Mathematical Sciences: Geometric Conformal Field Theories, Mirror Symmetry, and Algebraic Geometry

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Professor Morrison will work on research on the border between theoretical physics and algebraic geometry. He will use algebraic geometric techniques to study conformal field theory. In particular he intends to further study the recently discovered phenomenon of mirror symmetry. This is research in the field of algebraic geometry, yet it directly connects to two of the great advances in theoretical physics in this century--quantum mechanics and general relativity. Algebraic geometry itself is one of the oldest parts of modern mathematics, but one which has had a revolutionary flowering in the past quarter-century. In its origin, it treated figures that could be defined in the plane by the simplest equations, namely polynomials. Nowadays the field makes use of methods not only from algebra, but from analysis and topology, and conversely is finding application in those fields as well as in physics, theoretical computer science, and robotics.