Hurwitz numbers and intersections on moduli spaces of curves

This article is an extended version of preprint math.AG/9902104. We find an explicit formula for the number of topologically different ramified coverings of a sphere by a genus g surface with only one complicated branching point in terms of Hodge integrals over the moduli space of genus g curves with marked points.Comment: 30 pages (AMSTeX). Minor typos are correcte

Non-toric bases for elliptic Calabi-Yau threefolds and 6D F-theory vacua

We develop a combinatorial approach to the construction of general smooth compact base surfaces that support elliptic Calabi-Yau threefolds. This extends previous analyses that have relied on toric or semi-toric structure. The resulting algorithm is used to construct all classes of such base surfaces $S$ with $h^{1, 1} (S) < 8$ and all base surfaces over which there is an elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau threefold $X$ with Hodge number $h^{2, 1} (X) \geq 150$. These two sets can be used todescribe all 6D F-theory models that have fewer than seven tensor multiplets or more than 150 neutral scalar fields respectively in their maximally Higgsed phase. Technical challenges to constructing the complete list of base surfaces for all Hodge numbers are discussed.Comment: 51 pages, 10 figure

A rigid Calabi--Yau 3-fold

The aim of this paper is to analyze some geometric properties of the rigid Calabi--Yau threefold $\mathcal{Z}$ obtained by a quotient of $E^3$, where $E$ is a specific elliptic curve. We describe the cohomology of $\mathcal{Z}$ and give a simple formula for the trilinear form on $Pic(\mathcal{Z})$. We describe some projective models of $\mathcal{Z}$ and relate these to its generalized mirror. A smoothing of a singular model is a Calabi--Yau threefold with small Hodge numbers which was not known before.Comment: 24 pages, Version 2: minor changes, references adde

Quadrature domains and kernel function zipping

It is proved that quadrature domains are ubiquitous in a very strong sense in the realm of smoothly bounded multiply connected domains in the plane. In fact, they are so dense that one might as well assume that any given smooth domain one is dealing with is a quadrature domain, and this allows access to a host of strong conditions on the classical kernel functions associated to the domain. Following this string of ideas leads to the discovery that the Bergman kernel can be zipped down to a strikingly small data set. It is also proved that the kernel functions associated to a quadrature domain must be algebraic.Comment: 13 pages, to appear in Arkiv for matemati

Geometric Aspects of Mirror Symmetry (with SYZ for Rigid CY manifolds)

In this article we discuss the geometry of moduli spaces of (1) flat bundles over special Lagrangian submanifolds and (2) deformed Hermitian-Yang-Mills bundles over complex submanifolds in Calabi-Yau manifolds. These moduli spaces reflect the geometry of the Calabi-Yau itself like a mirror. Strominger, Yau and Zaslow conjecture that the mirror Calabi-Yau manifold is such a moduli space and they argue that the mirror symmetry duality is a Fourier-Mukai transformation. We review various aspects of the mirror symmetry conjecture and discuss a geometric approach in proving it. The existence of rigid Calabi-Yau manifolds poses a serious challenge to the conjecture. The proposed mirror partners for them are higher dimensional generalized Calabi-Yau manifolds. For example, the mirror partner for a certain K3 surface is a cubic fourfold and its Fano variety of lines is birational to the Hilbert scheme of two points on the K3. This hyperkahler manifold can be interpreted as the SYZ mirror of the K3 by considering singular special Lagrangian tori. We also compare the geometries between a CY and its associated generalized CY. In particular we present a new construction of Lagrangian submanifolds.Comment: To appear in the proceedings of International Congress of Chinese Mathematicians 2001, 47 page

Complex Multiplication Symmetry of Black Hole Attractors

We show how Moore's observation, in the context of toroidal compactifications in type IIB string theory, concerning the complex multiplication structure of black hole attractor varieties, can be generalized to Calabi-Yau compactifications with finite fundamental groups. This generalization leads to an alternative general framework in terms of motives associated to a Calabi-Yau variety in which it is possible to address the arithmetic nature of the attractor varieties in a universal way via Deligne's period conjecture.Comment: 28 page

Arithmetic Spacetime Geometry from String Theory

An arithmetic framework to string compactification is described. The approach is exemplified by formulating a strategy that allows to construct geometric compactifications from exactly solvable theories at $c=3$. It is shown that the conformal field theoretic characters can be derived from the geometry of spacetime, and that the geometry is uniquely determined by the two-dimensional field theory on the world sheet. The modular forms that appear in these constructions admit complex multiplication, and allow an interpretation as generalized McKay-Thompson series associated to the Mathieu and Conway groups. This leads to a string motivated notion of arithmetic moonshine.Comment: 36 page

Complex Multiplication of Exactly Solvable Calabi-Yau Varieties

We propose a conceptual framework that leads to an abstract characterization for the exact solvability of Calabi-Yau varieties in terms of abelian varieties with complex multiplication. The abelian manifolds are derived from the cohomology of the Calabi-Yau manifold, and the conformal field theoretic quantities of the underlying string emerge from the number theoretic structure induced on the varieties by the complex multiplication symmetry. The geometric structure that provides a conceptual interpretation of the relation between geometry and the conformal field theory is discrete, and turns out to be given by the torsion points on the abelian varieties.Comment: 44 page

Third kind elliptic integrals and 1-motives

In our PH.D. thesis we have showed that the Generalized Grothendieck's Conjecture of Periods applied to 1-motives, whose underlying semi-abelian variety is a product of elliptic curves and of tori, is equivalent to a transcendental conjecture involving elliptic integrals of the first and second kind, and logarithms of complex numbers. In this paper we investigate the Generalized Grothendieck's Conjecture of Periods in the case of 1-motives whose underlying semi-abelian variety is a non trivial extension of a product of elliptic curves by a torus. This will imply the introduction of elliptic integrals of the third kind for the computation of the period matrix of M and therefore the Generalized Grothendieck's Conjecture of Periods applied to M will be equivalent to a transcendental conjecture involving elliptic integrals of the first, second and third kind.Comment: paper with an appendix of Michel Waldschmidt and a letter of Yves Andr\'