books.google.com - This thesis presents several new insights on the interface between mathematics and theoretical physics, with a central role for Riemann surfaces. First of all, the duality between Vafa-Witten theory and WZW models is embedded in string theory. Secondly, this model is generalized to a web of dualities...http://books.google.com/books/about/Topological_Strings_and_Quantum_Curves.html?id=H2ZSYL-hmM8C&utm_source=gb-gplus-shareTopological Strings and Quantum Curves
Amsterdam University Press, Aug 20, 2009 - Mathematics - 310 pages
This thesis presents several new insights on the interface between mathematics and theoretical physics, with a central role for Riemann surfaces. First of all, the duality between Vafa-Witten theory and WZW models is embedded in string theory. Secondly, this model is generalized to a web of dualities connecting topological string theory and N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories to a configuration of D-branes that intersect over a Riemann surface. This description yields a new perspective on topological string theory in terms of a KP integrable system based on a quantum curve. Thirdly, this thesis describes a geometric analysis of wall-crossing in N=4 string theory. And lastly, it offers a novel approach to constuct metastable vacua in type IIB string theory.
Lotte Hollands (1981) studied mathematics and theoretical physics at the University of Utrecht. In 2004 she started her PhD research at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of the University of Amsterdam, supervised by Prof. R.H. Dijkgraaf.
