Mirror Symmetry in the Midwest Conference to be held at Kansas State University; Winter, 2011

一场名为“中西部镜像对称”的会议将于11月3日至6日在堪萨斯州立大学举行。镜像对称是研究某些Calabi-Yau流形复几何和辛几何之间对偶的一个令人兴奋和迅速发展的领域。在过去的二十年里，对镜像对称的基本原理的探索推动了辛几何和复杂几何/代数几何的大量研究。许多用于研究镜像对称的想法和技术本身已经成为有趣的研究领域。例子包括Gromov-Witten理论、Floer理论、Fukaya范畴、衍生范畴、拉格朗日环面振动、特殊拉格朗日几何、Donaldson-Thomas不变量和热带几何。所涉及的思想的广度和对该主题的许多方法使其成为合作的沃土。会议将通过汇集研究镜像对称的各种几何和代数方面的研究人员来利用这一点。会议的目标是通过开放和加强研究人员之间的交流、寻找合作领域和教育参与者来推进镜像对称。为了实现这些目标，这次会议将有几个重要的特点。为了进一步实现教育目标，会议将开设一个小型课程，旨在对参与者进行高水平但非专家水平的特定主题教育。这个迷你课程对研究生和更资深的参与者都很有用，既可以作为一种教育经验，也可以作为寻找合作领域的机会。将有一个海报环节，让研究生们展示他们的作品。这将为年轻的研究人员提供一个与更资深的研究人员交流的机会，并将为知识转移提供一个极好的机会。会议将邀请在镜像对称的几何和代数方面的专家参加，因此将提供一个机会，找到方法来整合不同的想法。最后，镜像对称起源于弦理论和高能物理，今天是理论物理的一个重要分支。这次会议将通过邀请数学家和物理学家两种类型的人参加来增加数学家和物理学家之间的交流。更多信息可访问会议网站：http://www.math.ksu.edu/~galston/conference/

A conference entitled "Mirror Symmetry in the Midwest" will be held November 3-6 at Kansas State University. Mirror symmetry is an exciting and rapidly developing field that is concerned with duality between the complex and symplectic geometry of certain Calabi-Yau manifolds. The search for the underlying principles at work in mirror symmetry has driven a great deal of the research in symplectic and complex/algebraic geometry over the past two decades. Many of the ideas and techniques used to study mirror symmetry have become interesting areas of research in their own right. Examples include Gromov-Witten theory, Floer theory, Fukaya categories, derived categories, Lagrangian torus fibrations, special Lagrangian geometry, Donaldson-Thomas invariants, and tropical geometry. The breadth of ideas involved and number of approaches to the subject make it fertile ground for collaboration. The conference will exploit this by bringing together researchers studying a wide variety of the geometric and algebraic aspects of mirror symmetry.The goal of the conference is to advance mirror symmetry by opening and strengthening lines of communications between researchers, finding areas for collaboration, and educating participants. The conference will have several important features in order to achieve these goals. To further the educational aims, the conference will feature a mini-course designed to educate participants on a particular topic at a high but non-expert level. The mini-course will be useful to graduate students as well as to more senior participants, both as an educational experience and as an opportunity to find areas for collaboration. There will be a poster session that will allow graduate students to show off their work. This will provide an opportunity for young researchers to communicate with more senior researchers and will provide an excellent opportunity for the transfer of knowledge. The conference will feature participants who are experts in both geometric and algebraic aspects of mirror symmetry and thus will provide an opportunity to find ways to integrate diverse ideas. Finally, mirror symmetry has its roots in string theory and high energy physics and today is an important branch of theoretical physics. The conference will increase communication between mathematicians and physicists by inviting both types of people to attend.More information can be found on the conference website:http://www.math.ksu.edu/~galston/conference/