These are notes of my lectures given at the school on intersection theory and moduli at the ICTP, Trieste. We construct moduli spaces of K3 surfaces and higherdimensional hyperkaehler manifolds, including moduli spaces of (2,2)-conformal field theories associated to hyperkaehler manifolds, and describe their period domains. Recent results on these manifolds are discussed from the moduli space point of view. The second goal is to present a detailed account of mirror symmetry for K3 surfaces. Arguments due to Aspinwall and Morrison allow one to explain various versions of mirror symmetry (e.g. for lattice polarized or elliptic K3 surfaces) by the same general principle.
Any minimal model of a projective Hyperkaehler manifold is a projective Hyperkaehler manifold. As a consequence, moduli spaces of sheaves on a k3 that don't admit a symplectic resolution are not birational to Hyperkaehler manifolds.
We study the local structure of the singularity in the moduli space of sheaves on a K3 surface which has been resolved by K O'Grady in his construction of new examples of hyperkaehler manifolds. In particular, we identify the singularity with the closure of a certain nilpotent orbit in the coadjoint representation of the group $Sp(4)$. We also prove that the moduli spaces for some other sets of numerical parameters do not admit a smooth symplectic resolution of singularities.
We prove the Mirror Conjecture for Calabi-Yau manifolds equipped with a holomorphic symplectic form. Such manifolda are also known as complex manifolds of hyperkaehler type. We obtain that a complex manifold of hyperkaehler type is Mirror dual to itself. The Mirror Conjecture is stated (following Kontsevich, ICM talk) as the equivalence of certain algebraic structures related to variations of Hodge structures. We compute the canonical flat coordinates on the moduli space of Calabi-Yau manifolds of hyperkaehler type, introduced to Mirror Symmetry by Bershadsky, Cecotti, Ooguri and Vafa.
Let M be a compact hyperkaehler manifold, and W the coarse moduli of complex deformations of M. Every positive integer class v in $H^2(M)$ defines a divisor $D_v$ in W consisting of all algebraic manifolds polarized by v. We prove that every connected component of this divisor is dense in W.
We discuss two-dimensional sigma models on moduli spaces of instantons on K3 surfaces. These N=(4,4) superconformal field theories describe the near-horizon dynamics of the D1-D5-brane system and are dual to string theory on AdS_3. We derive a precise map relating the moduli of the K3 type IIB string compactification to the moduli of these conformal field theories and the corresponding classical hyperkaehler geometry. We conclude that, in the absense of background gauge fields, the metric on the instanton moduli spaces degenerates exactly to the orbifold symmetric product of K3. Turning on a s…
We show that under the hypotheses of Strominger, Yau and Zaslow's paper, a mirror partner of a K3 surface $X$ with a fibration in special Lagrangian tori can be obtained by rotating the complex structure of $X$ within its hyperkähler family of complex structures. The same hypotheses force the B-field to vanish.
This article contains a compression of results from alg-geom/9501001, with most proofs omitted. We prove that every two points of the connected moduli space of holomorphically symplectic manifolds can be connected with so-called ``twistor lines'' -- projective lines holomorphically embedded to the moduli space and corresponding to the hyperkähler structures. This has interesting implications for the geometry of compact hyperkähler manifolds and of holomorphic vector bundles over such manifolds.
Given a compact hyperkaehler manifold $M$ and a holomorphic bundle B over $M$, we consider a Hermitian connection $\nabla$ on B which is compatible with all complex structures on $M$ induced by the hyperkaehler structure. Such a connection is unique, because it is Yang-Mills. We call the bundles admitting such connections hyperholomorphic bundles. A stable bundle is hyperholomorphic if and only if its Chern classes $c_1$, $c_2$ are SU(2)-invariant, with respect to the natural SU(2)-action on the cohomology. For several years, it was known that the moduli space of stable hyperholomorphic bundle…
Compact hyperkaehler manifolds are higher-dimensional generalizations of K3 surfaces. The classical Global Torelli theorem for K3 surfaces, however, does not hold in higher dimensions. More precisely, a compact hyperkaehler manifold is in general not determined by its natural weight-two Hodge structure. The text gives an account of a recent theorem of M. Verbitsky, which can be regarded as a weaker version of the Global Torelli theorem phrased in terms of the injectivity of the period map on the connected components of the moduli space of marked manifolds.
We first prove an isomorphism between the moduli space of smooth cubic threefolds and the moduli space of hyperkaehler fourfolds of K3^{[2]}-type with a non-symplectic automorphism of order three, whose invariant lattice has rank one and is generated by a class of square 6, both these spaces are uniformized by the same 10-dimensional arithmetic complex ball quotient. We then study the degeneration of the automorphism along the loci of nodal or chordal degenerations of the cubic threefold, showing the birationality of these loci with some moduli spaces of hyperkaehler fourfolds of K3^{[2]}-type…
Here we survey questions and results on the Hodge theory of hyperkaehler quotients, motivated by certain S-duality considerations in string theory. The problems include L^2 harmonic forms, Betti numbers and mixed Hodge structures on the moduli spaces of Yang-Mills instantons on ALE gravitational instantons, magnetic monopoles on R^3 and Higgs bundles on a Riemann surface. Several of these spaces and their hyperkaehler metrics were constructed by Nigel Hitchin and his collaborators.
The paper generalizes some of the well-known results for K3 surfaces to higher-dimensional irreducible symplectic (or, equivalently, compact irreducible hyperkaehler) manifolds. In particular, we discuss the projectivity of such manifolds and their ample resp. Kaehler cones. It is proved that the period map surjects any non-empty connected component of the moduli space of marked manifolds onto the corresponding period domain. We also establish an anlogue of the transitivity of the Weyl-action on the set of chambers of a K3 surface. As a converse of a higher-dimensional version of the `Main Lem…
Let $M$ be the moduli space of complex Lagrangian submanifolds of a hyperKähler manifold $X$, and let $\varpi : \widehat{\mathcal{A}} \rightarrow M$ be the relative Albanese over $M$. We prove that $\widehat{\mathcal{A}}$ has a natural holomorphic symplectic structure. The projection $\varpi$ defines a completely integrable structure on the symplectic manifold $\widehat{\mathcal{A}}$. In particular, the fibers of $\varpi$ are complex Lagrangians with respect to the symplectic form on $\widehat{\mathcal{A}}$. We also prove analogous results for the relative Picard over $M$.
We show that for many moduli spaces M of torsion sheaves on K3 surfaces S, the functor D(S) -> D(M) induced by the universal sheaf is a P-functor, hence can be used to construct an autoequivalence of D(M), and that this autoequivalence can be factored into geometrically meaningful equivalences associated to abelian fibrations and Mukai flops. Along the way we produce a derived equivalence between two compact hyperkaehler 2g-folds that are not birational, for every g >= 2. We also speculate about an approach to showing that birational moduli spaces of sheaves on K3 surfaces are derived-equivale…
A trisymplectic structure on a complex 2n-manifold is a triple of holomorphic symplectic forms such that any linear combination of these forms has constant rank 2n, n or 0, and degenerate forms in $Ω$ belong to a non-degenerate quadric hypersurface. We show that a trisymplectic manifold is equipped with a holomorphic 3-web and the Chern connection of this 3-web is holomorphic, torsion-free, and preserves the three symplectic forms. We construct a trisymplectic structure on the moduli of regular rational curves in the twistor space of a hyperkaehler manifold, and define a trisymplectic reductio…
We construct a compactification of the moduli of toric pairs by using ideas from mirror symmetry. The secondary fan $Σ(Q)$ is used in [Ale02] to parametrize degenerations of toric pairs. It is also used in [CLS11] to control the variation of GIT. We verify the prediction of mirror symmetry that $Σ(Q)$ for the moduli of toric pairs is equal to the Mori fan of the relative minimal models of the mirror family. As a result, we give an explicit construction of the compactification $\mathscr{T}_Q$ of the moduli of toric pairs which is the normalization of the compactification in [Ale02] and [Ols08].
This talk is dedicated to various aspects of Mirror Symmetry. It summarizes some of the mathematical developments that took place since M. Kontsevich's report at the Zürich ICM and provides an extensive, although not exhaustive, bibliography.
We show that Martin Olsson's compactification of moduli space of polarized abelian varieties in \cite{ols08} can be interpreted in terms of KSBA stable pairs. We find that there is a canonical set of divisors $S(K_2)$ associated with each cusp. Near the cusp, a polarized semiabelic scheme $(\mathcal{X}, G,\mathcal{L})$ is the canonical degeneration given by the compactification if and only if $(\mathcal{X},G,Θ)$ is an object in $\overline{\mathscr{AP}}_{g,d}$ for any $Θ\in S(K_2)$. Moreover, we give an alternative construction of the compactification by using mirror symmetry. We construct a to…
We review the applications of mirror symmetry to the study of the moduli spaces of two-dimensional conformal field theories with $N{=}(2,2)$ supersymmetry, particularly those constructed from Calabi--Yau manifolds. (Lecture delivered at the Zurich ICM, section on mathematical physics.)
We continue our study on the hypergeometric system $E(3,6)$ which describes period integrals of the double cover family of K3 surfaces. Near certain special boundary points in the moduli space of the K3 surfaces, we construct the local solutions and determine the so-called mirror maps expressing them in terms of genus two theta functions. These mirror maps are the K3 analogues of the elliptic $λ$-function. We find that there are two non-isomorphic definitions of the lambda functions corresponding to a flip in the moduli space. We also discuss mirror symmetry for the double cover K3 surfaces an…
We construct quasi-projective moduli spaces of $K$-general lattice polarized irreducible holomorphic symplectic manifolds. Moreover, we study their Baily--Borel compactification and investigate a relation between one-dimensional boundary components and equivalence classes of rational Lagrangian fibrations defined on mirror manifolds.
We prove the Topological Mirror Symmetry Conjecture by Hausel-Thaddeus for smooth moduli spaces of Higgs bundles of type $\operatorname{SL}_n$ and $\operatorname{PGL}_n$. More precisely, we establish an equality of stringy Hodge numbers for certain pairs of algebraic orbifolds generically fibred into dual abelian varieties. Our proof utilises p-adic integration relative to the fibres, and interprets canonical gerbes present on these moduli spaces as characters on the Hitchin fibres using Tate duality. Furthermore we prove for $d$ coprime to $n$, that the number of rank $n$ Higgs bundles of deg…
The moduli spaces of flat $\mathrm{SL}_2$- and $\mathrm{PGL}_2$-connections are known to be singular SYZ-mirror partners. We establish the equality of Hodge numbers of their intersection (stringy) cohomology. In rank two, this answers a question raised by Tamás Hausel in Remark 3.30 of "Global topology of the Hitchin system".
Given X a K3 surface, a mirror dual to X can be identified with a component of the moduli space of semistable sheaves on X. We consider fibrations by K3 surfaces over a one dimensional base that are Calabi-Yau and we charaterize the dual fibration that turns to be derived equivalent to the original one relating the problem to mirror symmetry.
We study hyperkahler metrics and hyperholomorphic connections of Hitchin's moduli spaces after Gaiotto, Moore and Neitzke. Their construction via the twistor technique produces intricate wall crossing behaviors. For certain four dimensional Hitchin's moduli spaces local models and degeneration to local models near singular fibers of the Hitchin's fibration are understood.
We prove the topological mirror symmetry conjecture of Hausel-Thaddeus for the moduli space of strongly parabolic Higgs bundles of rank two or three, with full flags. Although the main theorem is proved only for rank at most three, most of the results are proved for any prime rank.
We prove that the moduli space of the pseudo holomorphic curves in the A-model on a symplectic torus is homeomorphic to a moduli space of Feynman diagrams in the configuration space of the morphisms in the B-model on the corresponding elliptic curve. These moduli spaces determine the $A_{\infty}$ structure of the both models.
In this paper we will study the moduli spaces of log Hodge structures introduced by Kato-Usui. This moduli space is a partial compactification of a discrete quotient of a period domain. We treat the following 2 cases: (A) the case where the period domain is Hermitian symmetric, (B) the case where the Hodge structures are of the mirror quintic type. Especially we study a property of the torsor.
We show that the base spaces of the semiuniversal unfoldings of some weighted homogeneous singularities can be identified with moduli spaces of $A_\infty$-structures on the trivial extension algebras of the endomorphism algebras of the tilting objects. The same algebras also appear in the Fukaya categories of their mirrors. Based on these identifications, we discuss applications to homological mirror symmetry for Milnor fibers, and give a proof of homological mirror symmetry for an $n$-dimensional affine hypersurface of degree $n + 2$ and the double cover of the $n$-dimensional affine space br…
When studying mirror symmetry in the context of K3 surfaces, the hyperkaehler structure of K3 makes the notion of exchanging Kaehler and complex moduli ambiguous. On the other hand, the metric is not renormalized due to the higher amount of supersymmetry of the underlying superconformal field theory. Thus one can define a natural mapping from the classical K3 moduli space to the moduli space of conformal field theories. Apart from the generalization of mirror constructions for Calabi-Yau threefolds, there is a formulation of mirror symmetry in terms of orthogonal lattices and global moduli spa…
We analyze the moduli spaces of Calabi-Yau threefolds and their associated conformally invariant nonlinear sigma-models and show that they are described by an unexpectedly rich geometrical structure. Specifically, the Kahler sector of the moduli space of such Calabi-Yau conformal theories admits a decomposition into adjacent domains some of which correspond to the (complexified) Kahler cones of topologically distinct manifolds. These domains are separated by walls corresponding to singular Calabi-Yau spaces in which the spacetime metric has degenerated in certain regions. We show that the unio…
We establish a relationship between mirror symmetry for K3 surfaces and Arnold's strange duality for K3 surfaces. We compute various examples of mirror families. Among them the mirror moduli family for the moduli space of degree 2n polarized K3 surfaces. It turns out to be related to the moduli space of elliptic curves with level n.
The goal of this paper is to make the vertex operator algebra approach to mirror symmetry accessible to algebraic geometers. Compared to better-known approaches using moduli spaces of stable maps and special Lagrangian fibrations, this approach follows more closely the original line of thinking that lead to the discovery of mirror symmetry by physicists. The ultimate goal of the vertex algebra approach is to give precise mathematical definitions of N=(2,2) superconformal field theories called A and B models associated to any Calabi-Yau variety and then show that thus constructed theories are r…
We describe a notion of lattice polarization for rational elliptic surfaces and weak del Pezzo surfaces, and describe the complex moduli of the former and the Kähler cone of the latter. We then propose a version of mirror symmetry relating these two objects, which should be thought of as a form of Fano-LG correspondence. Finally, we relate this notion to other forms of mirror symmetry, including Dolgachev-Nikulin-Pinkham mirror symmetry for lattice polarized K3 surfaces and the Gross-Siebert program.
We study moduli spaces of nonlinear sigma-models on Calabi-Yau manifolds, using the one-loop semiclassical approximation. The data being parameterized includes a choice of complex structure on the manifold, as well as some ``extra structure'' described by means of classes in H^2. The expectation that this moduli space is well-behaved in these ``extra structure'' directions leads us to formulate a simple and compelling conjecture about the action of the automorphism group on the Kähler cone. If true, it allows one to apply Looijenga's ``semi-toric'' technique to construct a partial compactifica…
This thesis is dedicated to the study of certain loci of the Higgs bundle moduli space on a compact Riemann surface. Motivated by mirror symmetry, we give a detailed description of the fibres of the $G$-Hitchin fibration containing $G_0$-Higgs bundles for the real forms $G_0 = SU^*(2m)$, $SO^*(4m)$ and $Sp(m,m)$ of $G = SL(2m,\mathbb{C})$, $SO(4m,\mathbb{C})$ and $Sp(4m,\mathbb{C})$, respectively. The spectral curves associated to these fibres are examples of ribbons and our description is done in two different ways, one in term of objects on the reduced scheme associated to the spectral curve…
A hypercomplex manifold is a manifold equipped with three complex structures I, J, K satisfying the quaternionic relations. Let M be a 4-dimensional compact smooth manifold equipped with a hypercomplex structure, and E be a vector bundle on M. We show that the moduli space of anti-self-dual connections on E is also hypercomplex, and admits a strong HKT metric. We also study manifolds with (4,4)-supersymmetry, that is, Riemannian manifolds equipped with a pair of strong HKT-structures that have opposite torsion. In the language of Hitchin's and Gualtieri's generalized complex geometry, (4,4)-ma…
The moduli space of stable quotients introduced by Marian-Oprea-Pandharipande provides a natural compactification of the space of morphisms from nonsingular curves to a nonsingular projective variety and carries a natural virtual class. We show that the analogue of Givental's J-function for the resulting twisted projective invariants is described by the same mirror hypergeometric series as the corresponding Gromov-Witten invariants (which arise from the moduli space of stable maps), but without the mirror transform (in the Calabi-Yau case). This implies that the stable quotients and Gromov-Wit…
We investigate a toroidal compactification of the moduli space of K3 surfaces of degree $2$ originating from the program formulated by Gross-Hacking-Keel-Siebert. This construction uses Dolgachev's formulation of mirror symmetry and the birational geometry of the mirror family. Our main result in an analysis of the toric fan. For this we use the methods developed by two of us in a previous paper.
We conjecture that any connected component $Q$ of the moduli space of triples $(X,E=E_1+\dots+E_n,Θ)$ where $X$ is a smooth projective variety, $E$ is a normal crossing anti-canonical divisor with a 0-stratum, every $E_i$ is smooth, and $Θ$ is an ample divisor not containing any 0-stratum of $E$, is unirational. More precisely: note that $Q$ has a natural embedding into the Kollár-Shepherd-Barron-Alexeev moduli space of stable pairs, we conjecture that the induced compactification admits a finite cover by a complete toric variety. We construct the associated complete toric fan, generalizing th…
The geometric aspects of mirror symmetry are reviewed, with an eye towards future developments. Given a mirror pair (X,Y) of Calabi-Yau threefolds, the best-understood mirror statements relate certain small corners of the moduli spaces of X and of Y. We will indicate how one might go beyond such statements, and relate the moduli spaces more globally. In fact, in the boldest version of mirror symmetry (the Strominger-Yau-Zaslow conjecture), the Calabi-Yau threefolds X and Y should be directly related to each other through a very geometric construction.
The moduli dependence of $(2,2)$ superstring compactifications based on Calabi--Yau hypersurfaces in weighted projective space has so far only been investigated for Fermat-type polynomial constraints. These correspond to Landau-Ginzburg orbifolds with $c=9$ whose potential is a sum of $A$-type singularities. Here we consider the generalization to arbitrary quasi-homogeneous singularities at $c=9$. We use mirror symmetry to derive the dependence of the models on the complexified Kähler moduli and check the expansions of some topological correlation functions against explicit genus zero and genu…
We find an agreement of equivariant indices of semi-classical homomorphisms between pairwise mirror branes in the GL(2) Higgs moduli space on a Riemann surface. On one side we have the components of the Lagrangian brane of U(1,1) Higgs bundles whose mirror was proposed by Nigel Hitchin to be certain even exterior powers of the hyperholomorphic Dirac bundle on the SL(2) Higgs moduli space. The agreement arises from a mysterious functional equation. This gives strong computational evidence for Hitchin's proposal.
In this paper we connect degenerations of Fano threefolds by projections. Using Mirror Symmetry we transfer these connections to the side of Landau--Ginzburg models. Based on that we suggest a generalization of Kawamata's categorical approach to birational geometry enhancing it via geometry of moduli spaces of Landau--Ginzburg models. We suggest a conjectural application to Hasset--Kuznetsov--Tschinkel program based on new nonrationality "invariants" we consider --- gaps and phantom categories. We make several conjectures for these invariants in the case of surfaces of general type and quadric…
It is argued that every Calabi-Yau manifold $X$ with a mirror $Y$ admits a family of supersymmetric toroidal 3-cycles. Moreover the moduli space of such cycles together with their flat connections is precisely the space $Y$. The mirror transformation is equivalent to T-duality on the 3-cycles. The geometry of moduli space is addressed in a general framework. Several examples are discussed.
In this paper, we derive the virtual structure constants used in mirror computation of degree k hypersurface in CP^{N-1}, by using localization computation applied to moduli space of polynomial maps from CP^{1} to CP^{N-1} with two marked points. We also apply this technique to non-nef local geometry O(1)+O(-3)->CP^{1} and realize mirror computation without using Birkhoff factorization.
We study two instanton correction problems of Hitchin's moduli spaces along with their wall crossing formulas. The hyperkahler metric of a Hitchin's moduli space can be put into an instanton-corrected form according to physicists Gaiotto, Moore and Neitzke. The problem boils down to the construction of a set of special coordinates which can be constructed as Fock-Goncharov coordinates associated with foliations of quadratic differentials on a Riemann surface. A wall crossing formula of Kontsevich and Soibelman arises both as a crucial consistency condition and an effective computational tool. …
For each family of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric varieties, Batyrev has proposed a possible mirror partner (which is also a family of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces). We explain a natural construction of the isomorphism between certain Hodge groups of these hypersurfaces, as predicted by mirror symmetry, which we call the monomial-divisor mirror map. We indicate how this map can be interpreted as the differential of the expected mirror isomorphism between the moduli spaces of the two Calabi-Yau manifolds. We formulate a very precise conjecture about the form of that mirror isomorphism, which whe…
We show that the formal moduli space of a Calabi-Yau manifold $X^n$ carries a linear structure, as predicted by mirror symmetry. This linear structure is canonically associated to a splitting of the Hodge filtration on $H^n(X)$.
