Focused Research Group: Calabi-Yau Manifolds and their Applications

Duke University, Durham NC

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract Award: DMS-0074072 Principal Investigator: David R. Morrison This research project brings together a team of mathematicians and physicists based at three campuses to work together on string theory. Specific research tasks include the study of the quantum corrections to the mypermultiplet moduli spaces in theories with eight supercharges, the structure of the moduli spaces of heterotic string compactifications, M-theory models compactified on seven-dimensional spaces whose global holonomy group lies in the exceptional Lie group G2, M-theory models on Calabi-Yau fourfolds, and a study of the AdS/CFT correspondence for branes at singularities. String theory is a promising candidate for a unifying theory of the universe at its most fundamental levels. Although the basic idea is simple - elementary particles should be modeled as mathematical loops of stgring rather than as points - working out the details of this theory has involved and inspired some sophisticated mathematical tools and ideas. The task is by no means complete, even in an area where the synergy between mathematics and physics has been particularly productive, the study of the Calabi-Yau spaces that appear as solutions of the classical string equations of motion. This is one of three linked awards to a research group that includes mathematicians and physicists at Duke University, Columbia University, and Rutgers University. Funds in this award provide core support for the researchers at Duke and are supporting this interdisciplinary group's collaborations through videoconferencing and travel.