arXiv subjects

Per Berglund

Publications and source records attributed to Per Berglund.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Balanced Metrics Know About SYZ

Numerical Ricci-flat metrics on Calabi-Yau manifolds are becoming increasingly accurate. However, they often lack the interpretability required to extract theoretical insights. In this paper, we introduce a novel variant of Donaldson's algorithm based on the Moore-Penrose pseudo-inverse that operates on the global sections of the ambient space rather than the manifold itself. This approach allows us to use the canonical monomial basis to compute interpretable balanced metrics even at large degrees $k$. Applying our ambient algorithm to multiple families, including the Dwork family and complete intersection Calabi-Yau manifolds, we discover that the metric parameters obey novel power laws near the Large Complex Structure Limit (LCSL). We connect these to the Gromov-Hausdorff metric collapse predicted by the SYZ conjecture.

hep-th↗

arXiv2026

What to do with a Ricci-flat Calabi--Yau metric?

Numerical approximations to Ricci-flat Calabi--Yau metrics make it possible to move beyond the topological and holomorphic data that have traditionally dominated explicit string compactifications. This article explains what new physics and mathematics become accessible once the metric, and eventually the associated Hermitian Yang--Mills bundle data, can be computed. In heterotic compactifications, such data are needed to determine matter K\"ahler metrics, canonically normalized Yukawa couplings, Kaluza--Klein spectra, threshold effects, soft terms, and other non-holomorphic ingredients of the four-dimensional effective action. More broadly, numerical Calabi--Yau geometry provides quantitative input for moduli stabilization, $\alpha'$-corrected backgrounds, de~Sitter model building, axion physics, swampland distance tests, and compactifications in which the internal geometry varies over spacetime. Geometric data permit a computational approach to long-standing mathematical questions involving special Lagrangian submanifolds, SYZ fibrations, mirror symmetry, calibrated geometry, metric degeneration, restrictions of Ricci-flat metrics to fibers, and the search for analytic or semi-analytic structures. We present these directions as a roadmap for future work.

hep-th↗

arXiv2025

Physical limits on information metrics and quantum gravity as gravitized quantum theory

There is a long history in both general relativity and quantum mechanics of removing fixed background structures, thereby making observed objects and measurement processes dynamical. We continue this evolution by combining central insights from both theories to argue that physical limits on information collection resulting from quantum gravity coupled with general covariance preclude the fixed information geometry still assumed in both information theory and quantum mechanics. As a consequence there must be a gravitized, generally covariant extension of both theories. We also propose a novel experimental test involving intrinsic triple and higher order quantum interferences that would provide evidence for dynamical information metrics and a dynamical Born rule.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2025

Information Metrics and Possible Limitations of Local Information Objectivity in Quantum Gravity

Local information objectivity, that local, independent observers can infer the same information about a model upon exchange of independently acquired experimental data, is fundamental to science. It is mathematically encoded via Cencov's theorem: the Fisher information metric is the unique metric invariant under the assumptions of independent, identically distributed sampling and sufficient statistics. However, quantum gravity typically violates these assumptions, permitting contextual deviations from the Fisher metric that reflect the dynamical experimental and environmental configurations. This yields a possible extension of spacetime general covariance to information geometry. Since compatibility with the metric on probability spaces heavily restricts the form of the Born rule for quantum mechanics, deviations from the Fisher metric also can induce modifications of the Born rule, leading it to vary between observers. We explain some possible variations, advocate for experimental tests, and suggest a new quantum gravity approach based on generally covariant information geometry.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2024

cymyc -- Calabi-Yau Metrics, Yukawas, and Curvature

We introduce \texttt{cymyc}, a high-performance Python library for numerical investigation of the geometry of a large class of string compactification manifolds and their associated moduli spaces. We develop a well-defined geometric ansatz to numerically model tensor fields of arbitrary degree on a large class of Calabi-Yau manifolds. \texttt{cymyc} includes a machine learning component which incorporates this ansatz to model tensor fields of interest on these spaces by finding an approximate solution to the system of partial differential equations they should satisfy.

hep-th↗

arXiv2024

Precision String Phenomenology

Calabi--Yau compactifications of the $E_8\times E_8$ heterotic string provide a promising route to recovering the four-dimensional particle physics described by the Standard Model. While the topology of the Calabi--Yau space determines the overall matter content in the low-energy effective field theory, further details of the compactification geometry are needed to calculate the normalized physical couplings and masses of elementary particles. In this work, we present numerical computations of physical Yukawa couplings in a number of heterotic models in the standard embedding and demonstrate the existence of natural hierarchies, a coveted feature in string model building.

hep-th↗

arXiv2024

Generating Triangulations and Fibrations with Reinforcement Learning

We apply reinforcement learning (RL) to generate fine regular star triangulations of reflexive polytopes, that give rise to smooth Calabi-Yau (CY) hypersurfaces. We demonstrate that, by simple modifications to the data encoding and reward function, one can search for CYs that satisfy a set of desirable string compactification conditions. For instance, we show that our RL algorithm can generate triangulations together with holomorphic vector bundles that satisfy anomaly cancellation and poly-stability conditions in heterotic compactification. Furthermore, we show that our algorithm can be used to search for reflexive subpolytopes together with compatible triangulations that define fibration structures of the CYs.

hep-th↗

arXiv2024

Gromov-Witten Invariants and Mirror Symmetry For Non-Fano Varieties Via Tropical Disks

Under mirror symmetry a non-Fano variety $X$ corresponds to an instanton corrected Hori-Vafa potential $W$. The classical period of $W$ equals the regularized quantum period of $X$, which is a generating function for descendant Gromov-Witten invariants. These periods define closed mirror maps relating complex with symplectic parameters and open mirror maps relating coordinates on the mirror curves. We interpret the corrections to $W$ by broken lines in a scattering diagram, so that $W$ is the primitive theta function $\vartheta_1$. We show that, after wall crossing to infinity and application of the closed mirror map, $W=\vartheta_1$ is equal to the open mirror map. By tropical correspondence, $\vartheta_1$ is a generating function for $2$-marked logarithmic Gromov-Witten invariants, which are algebraic analogues of counts of Maslov index $2$ disks. This generalizes the predictions of mirror symmetry to the non-Fano case.

math.AG↗

arXiv2024

Chern Characteristics and Todd-Hirzebruch Identities for Transpolar Pairs of Toric Spaces

Standard toric geometry methods used to construct Calabi-Yau varieties may be extended to complete intersections in non-Fano varieties encoded by star triangulating non-convex polytopes. Similarly, mirror symmetry is conjectured to hold in terms of a transpolar duality generalizing the original construction of Batyrev and Borisov. The associated mirror pairs naturally include certain flip-folded, multi-layered multihedral objects, inclusively named VEX multitopes, and a correspondingly generalized transpolar duality. These self-overlaying VEX multitopes, long since known in pre-symplectic geometry, are found to correspond to certain non-algebraic but smooth toric spaces with Chern classes that satisfy the standard Todd-Hirzebruch identities. The computation of diffeomorphism invariants, including characteristic submanifold intersection numbers, corroborates their recent inclusion in the connected web of Calabi-Yau spaces and associated string compactifications: They arise together with the standard (Fano/reflexive polytope) constructions, within deformation families of generalized complete intersections in products of projective spaces.

hep-th↗

arXiv2024

Physical Yukawa Couplings in Heterotic String Compactifications

One of the challenges of heterotic compactification on a Calabi-Yau threefold is to determine the physical $(\mathbf{27})^3$ Yukawa couplings of the resulting four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=1$ theory. In general, the calculation necessitates knowledge of the Ricci-flat metric. However, in the standard embedding, which references the tangent bundle, we can compute normalized Yukawa couplings from the Weil-Petersson metric on the moduli space of complex structure deformations of the Calabi-Yau manifold. In various examples (the Fermat quintic, the intersection of two cubics in $\mathbb{P}^5$, and the Tian-Yau manifold), we calculate the normalized Yukawa couplings for $(2,1)$-forms using the Weil-Petersson metric obtained from the Kodaira-Spencer map. In cases where $h^{1,1}=1$, this is compared to a complementary calculation based on performing period integrals. A third expression for the normalized Yukawa couplings is obtained from a machine learned approximate Ricci-flat metric making use of explicit harmonic representatives. The excellent agreement between the different approaches opens the door to precision string phenomenology.

hep-th↗

arXiv2023

String Theory Bounds on the Cosmological Constant, the Higgs mass, and the Quark and Lepton Masses

We elaborate on the new understanding of the cosmological constant and the gauge hierarchy problems in the context of string theory in its metastring formulation, based on the concepts of modular spacetime and Born geometry. The interplay of phase space (and Born geometry), the Bekenstein bound, the mixing between ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) physics and modular invariance in string theory is emphasized. This new viewpoint is fundamentally rooted in quantum contextuality and not in statistical observer bias (anthropic principle). We also discuss the extension of this point of view to the problem of masses of quarks and leptons and their respective mixing matrices.

hep-th↗

arXiv2023

New Calabi-Yau Manifolds from Genetic Algorithms

Calabi-Yau manifolds can be obtained as hypersurfaces in toric varieties built from reflexive polytopes. We generate reflexive polytopes in various dimensions using a genetic algorithm. As a proof of principle, we demonstrate that our algorithm reproduces the full set of reflexive polytopes in two and three dimensions, and in four dimensions with a small number of vertices and points. Motivated by this result, we construct five-dimensional reflexive polytopes with the lowest number of vertices and points. By calculating the normal form of the polytopes, we establish that many of these are not in existing datasets and therefore give rise to new Calabi-Yau four-folds. In some instances, the Hodge numbers we compute are new as well.

hep-th↗

arXiv2023

Triple Interference, Non-linear Talbot Effect and Gravitization of the Quantum

Recently we have discussed a new approach to the problem of quantum gravity in which the quantum mechanical structures that are traditionally fixed, such as the Fubini-Study metric in the Hilbert space of states, become dynamical and so implement the idea of gravitizing the quantum. In this paper we elaborate on a specific test of this new approach to quantum gravity using triple interference in a varying gravitational field. Our discussion is driven by a profound analogy with recent triple-path interference experiments performed in the context of non-linear optics. We emphasize that the triple interference experiment in a varying gravitational field would deeply influence the present understanding of the kinematics of quantum gravity and quantum gravity phenomenology. We also discuss the non-linear Talbot effect as another striking phenomenological probe of gravitization of the geometry of quantum theory.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2022

Tropical Periods for Calabi-Yau Hypersurfaces in non--Fano Toric Varieties

We consider multi-polytopes to describe non-Fano toric varieties and their associated anticanonical Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces. From the periods of the mirror manifold the $\widehat{\Gamma}$-conjecture is shown to hold for examples of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in non-Fano ambient spaces, extending earlier work by Abouzaid et al by employing a generalized Duistermaat-Heckman measure.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

On de Sitter Spacetime and String Theory

We review various aspects of de Sitter spacetime in string theory: its status as an effective field theory spacetime solution, its relation to the vacuum energy problem in string theory, its (global) holographic definition in terms of two entangled and non-canonical conformal field theories, as well as a realization of a realistic de Sitter universe endowed with the observed visible matter and the necessary dark sector in order to reproduce the realistic cosmological structure. In particular, based on the new insight regarding the cosmological constant problem in string theory, we argue that in a doubled, T-duality-symmetric, phase-space-like and non-commutative generalized-geometric formulation, string theory can naturally lead to a small and positive cosmological constant that is radiatively stable and technically natural. Such a formulation is fundamentally based on a quantum spacetime, but in an effective spacetime description of this general formulation of string theory, the curvature of the dual spacetime is the cosmological constant of the observed spacetime, while the size of the dual spacetime is the gravitational constant of the same observed spacetime. Also, the three scales associated with intrinsic non-commutativity of string theory, the cosmological constant scale and the Planck scale, as well as the Higgs scale, can be arranged to satisfy various seesaw-like formulae. Along the way, we show that these new features of string theory can be implemented in a particular deformation of cosmic-string-like models.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

Machine Learned Calabi-Yau Metrics and Curvature

Finding Ricci-flat (Calabi-Yau) metrics is a long standing problem in geometry with deep implications for string theory and phenomenology. A new attack on this problem uses neural networks to engineer approximations to the Calabi-Yau metric within a given K\"ahler class. In this paper we investigate numerical Ricci-flat metrics over smooth and singular K3 surfaces and Calabi-Yau threefolds. Using these Ricci-flat metric approximations for the Cefal\'u family of quartic twofolds and the Dwork family of quintic threefolds, we study characteristic forms on these geometries. We observe that the numerical stability of the numerically computed topological characteristic is heavily influenced by the choice of the neural network model, in particular, we briefly discuss a different neural network model, namely Spectral networks, which correctly approximate the topological characteristic of a Calabi-Yau. Using persistent homology, we show that high curvature regions of the manifolds form clusters near the singular points. For our neural network approximations, we observe a Bogomolov--Yau type inequality $3c_2 \geq c_1^2$ and observe an identity when our geometries have isolated $A_1$ type singularities. We sketch a proof that $\chi(X~\smallsetminus~\mathrm{Sing}\,{X}) + 2~|\mathrm{Sing}\,{X}| = 24$ also holds for our numerical approximations.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

Hirzebruch Surfaces, Tyurin Degenerations and Toric Mirrors: Bridging Generalized Calabi-Yau Constructions

There is a large number of different ways of constructing Calabi-Yau manifolds, as well as related non-geometric formulations, relevant in string compactifications. Showcasing this diversity, we discuss explicit deformation families of discretely distinct Hirzebruch hypersurfaces in $\mathbb{P}^n \times \mathbb{P}^1$ and identify their toric counterparts in detail. This precise isomorphism is then used to investigate some of their special divisors of interest, and in particular the secondary deformation family of their Calabi-Yau subspaces. In particular, most of the above so called Hirzebruch scrolls are non-Fano, and their (regular) Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces are Tyurin-degenerate, but admit novel (Laurent) deformations by special rational sections as well as a sweeping generalization of the transposition construction of mirror models. This bi-projective embedding also reveals a novel deformation connection between distinct toric spaces, and so also the various divisors of interest including their Calabi-Yau subspaces.

hep-th↗

arXiv2022

Gravitizing the Quantum

We discuss a new approach to the problem of quantum gravity in which the quantum mechanical structures that are traditionally fixed, such as the Fubini-Study metric in the Hilbert space of states, become dynamical and so implement the idea of gravitizing the quantum. In particular, in this formulation of quantum gravity the quantum geometry is still consistent with the principles of unitarity and also captures fundamental aspects of (quantum) gravity, such as topology change. Furthermore, we address specific ways of testing this new approach to quantum gravity by utilizing multi-path interference and optical lattice atomic clocks.

gr-qc↗