Mirror symmetry

About: Mirror symmetry is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2422 publications have been published within this topic receiving 90786 citations.

Conifold Transitions and Mirror Symmetries

Abstract: Recent work initiated by Strominger has lead to a consistent physical interpretation of certain types of transitions between different string vacua. These transitions, discovered several years ago, involve singular conifold configurations which connect distinct Calabi-Yau manifolds. In this paper we discuss a number of aspects of conifold transitions pertinent to both worldsheet and spacetime mirror symmetry. It is shown that the mirror transform based on fractional transformations allows an extension of the mirror map to conifold boundary points of the moduli space of weighted Calabi-Yau manifolds. The conifold points encountered in the mirror context are not amenable to an analysis via the original splitting constructions. We describe the first examples of such nonsplitting conifold transitions, which turn out to connect the known web of Calabi-Yau spaces to new regions of the collective moduli space. We then generalize the splitting conifold transition to weighted manifolds and describe a class of connections between the webs of ordinary and weighted projective Calabi-Yau spaces. Combining these two constructions we find evidence for a dual analog of conifold transitions in heterotic N$=$2 compactifications on K3$\times $T$^2$ and in particular describe the first conifold transition of a Calabi-Yau manifold whose heterotic dual has been identified by Kachru and Vafa. We furthermore present a special type of conifold transition which, when applied to certain classes of Calabi-Yau K3 fibrations, preserves the fiber structure.

Parabolic Whittaker Functions and Topological Field Theories I

Abstract: First, we define a generalization of the standard quantum Toda chain inspired by a construction of quantum cohomology of partial flags spaces GL(\ell+1)/P, P a parabolic subgroup. Common eigenfunctions of the parabolic quantum Toda chains are generalized Whittaker functions given by matrix elements of infinite-dimensional representations of gl(\ell+1). For maximal parabolic subgroups (i.e. for P such that GL(\ell+1)/P=\mathbb{P}^{\ell}) we construct two different representations of the corresponding parabolic Whittaker functions as correlation functions in topological quantum field theories on a two-dimensional disk. In one case the parabolic Whittaker function is given by a correlation function in a type A equivariant topological sigma model with the target space \mathbb{P}^{\ell}. In the other case the same Whittaker function appears as a correlation function in a type B equivariant topological Landau-Ginzburg model related with the type A model by mirror symmetry. This note is a continuation of our project of establishing a relation between two-dimensional topological field theories (and more generally topological string theories) and Archimedean (\infty-adic) geometry. From this perspective the existence of two, mirror dual, topological field theory representations of the parabolic Whittaker functions provide a quantum field theory realization of the local Archimedean Langlands duality for Whittaker functions. The established relation between the Archimedean Langlands duality and mirror symmetry in two-dimensional topological quantum field theories should be considered as a main result of this note.

Mirror-symmetry induced topological valley transport along programmable boundaries in a hexagonal sonic crystal.

Abstract: Valley states, labeling the frequency extrema in momentum space, carry a new degree of freedom (valley pseudospin) for topological transport of sound in sonic crystals. Recently, the field of valley acoustics has become a hotspot due to its potentials in developing various topological-insulator-based devices. In most previous works, topological valley transport is implemented at the interfaces of two connected artificial crystals. With respect to the interface, the mirror symmetry of crystal structures supports either even-mode or odd-mode valley states. In this work, we propose a physical insight of transforming one hexagonal crystal into a virtual lattice by utilizing the mirror operation of rigid or soft boundaries, which greatly reduces the dimension of the acoustic structure and provides a possible way to implement the programmable routing of topological propagation. We investigate two cases that the rigid and soft boundaries are introduced either at the edge or inside a single hexagonal crystal. Our results clearly demonstrate the high-transmission valley transport along the folded boundaries, where reflection or scattering is prohibited at the sharp bending or corners due to topological protection. Three functional devices are exemplified, which are single-crystal-based topological delay-line filter, delay-line switcher and beam splitter. Our work reveals the inherent relation between the field symmetries of valley states and structural symmetries of sonic crystals. Programmable routing of topological sound transport through boundary engineering provides a platform for developing integrated and versatile topological-insulator-based devices.

Some supersymmetric features in the spectrum of anyons in a harmonic potential

Abstract: The energy spectrum of two or more anyons in a harmonic oscillator potential exhibits some supersymmetric features. The supersymmetry operators map a theory with statistics parameter {theta} to one described by {theta}+{pi}. Thus fermions and bosons are mapped into each other, whereas semions remain invariant under a combined action of supersymmetry and parity. All the states of a given theory fall into families. The energy levels of states within the same family differ by multiples of the harmonic frequency. There is a bosonic SO(2,1) symmetry for any value of {theta}. Finally, supersymmetry explains why most energy levels for three anyons have a mirror symmetry about semions. Consequently, the third virial coefficient is {ital exactly} mirror symmetric.

Homological mirror symmetry without corrections

Abstract: Let $X$ be a closed symplectic manifold equipped a Lagrangian torus fibration over a base $Q$. A construction first considered by Kontsevich and Soibelman produces from this data a rigid analytic space $Y$, which can be considered as a variant of the $T$-dual introduced by Strominger, Yau, and Zaslow. We prove that the Fukaya category of tautologically unobstructed graded Lagrangians in $X$ embeds fully faithfully in the derived category of (twisted) coherent sheaves on $Y$, under the technical assumption that $\pi_2(Q)$ vanishes (all known examples satisfy this assumption). The main new tool is the construction and computation of Floer cohomology groups of Lagrangian fibres equipped with topological infinite rank local systems that correspond, under mirror symmetry, to the affinoid rings introduced by Tate, equipped with their natural topologies as Banach algebras.