University of Miami
Department of Mathematics
Lecture Series
Professor Maxim Kontsevich
Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques
University of Miami
Recipient of a Fields Medal in 1998
Winner of the Crafoord Prize in 2008
will present
Motivic Donaldson-Thomas Theory
Introductory Lecture
Wednesday, January 16, 2008, 2:15pm to 3:35pm in Ungar Room 402
Continuing Lectures
Wednesday, January 30, 2008, 2:15pm to 3:35pm in Ungar Room 402
Wednesday, February 6, 2008, 2:15pm to 3:35pm in Ungar Room 402
Wednesday, February 13, 2008, 2:15pm to 3:35pm in Ungar Room 402
Thursday, February 21, 2008, 5:00pm to 6:00pm in Ungar Room 506
Refreshments served 30 minutes before each talk in Ungar Room 521
All interested persons are welcome to attend.
Description: One of the most interesting functions arising in string theory is the generating series for so-called BPS states on 3-dimensional Calabi-Yau manifold. In mathematical terms this corresponds to Donaldson-Thomas invariants, counting holomorphic vector bundles or (by mirror symmetry) special Lagrangian submanifolds. Gromov-Witten invariants (numbers of holomorphic curves) form just a small part of this new data. The goal of my course is to give an introduction to a very general purely algebraic theory developed recently by Y. Soibelman and myself. It has many aspects, from elementary geometry related to convexity, to triangulated categories, motives, Milnor fibers in singularity theory, non-archimedean geometry, isomonodromy deformations, quantum dilogratihm and cluster algebras.
Some information about the lecturer:
Maxim Kontsevich (IHES, U of M) is one of the leading geometers of our time. His main mathematical contributions: HMS, the proof of Witten's conjecture, the proof of Deligne's conjecture and deformation and quantization have revolutionized the use of abstract category theory and homological algebra in theoretical physics.
He received a Fields Medal in 1998 at the 23rd International Congress of Mathematicians in Berlin, and this year he won the Crafoord Prize. He has had numerous offers from many institutions (IAS included) and is a member of French Academy of Sciences and of Legion d'Honneur.
