Mellin-Barnes integrals as Fourier-Mukai transforms

We study the generalized hypergeometric system introduced by Gelfand, Kapranov and Zelevinsky and its relationship with the toric Deligne-Mumford (DM) stacks recently studied by Borisov, Chen and Smith. We construct series solutions with values in a combinatorial version of the Chen-Ruan (orbifold) cohomology and in the $K$-theory of the associated DM stacks. In the spirit of the homological mirror symmetry conjecture of Kontsevich, we show that the $K$-theory action of the Fourier-Mukai functors associated to basic toric birational maps of DM stacks are mirrored by analytic continuation transformations of Mellin-Barnes type.Comment: 55 pages, LaTe

Massless D-Branes on Calabi-Yau Threefolds and Monodromy

We analyze the link between the occurrence of massless B-type D-branes for specific values of moduli and monodromy around such points in the moduli space. This allows us to propose a classification of all massless B-type D-branes at any point in the moduli space of Calabi-Yau's. This classification then justifies a previous conjecture due to Horja for the general form of monodromy. Our analysis is based on using monodromies around points in moduli space where a single D-brane becomes massless to generate monodromies around points where an infinite number become massless. We discuss the various possibilities within the classification.Comment: 29 pages, LaTeX2e, 3 figures, author order fixe

A Point's Point of View of Stringy Geometry

The notion of a "point" is essential to describe the topology of spacetime. Despite this, a point probably does not play a particularly distinguished role in any intrinsic formulation of string theory. We discuss one way to try to determine the notion of a point from a worldsheet point of view. The derived category description of D-branes is the key tool. The case of a flop is analyzed and Pi-stability in this context is tied in to some ideas of Bridgeland. Monodromy associated to the flop is also computed via Pi-stability and shown to be consistent with previous conjectures.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures, ref adde

Solitons in Seiberg-Witten Theory and D-branes in the Derived Category

We analyze the "geometric engineering" limit of a type II string on a suitable Calabi-Yau threefold to obtain an N=2 pure SU(2) gauge theory. The derived category picture together with Pi-stability of B-branes beautifully reproduces the known spectrum of BPS solitons in this case in a very explicit way. Much of the analysis is particularly easy since it can be reduced to questions about the derived category of CP1.Comment: 20 pages, LaTex2

Discriminants and toric K-theory

We discuss a categorical approach to the theory of discriminants in thecombinatorial language introduced by Gelfand, Kapranov and Zelevinsky. Ourpoint of view is inspired by homological mirror symmetry and provides$K$--theoretic evidence for a conjecture presented by Paul Aspinwall in aconference talk in Banff in March 2016 and later in a joint paper with Plesserand Wang