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Nigel Hitchin

Publications and source records attributed to Nigel Hitchin.

41 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

The Wess-Zumino term for a harmonic map

We calculate the Wess-Zumino term $Γ(g)$ for a harmonic map $g$ of a closed surface to a compact, simply connected, simple Lie group $G$ in terms of the energy and the holonomy of the Chern-Simons line bundle on the moduli space of flat $G$-connections. In the case of the 2-sphere we deduce that $Γ(g)$ is 0 or $π$ and for the 2-torus and $G=SU(2)$ we give a formula involving hyperelliptic integrals.

math.DG↗

L^2 cohomology of hyperkähler quotients

A result of Jost and Zuo is used to show that for a large class of finite-dimensional hyperkähler quotients, the only L2 harmonic forms lie in the middle dimension, and are of type (k,k) with respect to all complex structures. The argument is extended to some moduli spaces which appear as infinite-dimensional quotients such as Higgs bundle and SU(2) monopole moduli spaces. In the latter case we recover some of the S-duality predictions of Sen.

math.DG↗

Curvature and characteristic numbers of hyperkähler manifolds

We express characteristic numbers of compact hyperkähler manifolds in graph-theoretical form, considering them as a special case of the curvature invariants introduced by Rozansky and Witten. The appropriate graphs are generated by ``wheels'' and we use the recently proved Wheeling Theorem to give a formula for the L2 norm of the curvature of an irreducible hyperkähler manifold in terms of the volume and Pontryagin numbers. The formula involves the multiplicative sequence which is the square root of the A-hat polynomial.

math.DG↗

Lectures on Special Lagrangian Submanifolds

These notes consist of a study of special Lagrangian submanifolds of Calabi-Yau manifolds and their moduli spaces. The particular case of three dimensions, important in string theory, allows us to introduce the notion of gerbes. These offer an appropriate language for describing many significant features of the Strominger-Yau-Zaslow approach to mirror symmetry.

math.DG↗

The moduli space of special Lagrangian submanifolds

This paper considers the natural geometric structure on the moduli space of deformations of a compact special Lagrangian submanifold $L^n$ of a Calabi-Yau manifold. From the work of McLean this is a smooth manifold with a natural $L^2$ metric. It is shown that the metric is induced from a local Lagrangian immersion into the product of cohomology groups $H^1(L)\times H^{n-1}(L)$. Using this approach, an interpretation of the mirror symmetry discussed by Strominger, Yau and Zaslow is given in terms of the classical Legendre transform.

dg-ga↗