Curve-counting invariants for crepant resolutions

We construct curve counting invariants for a Calabi-Yau threefold $Y$ equipped with a dominant birational morphism $\pi:Y \to X$. Our invariants generalize the stable pair invariants of Pandharipande and Thomas which occur for the case when $\pi:Y\to Y$ is the identity. Our main result is a PT/DT-type formula relating the partition function of our invariants to the Donaldson-Thomas partition function in the case when $Y$ is a crepant resolution of $X$, the coarse space of a Calabi-Yau orbifold $\mathcal{X}$ satisfying the hard Lefschetz condition. In this case, our partition function is equal to the Pandharipande-Thomas partition function of the orbifold $\mathcal{X}$. Our methods include defining a new notion of stability for sheaves which depends on the morphism $\pi$. Our notion generalizes slope stability which is recovered in the case where $\pi$ is the identity on $Y$. Our proof is a generalization of Bridgeland's proof of the PT/DT correspondence via the Hall algebra and Joyce's integration map.Comment: In this version, Jim Bryan has been added as an author and the required boundedness result for our stability condition has been added. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1002.4374 by other author

Fluid Vesicles in Flow

We review the dynamical behavior of giant fluid vesicles in various types of external hydrodynamic flow. The interplay between stresses arising from membrane elasticity, hydrodynamic flows, and the ever present thermal fluctuations leads to a rich phenomenology. In linear flows with both rotational and elongational components, the properties of the tank-treading and tumbling motions are now well described by theoretical and numerical models. At the transition between these two regimes, strong shape deformations and amplification of thermal fluctuations generate a new regime called trembling. In this regime, the vesicle orientation oscillates quasi-periodically around the flow direction while asymmetric deformations occur. For strong enough flows, small-wavelength deformations like wrinkles are observed, similar to what happens in a suddenly reversed elongational flow. In steady elongational flow, vesicles with large excess areas deform into dumbbells at large flow rates and pearling occurs for even stronger flows. In capillary flows with parabolic flow profile, single vesicles migrate towards the center of the channel, where they adopt symmetric shapes, for two reasons. First, walls exert a hydrodynamic lift force which pushes them away. Second, shear stresses are minimal at the tip of the flow. However, symmetry is broken for vesicles with large excess areas, which flow off-center and deform asymmetrically. In suspensions, hydrodynamic interactions between vesicles add up to these two effects, making it challenging to deduce rheological properties from the dynamics of individual vesicles. Further investigations of vesicles and similar objects and their suspensions in steady or time-dependent flow will shed light on phenomena such as blood flow.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures. Adv. Colloid Interface Sci., 201

Sphaerodactylus kirbyi

Number of Pages: 2Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Wrinkling instability of vesicles in steady linear flow

We present experimental observations and numerical simulations of a wrinkling instability that occurs at sufficiently high strain rates in the trembling regime of vesicle dynamics in steady linear flow. Spectral and statistical analysis of the data shows similarities and differences with the wrinkling instability observed earlier for vesicles in transient elongation flow. The critical relevance of thermal fluctuations for this phenomenon is revealed by a simple model using coupled Langevin equations that reproduces the experimental observations quite well.Comment: 6 pages, 9 figures + 2 video

The Tannakian Formalism and the Langlands Conjectures

Let H be a connected reductive group over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, and let G be an abstract group. In this note we show that every homomorphism from the Grothendieck semiring of H to that of G which maps irreducible representations to irreducibles, comes from a group homomorphism from G to H. We also connect this result with the Langlands conjectures.Comment: 15 page