Stony Brook University
C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics
Mathematics Department

Simons Lectures, Spring 2007

Nikita Nekrasov
Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques

Six lectures on
Minimal Models of Gauge and String Theories

March 6, 13, 19, 20, 21 and 27, 2007

Rough list of topics:

  • Perturbative vs. non-perturbative physics and mathematics
  • Building the QFT on the moduli problem: quantum mechanics, sigma models, and gauge theory
  • Moduli spaces and their compactifications
  • Applications to supersymmetric theories: mirror symmetry and Seiberg-Witten theory
  • Towards new invariants of manifolds: improving on Donaldson with the help of Sullivan