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Shing-Tung Yau

Publications and source records attributed to Shing-Tung Yau.

At least 325 records · Page 18Linked to original sources

Picard-Fuchs Equations for Relative Periods and Abel-Jacobi Map for Calabi-Yau Hypersurfaces

We study the variation of relative cohomology for a pair consisting of a smooth projective hypersurface and an algebraic subvariety in it. We construct an inhomogeneous Picard-Fuchs equation by applying a Picard-Fuchs operator to the holomorphic top form on a toric Calabi-Yau hypersurface, and deriving a general formula for the $d$-exact form on one side of the equation. We also derive a double residue formula, giving a purely algebraic way to compute the inhomogeneous Picard-Fuchs equations for Abel-Jacobi map, which has played an important role in recent study of D-branes [25]. Using the variation formalism, we prove that the relative periods of toric B-branes on a toric Calabi-Yau hypersurface satisfy the enhanced GKZ-hypergeometric system proposed in physics literature [6], and discuss the relations between the works [25] [21] [6] in recent study of open string mirror symmetry. We also give the general solutions to the enhanced hypergeometric system.

math.AG↗

Nontrivial Azumaya noncommutative schemes, morphisms therefrom, and their extension by the sheaf of algebras of differential operators: D-branes in a $B$-field background à la Polchinski-Grothendieck Ansatz

In this continuation of [L-Y1], [L-L-S-Y], [L-Y2], and [L-Y3] (arXiv:0709.1515 [math.AG], arXiv:0809.2121 [math.AG], arXiv:0901.0342 [math.AG], arXiv:0907.0268 [math.AG]), we study D-branes in a target-space with a fixed $B$-field background $(Y,α_B)$ along the line of the Polchinski-Grothendieck Ansatz, explained in [L-Y1] and further extended in the current work. We focus first on the gauge-field-twist effect of $B$-field to the Chan-Paton module on D-branes. Basic properties of the moduli space of D-branes, as morphisms from Azumaya schemes with a twisted fundamental module to $(Y,α_B)$, are given. For holomorphic D-strings, we prove a valuation-criterion property of this moduli space. The setting is then extended to take into account also the deformation-quantization-type noncommutative geometry effect of $B$-field to both the D-brane world-volume and the superstring target-space(-time) $Y$. This brings the notion of twisted ${\cal D}$-modules that are realizable as twisted locally-free coherent modules with a flat connection into the study. We use this to realize the notion of both the classical and the quantum spectral covers as morphisms from Azumaya schemes with a fundamental module (with a flat connection in the latter case) in a very special situation. The 3rd theme (subtitled "Sharp vs. Polchinski-Grothendieck") of Sec. 2.2 is to be read with the work [Sh3] (arXiv:hep-th/0102197) of Sharp while Sec. 5.2 (subtitled less appropriately "Dijkgraaf-Holland-Sułkowski-Vafa vs. Polchinski-Grothendieck") is to be read with the related sections in [D-H-S-V] (arXiv:0709.4446 [hep-th]) and [D-H-S] (arXiv:0810.4157 [hep-th]) of Dijkgraaf, Hollands, Sułkowski, and Vafa.

math.AG↗

Linear Waves in the Kerr Geometry: A Mathematical Voyage to Black Hole Physics

This paper gives a survey of wave dynamics in the Kerr space-time geometry, the mathematical model of a rotating black hole in equilibrium. After a brief introduction to the Kerr metric, we review the separability properties of linear wave equations for fields of general spin $s=0, 1/2, 1, 2$, corresponding to scalar, Dirac, electromagnetic fields and linearized gravitational waves. We give results on the long-time dynamics of Dirac and scalar waves, including decay rates for massive Dirac fields. For scalar waves, we give a rigorous treatment of superradiance and describe rigorously a mechanism of energy extraction from a rotating black hole. Finally, we discuss the open problem of linear stability of the Kerr metric and present partial results.

math-ph↗

Azumaya structure on D-branes and deformations and resolutions of a conifold revisited: Klebanov-Strassler-Witten vs. Polchinski-Grothendieck

In this sequel to [L-Y1], [L-L-S-Y], and [L-Y2] (respectively arXiv:0709.1515 [math.AG], arXiv:0809.2121 [math.AG], and arXiv:0901.0342 [math.AG]), we study a D-brane probe on a conifold from the viewpoint of the Azumaya structure on D-branes and toric geometry. The details of how deformations and resolutions of the standard toric conifold $Y$ can be obtained via morphisms from Azumaya points are given. This should be compared with the quantum-field-theoretic/D-brany picture of deformations and resolutions of a conifold via a D-brane probe sitting at the conifold singularity in the work of Klebanov and Witten [K-W] (arXiv:hep-th/9807080) and Klebanov and Strasser [K-S] (arXiv:hep-th/0007191). A comparison with resolutions via noncommutative desingularizations is given in the end.

math.AG↗

Limit of quasilocal mass at spatial infinity

We study the limit of quasilocal mass defined in [4] and [5] for a family of spacelike 2-surfaces in spacetime. In particular, we show the limit coincides with the ADM mass at spatial infinity. The limit for coordinate spheres of a boosted slice of the Schwarzchild solution is computed explicitly and shown to give the expected energy-momentum four vector.

math.DG↗

An Estimate of the Gap of the First Two Eigenvalues in the Schrödinger Operator

We give a lower estimate of the gap of the first two eigenvalues of the Schrodinger operator in the case when the potential is strongly convex. In particular, if the Hessian of the potential is bounded from below by a positive constant, the gap has a lower bound independent of the dimension. We also estimate the gap when the potential is not necessarily convex.

math.DG↗

Azumaya structure on D-branes and resolution of ADE orbifold singularities revisited: Douglas-Moore vs. Polchinski-Grothendieck

In this continuation of [L-Y1] and [L-L-S-Y], we explain how the Azumaya structure on D-branes together with a netted categorical quotient construction produces the same resolution of ADE orbifold singularities as that arises as the vacuum manifold/variety of the supersymmetric quantum field theory on the D-brane probe world-volume, given by Douglas and Moore [D-M] under the string-theory contents and constructed earlier through hyper-Kähler quotients by Kronheimer and Nakajima. This is consistent with the moral behind this project that Azumaya-type structure on D-branes themselves -- stated as the Polchinski-Grothendieck Ansatz in [L-Y1] -- gives a mathematical reason for many originally-open-string-induced properties of D-branes.

math.AG↗

Quasilocal mass in general relativity

There have been many attempts to define the notion of quasilocal mass for a spacelike 2-surface in spacetime by the Hamilton-Jacobi analysis. The essential difficulty in this approach is to identify the right choice of the background configuration to be subtracted from the physical Hamiltonian. Quasilocal mass should be nonnegative for surfaces in general spacetime and zero for surfaces in flat spacetime. In this letter, we propose a new definition of gauge-independent quasilocal mass and prove that it has the desired properties.

gr-qc↗

A new geometric approach to problems in birational geometry

A classical set of birational invariants of a variety are its spaces of pluricanonical forms and some of their canonically defined subspaces. Each of these vector spaces admits a typical metric structure which is also birationally invariant. These vector spaces so metrized will be referred to as the pseudonormed spaces of the original varieties. A fundamental question is the following: given two mildly singular projective varieties with some of the first variety's pseudonormed spaces being isometric to the corresponding ones of the second variety's, can one construct a birational map between them which induces these isometries? In this work a positive answer to this question is given for varieties of general type. This can be thought of as a theorem of Torelli type for birational equivalence.

math.AG↗

Isometric embeddings into the Minkowski space and new quasi-local mass

The definition of quasi-local mass for a bounded space-like region in space-time is essential in several major unsettled problems in general relativity. The quasi-local mass is expected to be a type of flux integral on the boundary two-surface and should be independent of whichever space-like region it bounds. An important idea which is related to the Hamiltonian formulation of general relativity is to consider a reference surface in a flat ambient space with the same first fundamental form and derive the quasi-local mass from the difference of the extrinsic geometries. This approach has been taken by Brown-York and Liu-Yau (see also related works) to define such notions using the isometric embedding theorem into the Euclidean three-space. However, there exist surfaces in the Minkowski space whose quasilocal mass is strictly positive. It appears that the momentum information needs to be accounted for to reconcile the difference. In order to fully capture this information, we use isometric embeddings into the Minkowski space as references. In this article, we first prove an existence and uniqueness theorem for such isometric embeddings. We then solve the boundary value problem for Jang's equation as a procedure to recognize such a surface in the Minkowski space. In doing so, we discover new expression of quasi-local mass. The new mass is positive when the ambient space-time satisfies the dominant energy condition and vanishes on surfaces in the Minkowski space. It also has the nice asymptotic behavior at spatial and null infinity. Some of these results were announced in [29].

math.DG↗

Morphisms from Azumaya prestable curves with a fundamental module to a projective variety: Topological D-strings as a master object for curves

This is a continuation of our study of the foundations of D-branes from the viewpoint of Grothendieck in the region of the related Wilson's theory-space where "branes" are still branes. In this work, we focus on D-strings and construct the moduli stack of morphisms from Azumaya prestable curves $C^{Az}$ with a fundamental module ${\cal E}$ to a fixed target $Y$ of a given combinatorial type. Such a morphism gives a prototype for a Wick-rotated D-string of B-type on $Y$, following the Polchinski-Grothendieck Ansatz, and this stack serves as a ground toward a mathematical theory of topological D-string world-sheet instantons.

math.AG↗

Affine Manifolds, SYZ Geometry, and the "Y" Vertex

We study the real Monge-Ampère equation in two and three dimensions, both from the point of view of the SYZ conjecture, where solutions give rise to semi-flat Calabi-Yau's and in affine differential geometry, where solutions yield parabolic affine sphere hypersurfaces. We find explicit examples, connect the holomorphic function representation to Hitchin's description of special Lagrangian moduli space, and construct the developing map explicitly for a singularity corresponding to the type $I_n$ elliptic fiber (after hyper-Kähler rotation). Following Baues and Cortés, we show that various types of metric cones over two-dimensional elliptic affine spheres generate solutions of the Monge-Ampère equation in three dimensions. We then prove a local and global existence theorem for an elliptic affine two-sphere metric with prescribed singularities. The metric cone over the two-sphere minus three points yields a parabolic affine sphere with singularities along a "Y"-shaped locus. This gives a semi-flat Calabi-Yau metric in a neighborhood of the "Y" vertex. In the erratum, we correct a gap in the solution of the elliptic affine sphere equation (with the small caveat that a parameter in the equation, the cubic differential, must be smaller than we assumed before). The new proof still allows us to construct semi-flat Calabi-Yau metrics in a neighborhood of the "Y" vertex by appealing to the result of Baues-Cortés. We also give an alternate construction of such semi-flat Calabi-Yau metrics by using a result on hyperbolic affine spheres due to the first author.

math.DG↗

A Rigorous Treatment of Energy Extraction from a Rotating Black Hole

The Cauchy problem is considered for the scalar wave equation in the Kerr geometry. We prove that by choosing a suitable wave packet as initial data, one can extract energy from the black hole, thereby putting supperradiance, the wave analogue of the Penrose process, into a rigorous mathematical framework. We quantify the maximal energy gain. We also compute the infinitesimal change of mass and angular momentum of the black hole, in agreement with Christodoulou's result for the Penrose process. The main mathematical tool is our previously derived integral representation of the wave propagator.

gr-qc↗

Sasaki-Einstein Manifolds and Volume Minimisation

We study a variational problem whose critical point determines the Reeb vector field for a Sasaki-Einstein manifold. This extends our previous work on Sasakian geometry by lifting the condition that the manifolds are toric. We show that the Einstein-Hilbert action, restricted to a space of Sasakian metrics on a link L in a Calabi-Yau cone X, is the volume functional, which in fact is a function on the space of Reeb vector fields. We relate this function both to the Duistermaat-Heckman formula and also to a limit of a certain equivariant index on X that counts holomorphic functions. Both formulae may be evaluated by localisation. This leads to a general formula for the volume function in terms of topological fixed point data. As a result we prove that the volume of a Sasaki-Einstein manifold, relative to that of the round sphere, is always an algebraic number. In complex dimension n=3 these results provide, via AdS/CFT, the geometric counterpart of a-maximisation in four dimensional superconformal field theories. We also show that our variational problem dynamically sets to zero the Futaki invariant of the transverse space, the latter being an obstruction to the existence of a Kahler-Einstein metric.

hep-th↗

Decay of Solutions of the Wave Equation in the Kerr Geometry

We consider the Cauchy problem for the scalar wave equation in the Kerr geometry for smooth initial data supported outside the event horizon. We prove that the solutions decay in time in L^\infty_loc. The proof is based on a representation of the solution as an infinite sum over the angular momentum modes, each of which is an integral of the energy variable on the real line. This integral representation involves solutions of the radial and angular ODEs which arise in the separation of variables.

gr-qc↗

An Integral Spectral Representation of the Propagator for the Wave Equation in the Kerr Geometry

We consider the scalar wave equation in the Kerr geometry for Cauchy data which is smooth and compactly supported outside the event horizon. We derive an integral representation which expresses the solution as a superposition of solutions of the radial and angular ODEs which arise in the separation of variables. In particular, we prove completeness of the solutions of the separated ODEs. This integral representation is a suitable starting point for a detailed analysis of the long-time dynamics of scalar waves in the Kerr geometry.

gr-qc↗

Local geometry of the G2 moduli space

We consider deformations of torsion-free G2 structures, defined by the G2-invariant 3-form $ϕ$ and compute the expansion of the Hodge star of $ϕ$ to fourth order in the deformations of $ϕ$. By considering M-theory compactified on a G2 manifold, the G2 moduli space is naturally complexified, and we get a Kahler metric on it. Using the expansion of the Hodge star of $ϕ$ we work out the full curvature of this metric and relate it to the Yukawa coupling.

hep-th↗