Calabi-Yau Geometries: Algorithms, Databases, and Physics

In this article we present a pheno-inspired classification for the divisor topologies of the favorable Calabi Yau (CY) threefolds with $1 \leq h^{1,1}(CY) \leq 5$ arising from the four-dimensional reflexive polytopes of the Kreuzer-Skarke database. Based on some empirical observations we conjecture that the topologies of the so-called coordinate divisors can be classified into two categories: (i). $\chi_{_h}(D) \geq 1$ with Hodge numbers given by $\{h^{0,0} = 1, \, h^{1,0} = ...

This paper presents the current status on modularity of Calabi-Yau varieties since the last update in 2003. We will focus on Calabi-Yau varieties of dimension at most three. Here modularity refers to at least two different types: arithmetic modularity and geometric modularity. These will include: (1) the modularity (automorphy) of Galois representations of Calabi-Yau varieties (or motives) defined over Q or number fields, (2) the modularity of solutions of Picard--Fuchs diffe...

This is the author's PhD thesis. Two main sections address various aspects of mirror symmetry for compact Calabi-Yau threefolds and the roles that classically modular varieties play in string theory compactifications. The main results include a study, and finding an application to the higher genus problem, of infinite Coxeter symmetries in the sets of Gopakumar-Vafa invariants; provision of a new class of solutions to the supersymmetric flux vacuum equations which have elsewh...

By considering mirror symmetry applied to conformal field theories corresponding to strings propagating in quintic hypersurfaces in projective 4-space, Candelas, de la Ossa, Green and Parkes calculated the ``number of rational curves on the hypersurface'' by comparing three point functions. Actually, the number of curves may be infinite for special examples; what is really being calculated is a path integral. The point of this talk is to give mathematical techniques and examp...

Various methods to find Calabi-Yau differential equations are discussed.

We present a list of Calabi-Yau threefolds known to us, and with holonomy groups that are precisely SU(3), rather than a subgroup, with small Hodge numbers, which we understand to be those manifolds with height $(h^{1,1}+h^{2,1})\le 24$. With the completion of a project to compute the Hodge numbers of free quotients of complete intersection Calabi-Yau threefolds, most of which were computed in Refs. [1-3] and the remainder in Ref. [4], many new points have been added to the t...

We study the Poincare polynomials of all known Calabi-Yau three-folds as constrained polynomials of Littlewood type, thus generalising the well-known investigation into the distribution of the Euler characteristic and Hodge numbers. We find interesting fractal behaviour in the roots of these polynomials in relation to the existence of isometries, distribution versus typicality, and mirror symmetry.

Calabi-Yau manifolds have played a key role in both mathematics and physics, and are particularly important for deriving realistic models of particle physics from string theory. Unfortunately, very little is known about the explicit metrics on these spaces, leaving us unable, for example, to compute particle masses or couplings in these models. We review recent progress in this direction on using numerical approximations to compute the spectrum of the Laplacian on these space...

A construction of Calabi-Yaus as quotients of products of lower-dimensional spaces in the context of weighted hypersurfaces is discussed, including desingularisation. The construction leads to Calabi-Yaus which have a fiber structure, in particular one case has K3 surfaces as fibers. These Calabi-Yaus are of some interest in connection with Type II -heterotic string dualities in dimension 4. A section at the end of the paper summarises this for the non-expert mathematician.

We describe an efficient, construction independent, algorithmic test to determine whether Calabi--Yau threefolds admit a structure compatible with the Large Volume moduli stabilization scenario of type IIB superstring theory. Using the algorithm, we scan complete intersection and toric hypersurface Calabi-Yau threefolds with $2 \leq h^{1,1} \le 4$ and deduce that 418 among 4434 manifolds have a Large Volume Limit with a single large four-cycle. We describe major extensions to...