=dUE1WDI5Q21KWTUxTGNsM21nblh5Zz09

The coordinate functions on a Poisson variety are log-canonical if the Poisson bracket of two coordinate functions equals a constant times the product of these functions. We consider the symplectic groupoid of unipotent upper-triangular matrices equipped with canonical Poisson bracket. We described a system of log-canonical coordinates and the corresponding cluster structure. As a bonus, we discovered a system of log-canonical coordinates on Teichmueller space of closed genus 2 surfaces. This is joint work with L. Chekhov.

Zoom link:  https://pitp.zoom.us/j/94716952708?pwd=R2RiQWRpcHFMYlJLMlB0UjlPVGZkQT09

A factorization algebra is a cosheaf-like local-to-global object which is meant to model the structure present in the observables of classical and quantum field theories. In the Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) formalism, one finds that a factorization algebra of classical observables possesses, in addition to its factorization-algebraic structure, a compatible Poisson bracket of cohomological degree +1. Given a ``sufficiently nice'' such factorization algebra on a manifold $N$, one may associate to it a factorization algebra on $N\times \mathbb{R}_{\geq 0}$. The aim of the talk is to explain the sense in which the latter factorization algebra ``knows all the classical data'' of the former. This is the bulk-boundary correspondence of the title. Time permitting, we will describe how such a correspondence appears in the deformation quantization of Poisson manifolds.

Zoom Link: https://pitp.zoom.us/j/96701822187?pwd=NDh5ZFpGZ2JCNmVNOVVIYzVPV2wvdz09