Related papers: On characteristic numbers of $24$ dimensional Stri…
For projective varieties with a certain class of 'mild' isolated singularities and for projective threefolds with arbitrary Gorenstein canonical singularities, we show that the stringy Hodge numbers satisfy the Hard Lefschetz property. This…
We show that the moduli space of nonnegatively curved metrics on each member of a large class of 2-connected 7-manifolds, including each smooth manifold homeomorphic to $S^7$, has infinitely many connected components. The components are…
We introduce and study Hodge-de Rham numbers for compact almost complex 4-manifolds, generalizing the Hodge numbers of a complex surface. The main properties of these numbers in the case of complex surfaces are extended to this more general…
The signature of closed oriented manifolds is well-known to be multiplicative under finite covers. This fails for Poincar\'e complexes as examples of C. T. C. Wall show. We establish the multiplicativity of the signature, and more…
In this work we provide a self-contained and modern introduction to some of the tools, obstacles and open questions arising in string compactifications. Techniques and current progress are illustrated in the context of smooth heterotic…
We study the cohomology of spaces of string links and braids in $\mathbb{R}^n$ for $n\geq 3$ using configuration space integrals. For $n>3$, these integrals give a chain map from certain diagram complexes to the deRham algebra of…
Grothendieck has proved that each class in the de Rham cohomology of a smooth complex affine variety can be represented by a differential form with polynomial coefficients. After having proved a single exponential bound for the degrees of…
We construct new families of (q-) difference and (contour) integral operators having nice actions on Koornwinder's multivariate orthogonal polynomials. We further show that the Koornwinder polynomials can be constructed by suitable…
Kontsevich's characteristic classes are invariants of framed smooth fiber bundles with homology sphere fibers. It was shown by Watanabe that they can be used to distinguish smooth $S^4$-bundles that are all trivial as topological fiber…
This paper gives insight into intriguing connections between two apparently unrelated theories: the theory of skein modules of 3-manifolds and the theory of representations of groups into special linear groups of 2 by 2 matrices. Let R be a…
We compute the integer cohomology rings of the ``polygon spaces'' introduced in [Hausmann,Klyachko,Kapovich-Millson]. This is done by embedding them in certain toric varieties; the restriction map on cohomology is surjective and we…
We prove recognition theorems for codimension one manifold factors of dimension $n \geq 4$. In particular, we formalize topographical methods and introduce three ribbons properties: the crinkled ribbons property, the twisted crinkled…
We present a string theory that reproduces the large-$N$ expansion of two dimensional Yang-Mills gauge theory on arbitrary surfaces. First, a new class of topological sigma models is introduced, with path integrals localized to the moduli…
The compactification of the heterotic string on six-dimensional orbifolds is reviewed. Some important technical aspects of their construction are clarified and new parameters, called generalized discrete torsion, are introduced and related…
Libgober and Wood proved that the Chern number $c_{1}c_{n-1}$ of a $n$-dimensional compact complex manifold can be determined by its Hirzebruch $\chi_{y}$-genus. Inspired by the idea of their proof, we show that, for compact, spin,…
Let M be a closed manifold. Wodzicki shows that, in the stable range, the cyclic cohomology of the associative algebra of pseudodifferential symbols of order \leq 0 is isomorphic to the homology of the cosphere bundle of M. In this article…
In 1962, Wall showed that smooth, closed, oriented, $(n-1)$-connected $2n$-manifolds of dimension at least $6$ are classified up to connected sum with an exotic sphere by an algebraic refinement of the intersection form which he called an…
We prove that the Kodaira dimension of the moduli space M_{23} of curves of genus 23 is at least 2. We also present some evidence for the hypothesis that the Kodaira dimension of the moduli space is actually equal to 2. Note that for g > 23…
The paper combines several fortunate mini miracles to achieve its two objectives. These were woven together in a several year's effort to answer a question raised by Iz Singer a decade ago. Our answer is accessible to the topologist, to the…
Progress towards the classification of the meromorphic $c=24$ conformal field theories is reported. It is shown if such a theory has any spin-1 currents, it is either the Leech lattice CFT, or it can be written as a tensor product of…