Related papers: Hyperconifold Transitions, Mirror Symmetry, and St…
This paper is the first arising from our project announced in math.AG/0211094, "Affine manifolds, log structures, and mirror symmetry." We aim to study mirror symmetry by studying the log structures of Illusie-Fontaine and Kato on…
We introduce a special class of convex rational polyhedral cones which allows to construct generalized Calabi-Yau varieties of dimension $(d + 2(r-1))$, where $r$ is a positive integer and d is the dimension of critical string vacua with…
We consider topology changing transitions for M-theory compactifications on Calabi-Yau fourfolds with background G-flux. The local geometry of the transition is generically a genus g curve of conifold singularities, which engineers a 3d…
We study type III contractions of Calabi-Yau threefolds containing a ruled surface over a smooth curve. We discuss the conditions necessary for the image threefold to by smoothable. We describe the change in Hodge numbers caused by this…
We explore 6-dimensional compactifications of F-theory exhibiting (2,0) superconformal theories coupled to gravity that include discretely charged superconformal matter. Beginning with F-theory geometries with Abelian gauge fields and…
This is the author's PhD thesis. Two main sections address various aspects of mirror symmetry for compact Calabi-Yau threefolds and the roles that classically modular varieties play in string theory compactifications. The main results…
Recently, a correspondence has been proposed between spectral theory and topological strings on toric Calabi-Yau manifolds. In this paper we develop in detail this correspondence for mirror curves of higher genus, which display many new…
In the context of string dualities, fibration structures of Calabi-Yau manifolds play a prominent role. In particular, elliptic and K3 fibered Calabi-Yau fourfolds are important for dualities between string compactifications with four flat…
We study mirror symmetric pairs of Calabi--Yau manifolds over finite fields. In particular we compute the number of rational points of the manifolds as a function of the complex structure parameters. The data of the number of rational…
For projective conifold transitions between Calabi-Yau threefolds $X$ and $Y$, with $X$ close to $Y$ in the moduli, we show that the combined information provided by the $A$ model (Gromov--Witten theory in all genera) and $B$ model…
We propose and give strong evidence for a duality relating Type II theories on Calabi-Yau spaces and heterotic strings on $K3 \times T^2$, both of which have $N=2$ spacetime supersymmetry. Entries in the dictionary relating the dual…
We consider F-theory compactifications on a mirror pair of elliptic Calabi-Yau threefolds. This yields two different six-dimensional theories, each of them being nonperturbatively equivalent to some compactification of heterotic strings on…
We describe a new kind of transition between topologically distinct $N=2$ type II Calabi--Yau vacua through points with enhanced non-abelian gauge symmetries together with fundamental charged matter hypermultiplets. We connect the…
We extend our variant of mirror symmetry for K3 surfaces \cite{GN3} and clarify its relation with mirror symmetry for Calabi-Yau manifolds. We introduce two classes (for the models A and B) of Calabi-Yau manifolds fibrated by K3 surfaces…
The study of the geometry of Calabi-Yau fourfolds is relevant for compactifications of string theory, M-theory, and F-theory to various dimensions. This work introduces the mathematical machinery to derive the complete moduli dependence of…
This is the extended version of the paper "Special Lagrangian conifolds, I: Moduli spaces", which discusses the deformation theory of special Lagrangian (SL) conifolds in complex space C^m. Conifolds are a key ingredient in the…
Mirror symmetry relates type IIB string theory on a Calabi-Yau 3-fold to type IIA on the mirror CY manifold, whose complex structure and Kaehler moduli spaces are exchanged. We show that the mirror map is a particular case of a more general…
We review recent work concerning topology changing phase transitions through black hole condensation in Type II string theory. We then also briefly describe a present study aimed at extending the known web of interconnections between…
We use local mirror symmetry in type IIA string compactifications on Calabi-Yau n+1 folds $X_{n+1}$ to construct vector bundles on (possibly singular) elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau n-folds Z_n. The interpretation of these data as valid…
These notes contain a brief introduction to the construction of toric Calabi--Yau hypersurfaces and complete intersections with a focus on issues relevant for string duality calculations. The last two sections can be read independently and…