Calabi-Yau Geometries: Algorithms, Databases, and Physics

This manuscript from August 1995 (revised February 1996) studies the Kaehler cone of Calabi-Yau threefolds via symplectic methods. For instance, it is shown that if two Calabi-Yau threefolds are general in complex moduli and are symplectic deformations of each other, then their Kaehler cones are the same. The results are generalizations of those in the author's previous paper "The Kaehler cone on Calabi-Yau threefolds" (Inventiones math. 107 (1992), 561-583; Erratum: Inventio...

We revisit the classic database of weighted-P4s which admit Calabi-Yau 3-fold hypersurfaces equipped with a diverse set of tools from the machine-learning toolbox. Unsupervised techniques identify an unanticipated almost linear dependence of the topological data on the weights. This then allows us to identify a previously unnoticed clustering in the Calabi-Yau data. Supervised techniques are successful in predicting the topological parameters of the hypersurface from its weig...

This paper describes a framework in which techniques from arithmetic algebraic geometry are used to formulate a direct and intrinsic link between the geometry of Calabi-Yau manifolds and aspects of the underlying conformal field theory. As an application the algebraic number field determined by the fusion rules of the conformal field theory is derived from the number theoretic structure of the cohomological Hasse-Weil L-function determined by Artin's congruent zeta function o...

The study of the geometry of Calabi-Yau fourfolds is relevant for compactifications of string theory, M-theory, and F-theory to various dimensions. In the first part of this thesis, we study the action of mirror symmetry on two-dimensional $\cN=(2,2)$ effective theories obtained by compactifying Type IIA string theory on Calabi-Yau fourfolds. Our focus is on fourfold geometries with non-trivial three-form cohomology. The couplings of the massless zero-modes arising from an ex...

The division of compact Riemann surfaces into 3 cases K_C<0, g=0, or K_C=0, g=1, or K_C>0, g>=2 is well known, and corresponds to the familiar trichotomy of spherical, Euclidean and hyperbolic non-Euclidean plane geometry. Classification aims to treat all projective algebraic varieties in terms of this trichotomy. The model is the treatment of surfaces by Castelnuovo and Enriques around 1900. Because the canonical class of a variety may not have a definite sign, we usually ha...

We study geometries occurring in Feynman integrals that contribute to the scattering of black holes in the post-Minkowskian expansion. These geometries become relevant to gravitational-wave production during the inspiralling phase of binary black hole mergers through the classical conservative potential. At fourth post-Minkowskian order, a K3 surface is known to occur in a three-loop integral, leading to elliptic integrals in the result. In this letter, we identify a Calabi-Y...

We present a generalization of the complete intersection in products of projective space (CICY) construction of Calabi-Yau manifolds. CICY three-folds and four-folds have been studied extensively in the physics literature. Their utility stems from the fact that they can be simply described in terms of a `configuration matrix', a matrix of integers from which many of the details of the geometries can be easily extracted. The generalization we present is to allow negative integ...

We study the geometry of $3$-codimensional smooth subvarieties of the complex projective space. In particular, we classify all quasi-Buchsbaum Calabi--Yau threefolds in projective $6$-space. Moreover, we prove that this classification includes all Calabi--Yau threefolds contained in a possibly singular 5-dimensional quadric as well as all Calabi--Yau threefolds of degree at most $14$ in $\mathbb{P}^6$.

Calabi-Yau manifolds are important objects in algebraic geometry and in theoretical physics. A hypothesis of mirror symmetry is that Calabi-Yau manifolds of dimension 3 come in pairs, with the Hodge numbers of one manifold mirroring the Hodge numbers of the other. In this thesis, Calabi-Yau manifolds are constructed by smoothing Stanley-Reisner schemes of triangulations of 3-spheres. The triangulations of the 3-sphere with 7 or 8 vertices have been constructed and classifie...

We study threefolds fibred by mirror quartic K3 surfaces. We begin by showing that any family of such K3 surfaces is completely determined by a map from the base of the family to the moduli space of mirror quartic K3 surfaces. This is then used to give a complete explicit description of all Calabi-Yau threefolds fibred by mirror quartic K3 surfaces. We conclude by studying the properties of such Calabi-Yau threefolds, including their Hodge numbers and deformation theory.