Place and Time:
Pretalk: Thursdays 1:00pm – 1:50pm in Lunt 107 (aimed at graduate students)
Research talk: Thursdays 4:10pm – 5:10pm in Lunt 107
Organizers: Bahar Acu and Ezra Getzler
October 4, 2018
- Speaker: Ezra Getzler (Northwestern)
- Title: Variational calculus in the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism and general covariance
- Abstract: Motivated by supersymmetry, Batalin and Vilkovisky reformulated the equations governing Lagrangian mechanics in the variational calculus as a Maurer-Cartan equation (vanishing of curvature). This allowed them to arrive at a new understanding of symmetries off-shell (i.e. where the Euler-Lagrange equation does not hold). In this talk, I will show how a modification of their Maurer-Cartan equation can handle the action of the diffeomorphism group on the world-sheet (i.e. general covariance of the theory). Our approach involves the introduction of a curvature to Maurer-Cartan equation. This curvature is central (a scalar multiple of the identity matrix): this is analogous to the Berry phase in the Hamiltonian approach to quantum theory (though this is really nothing more than a formal analogy).
October 11, 2018
- Speaker: Tim Large (MIT)
- Title: Steenrod operations and the Floer homotopy type
- Abstract: A natural question in symplectic geometry and gauge theory is whether one can construct a homotopy type underlying the Floer homology groups. There are usually topological obstructions to this, but if one could, the Z/p coefficient versions of the Floer groups would come with natural Steenrod operations. On the other hand, one could try construct these operations as equivariant refinements of the pair-of-pants product, analogously to the story for singular homology. In this talk, we will explain how these two approaches relate to each other.
October 25, 2018
- Speaker: James Pascaleff (UIUC)
- Pretalk title: Monotone Lagrangians and disk counting
- Research talk title: Wall-crossing formulas for Lagrangian mutations
- Abstract: In this talk I will discuss several versions of the wall-crossing phenomenon that arise in Floer theory. The first is the interpretation of the wall-crossing formula as a coordinate change between charts on the moduli space of compact exact Lagrangian objects in the Fukaya category of an exact symplectic manifold M, and the second is the behavior of superpotentials of those same Lagrangians when M is replaced by a partial compactification X. By relating the Fukaya categories of M and X, Dmitry Tonkonog and I showed how the latter is determined by the former in a general context. This allows us to derive new wall-crossing formulas in complex dimension greater than two. A third aspect is the way that the same algebra governs also the ring structure on the wrapped Floer cohomology of certain non-compact Lagrangians.
November 1, 2018
- Speaker: Harold Williams (UC Davis)
- Title: Kasteleyn operators from mirror symmetry
- Abstract: Given a consistent bipartite graph Γ in T^2 with a complex-valued edge weighting E, we show the following two constructions are the same. The first is to form the Kasteleyn operator of ( Γ, E) and pass to its spectral transform, a coherent sheaf supported on a spectral curve in C*^2. The second is to form the conjugate Lagrangian L in T* T^2 of Γ, equip it with a brane structure prescribed by E, and pass to its mirror coherent sheaf. This lives on a stacky toric compactification of C*^2 determined by the Legendrian link which lifts the zig-zag paths of Γ (and to which the noncompact Lagrangian L is asymptotic). We work in the setting of the coherent-constructible correspondence, a sheaf-theoretic model of toric mirror symmetry. This is joint work with David Treumann and Eric Zaslow.
November 8, 2018
- Speaker: Michele Schiavina (Max-Planck Institut, Bonn)
- Title: Equivalence of gauge theories in the presence of boundaries: insights from General Relativity
- Abstract: The standard notion of classical equivalence between field theories establishes an arguably simple relation between the critical loci of two variational problem, with little to no mention on how to properly treat the data coming from their symmetries. Although for some applications this is enough, we argue that modern “cohomological” approaches to field theories, like those that stem from the works of Batalin, Fradkin and Vilkovisky, might help in roadmapping beyond this standard notion. In this talk I will present one possible approach to the problem and show how natural examples coming from General Relativity in different space-time dimensions might be a rich class of theories for which a refined notion of equivalence becomes relevant.
November 15, 2018
- Speaker: Kevin Sackel (MIT)
- Pretalk title: Convex surfaces in contact 3-manifolds
- Abstract: We discuss contact geometry in three dimensions, focusing in particular on the power of convex surfaces.
- Research talk title: Convex contact handle decompositions
- Abstract: Analogous to Weinstein structures in symplectic geometry, there is a notion of convex structures in contact geometry. We discuss an explicit surgery theory for these contact manifolds with convex structures, showing that they decompose naturally into handles. We also explore the relationships between these handle decompositions and Weinstein open books, proving as a corollary that every closed contact manifold has a convex structure.
November 22, 2018
- No seminar (Thanksgiving)
November 29, 2018
- Speaker: Honghao Gao (Institut Fourier)
- Pretalk title: An Odyssey of Augmentations
- Abstract: In this talk, I will introduced four types of augmentations of a knot or a link. They are knot/link invariants defined over either a framed cord algebra or a Legendrian differential graded algebra associated to the knot/link. I will explain the relations among these augmentations.
- Research talk at 3pm (Note the unusual time.)
- Title: Augmentations and sheaves for knot conormals
- Abstract: Knot invariants can be defined using Legendrian isotopy invariants of the knot conormal. There are two types of invariants raised in this way: one is the knot contact differential graded algebra together with augmentations associated to this dga, and the other one is the category of simple sheaves microsupported along the knot conormal. The SFT and Nadler-Zaslow correspondence suggest a connection between the two types of invariants. In this talk, I will manifest an explicit bijection between augmentations and simple sheaves for knot conormals.
December 6, 2018
- Speaker: Dmitry Tonkonog (UC Berkeley)
- Pretalk title: Lagrangian tori in Fano manifolds
- Abstract: I will recall a beautiful construction, due to Vianna, that associates to each Markov triple a monotone Lagrangian torus in the complex projective plane. I will explain how these tori can be distinguished using holomorphic disk counts, and the wall-crossing formula that arises in this question.
- Research talk at 3pm (Note the unusual time.)
- Title: Disk potentials and mirror symmetry
- Abstract: Fix a Fano manifold and a monotone Lagrangian torus inside it. The simplest enumerative invariant of the torus is its disk potential, which is a certain Laurent polynomial. It can be seen as a piece of the mirror to the Fano, according to the SYZ conjecture. I will explain how to prove some classical mirror symmetry predictions from this point of view. I will focus on two theorems: a formula for the quantum periods of a Fano manifold in terms of period integrals, and the quantum Lefschetz formula.