iTHEMS Math Seminar by Prof. Naichung Conan Leung on November 5, 2021

Professor Conan Leung gave an introductory talk to mirror symmetry. He first started with the discussion on the sum of inner angles of a triangle to illustrate the difference between our familiar Euclidean spaces and spaces with nontrivial curvature. He then introduced the notion of complex numbers and how it is related to solving polynomial equations in algebra. Recalling that gravity theory and quantum theory having very different nature of behaviour, he introduced super string theory as a potential unification of these two theories and its great impact to the study of modern mathematics, e.g. enumerative geometry, geometry of special holonomy. Finally he introduced mirror symmetry and how to understand it from the perspective of Fourier transform following a proposal of Strominger, Yau and Zaslow.

Reported by Yalong Cao