Related papers: Modular Curves and the Refined Distance Conjecture

These are lecture notes based on a series of talks given by the authors at the CIMPA Summer School on Algebraic Geometry and Hypergeometric Functions held in Istanbul in Summer of 2005. They provide an introduction to a recent work on the…

There is a `Mathieu moonshine' relating the elliptic genus of K3 to the sporadic group M_{24}. Here, we give evidence that this moonshine extends to part of the web of dualities connecting heterotic strings compactified on K3 \times T^2 to…

We study one parameter degenerations of complex projective manifolds by introducing certain type of Hodge metrics coming from the pluricanonical forms. We show that degenerations with at most canonical singularities are all in the finite…

The duality between $E_8\times E_8$ heteritic string on manifold $K3\times T^2$ and Type IIA string compactified on a Calabi-Yau manifold induces a correspondence between vector bundles on $K3\times T^2$ and Calabi-Yau manifolds. Vector…

We discuss, in the framework of special Kahler geometry, some aspects of the "rigid limit" of type IIB string theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefold. We outline the general idea and demonstrate by direct analysis of a specific…

In this thesis we have proved a conjecture about the moduli space SU_X(3) of semi-stable rank 3 vector bundles with trivial determinant on a genus 2 curve X, due to I. Dolgachev. Given X a smooth projective curve of genus 2, and the…

In this paper, we study the moduli space of quasi-polarized complex K3 surfaces of degree 6 and 8 via geometric invariant theory. The general members in such moduli spaces are complete intersections in projective spaces and we have natural…

We study threefolds fibred by mirror quartic K3 surfaces. We begin by showing that any family of such K3 surfaces is completely determined by a map from the base of the family to the moduli space of mirror quartic K3 surfaces. This is then…

In this thesis we study compactifications of type II string theories and M-theory to four dimensions. We construct the four-dimensional N=2 supergravities that arise from compactifications of type IIA string theory and M-theory on manifolds…

We define the dimension 2g-1 Faber-Hurwitz Chow/homology classes on the moduli space of curves, parametrizing curves expressible as branched covers of P^1 with given ramification over infinity and sufficiently many fixed ramification points…

A procedure for computing the dimensions of the moduli spaces of reducible, holomorphic vector bundles on elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau threefolds X is presented. This procedure is applied to poly-stable rank n+m bundles of the form V +…

We discuss two-dimensional sigma models on moduli spaces of instantons on K3 surfaces. These N=(4,4) superconformal field theories describe the near-horizon dynamics of the D1-D5-brane system and are dual to string theory on AdS_3. We…

We study the moduli space of solutions to the Seiberg-Witten equations with $N$ spinors on a compact Riemann surface. These moduli spaces arise in a program to define a new enumerative invariant of 3-manifolds. They are also of independent…

Let $C$ be a smooth curve. In this paper we investigate the geometric properties of the double nested Hilbert scheme of points on $C$, a moduli space introduced by the third author in the context of BPS invariants of local curves and sheaf…

We analyze the map between heterotic and type II N=2 supersymmetric string theories for certain two and three moduli examples found by Kachru and Vafa. The appearance of elliptic j-functions can be traced back to specializations of the…

Let G be a Lie goup, let M and N be smooth connected G-manifolds, let f be a smooth G-map from M to N, and let P denote the fiber of f. Given a closed and equivariantly closed relative 2-form for f with integral periods, we construct the…

A moduli space of stable quotients of the rank n trivial sheaf on stable curves is introduced. Over nonsingular curves, the moduli space is Grothendieck's Quot scheme. Over nodal curves, a relative construction is made to keep the torsion…

We introduce a new moduli stack $\mathscr{E}_{g,n}$ of ``equinormalized curves," closely related to the moduli space of all reduced, connected algebraic curves. We construct a stratification $\bigsqcup_\Gamma \mathscr{E}_\Gamma$ of…

We discuss the structure of heterotic/type II duality in four dimensions as a consequence of string-string duality in six dimensions. We emphasize the new features in four dimensions which go beyond the six dimensional vacuum structure and…

We prove the modularity of mixed periods associated with singular fibers of specific families of Calabi-Yau threefolds. This is done by "fibering out", i.e. by expressing these periods as integrals of periods of families of K3 surfaces and…