Supersymmetric Field Theories from F-Theory

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This award funds the research activities of Professor David Morrison at the University of California, Santa Barbara.Some of the most interesting phenomena in nature are described by physical theories in which interactions happen at many different distance scales at once. These so-called "conformal field theories" are crucial for understanding diverse phenomena ranging from the behavior of materials such as those used in the semiconductor industry to the physics underlying the microscopic (quantum-mechanical) nature of gravity. Because the interaction scales are so diverse, these theories cannot be described using conventional theoretical tools, and this project is aimed at developing improved theoretical tools in order to achieve a better understanding of these systems. This research advances the national interest by furthering our basic scientific knowledge of systems that are likely to have numerous broad-ranging applications. This project is also envisioned to have significant broader impacts. Professor Morrison will involve graduate students and postdocs in his research, and thereby provide critical training for junior scientists beginning research in this field. He also intends to promote the public understanding of science through efforts to make the scientific literature broadly available to the public at large. More technically, Professor Morrison will investigate supersymmetric conformal field theories in dimensions four and six by using F theory and the algebraic geometry of elliptic fibrations. F-theory is a variant of a superstring theory which relies heavily on constructions from algebraic geometry (in mathematics) to produce desired physical effects. Professor Morrison will use algebraic geometry to develop new F-theory tools and improve our understanding of six-dimensional conformal field theories in this way. He will also utilize a general method for producing four-dimensional theories from six-dimensional ones, adapting that method to the F theory context.