ICMP lecture on Heterotic/F-theory duality

The heterotic string compactified on an (n-1)-dimensional elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau Z-->B is conjectured to be dual to F-theory compactified on an n-dimensional Calabi-Yau X-->B, fibered over the same base with elliptic K3 fibers. In particular, the moduli of the two theories should be isomorphic. The cases most relevant to the physics are n=2, 3, 4, i.e. the compactification is to dimensions d=8, 6 or 4 respectively. Mathematically, the richest picture seems to emerge for n=3, where the moduli space involves an analytically integrable system whose fibers admit rather different descriptions in the two theories. The purpose of this talk is to review some of what is known and what is not yet known about this conjectural isomorphism. Some of the underlying mathematics of principal bundles on elliptic fibrations is reviewed in the accompanying Taniguchi talk (hep-th/9802094).Comment: 9 pages, Late

Taniguchi Lecture on Principal Bundles on Elliptic Fibrations

In this talk we discuss the description of the moduli space of principal G-bundles on an elliptic fibration X-->S in terms of cameral covers and their distinguished Prym varieties. We emphasize the close relationship between this problem and the integrability of Hitchin's system and its generalizations. The discussion roughly parallels that of [D2], but additional examples are included and some important steps of the argument are illustrated. Some of the applications to heterotic/F-theory duality were described in the accompanying ICMP talk (hep-th/9802093).Comment: 17 pages, Late

Principal bundles on elliptic fibrations

A central role in recent investigations of the duality of F-theory and heterotic strings is played by the moduli of principal bundles, with various structure groups G, over an elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau manifold on which the heterotic theory is compactified. In this note we propose a simple algebro-geometric technique for studying the moduli spaces of principal G-bundles on an arbitrary variety X which is elliptically fibered over a base S: The moduli space itself is naturally fibered over a weighted projective base parametrizing spectral covers $\tilde{S}$ of S, and the fibers are identified as translates of distinguished Pryms of these covers. In nice situations, the generic Prym fiber is isogenous to the product of a finite group and an abelian subvariety of $Pic(\tilde{S})$.Comment: 11 pages, Plain TeX. This is the published version, containing minor correction

The Virial Correction to the Ideal Gas Law: A Primer

The virial expansion of a gas is a correction to the ideal gas law that is usually discussed in advanced courses in statistical mechanics. In this note we outline this derivation in a manner suitable for advanced undergraduate and introductory graduate classroom presentations. We introduce a physically meaningful interpretation of the virial expansion that has heretofore escaped attention, by showing that the virial series is actually an expansion in a parameter that is the ratio of the effective volume of a molecule to its mean volume. Using this interpretation we show why under normal conditions ordinary gases such as O_2 and N_2 can be regarded as ideal gases.Comment: Revised title and abstract, and slightly lengthened tex

Abelian solitons

We describe a new algebraically completely integrable system, whose integral manifolds are co-elliptic subvarieties of Jacobian varieties. This is a multi-periodic extension of the Krichever-Treibich-Verdier system, which consists of elliptic solitons

The Heterotic String, the Tangent Bundle, and Derived Categories

We consider the compactification of the E8xE8 heterotic string on a K3 surface with "the spin connection embedded in the gauge group" and the dual picture in the type IIA string (or F-theory) on a Calabi-Yau threefold X. It turns out that the same X arises also as dual to a heterotic compactification on 24 point-like instantons. X is necessarily singular, and we see that this singularity allows the Ramond-Ramond moduli on X to split into distinct components, one containing the (dual of the heterotic) tangent bundle, while another component contains the point-like instantons. As a practical application we derive the result that a heterotic string compactified on the tangent bundle of a K3 with ADE singularities acquires nonperturbatively enhanced gauge symmetry in just the same fashion as a type IIA string on a singular K3 surface. On a more philosophical level we discuss how it appears to be natural to say that the heterotic string is compactified using an object in the derived category of coherent sheaves. This is necessary to properly extend the notion of T-duality to the heterotic string on a K3 surface.Comment: 34 pages, 3 figures (published version

Synthesis from Knowledge-Based Specifications

In program synthesis, we transform a specification into a program that is guaranteed to satisfy the specification. In synthesis of reactive systems, the environment in which the program operates may behave nondeterministically, e.g., by generating different sequences of inputs in different runs of the system. To satisfy the specification, the program needs to act so that the specification holds in every computation generated by its interaction with the environment. Often, the program cannot observe all attributes of its environment. In this case, we should transform a specification into a program whose behavior depends only on the observable history of the computation. This is called synthesis with incomplete information. In such a setting, it is desirable to have a knowledge-based specification, which can refer to the uncertainty the program has about the environment's behavior. In this work we solve the problem of synthesis with incomplete information with respect to specifications in the logic of knowledge and time. We show that the problem has the same worst-case complexity as synthesis with complete information.Comment: An extended abstract of this paper appeared in CONCUR'9

A Logic for SDSI's Linked Local Name Spaces

Abadi has introduced a logic to explicate the meaning of local names in SDSI, the Simple Distributed Security Infrastructure proposed by Rivest and Lampson. Abadi's logic does not correspond precisely to SDSI, however; it draws conclusions about local names that do not follow from SDSI's name resolution algorithm. Moreover, its semantics is somewhat unintuitive. This paper presents the Logic of Local Name Containment, which does not suffer from these deficiencies. It has a clear semantics and provides a tight characterization of SDSI name resolution. The semantics is shown to be closely related to that of logic programs, leading to an approach to the efficient implementation of queries concerning local names. A complete axiomatization of the logic is also provided.Comment: To appear, Journal of Computer Securit

A logical reconstruction of SPKI

SPKI/SDSI is a proposed public key infrastructure standard that incorporates the SDSI public key infrastructure. SDSI's key innovation was the use of local names. We previously introduced a Logic of Local Name Containment that has a clear semantics and was shown to completely characterize SDSI name resolution. Here we show how our earlier approach can be extended to deal with a number of key features of SPKI, including revocation, expiry dates, and tuple reduction. We show that these extensions add relatively little complexity to the logic. In particular, we do not need a nonmonotonic logic to capture revocation. We then use our semantics to examine SPKI's tuple reduction rules. Our analysis highlights places where SPKI's informal description of tuple reduction is somewhat vague, and shows that extra reduction rules are necessary in order to capture general information about binding and authorization.Comment: This is an updated version of a paper that appears in the Proceedings of the 14th IEEE Computer Security Foundations Workshop. It will appear in a special issue of the Journal of Computer Security devoted to papers from that conferenc

Complete Axiomatizations for Reasoning About Knowledge and Time

Sound and complete axiomatizations are provided for a number of different logics involving modalities for knowledge and time. These logics arise from different choices for various parameters. All the logics considered involve the discrete time linear temporal logic operators `next' and `until' and an operator for the knowledge of each of a number of agents. Both the single agent and multiple agent cases are studied: in some instances of the latter there is also an operator for the common knowledge of the group of all agents. Four different semantic properties of agents are considered: whether they have a unique initial state, whether they operate synchronously, whether they have perfect recall, and whether they learn. The property of no learning is essentially dual to perfect recall. Not all settings of these parameters lead to recursively axiomatizable logics, but sound and complete axiomatizations are presented for all the ones that do.Comment: To appear, SIAM Journal on Computin