FRG: Collaborative Research: Quantum Cohomology, Quantized Algebraic Varieties, and Representation Theory

Brown University, Providence RI

Investigators

Abstract

Recent results of the PI's and the co-PI's suggest a strong connection between the following mathematical objects and constructions: localization theory in representation theory in zero and positive characteristic; derived categories of coherent sheaves on algebraic symplectic varieties; small equivariant quantum cohomology; Casimir-type connections and their monodromy. The goal of the project is to gain a deeper and more detailed understanding of the links between these objects and develop new methods for enumerative algebraic geometry and representation theory based on those links. Representation theory is a branch of mathematics based on the fact that surprisingly rich information about a mathematical or physical object is often hidden in the structure of its symmetries. Throughout some 100 years of its history, a major source of motivation and methods in representation theory has been the interaction with neighboring fields, such as the physics of elementary particles, number theory and geometry. The idea of the present project comes from a new connection of this sort, this time with recent constructions in algebraic geometry motivated by high energy physics. At present this connection has only been observed in particular, though impressive, examples. The aim of the project is to gain a better understanding of the nature of this connection and use this understanding to develop new methods for attacking current problems in several areas of mathematics.