Special Math/Physics Seminar

Gauge Theories: Quivers, Dessins and Calabi-Yau

Yang-Hui He

City University, London

We discuss how bipartite graphs on Riemann surfaces capture a wealth of information about the physics and the mathematics of large classes of gauge theories, especially those arising from string theory in the context of AdS/CFT.

The dialogue between the physics, the underlying algebraic geometry of Calabi-Yau varieties, the combinatorics of dimers and toric varieties, as well as the number theory of dessin d'enfants becomes particularly intricate and fruitful under this light.