home > seminars 2008 > Rahman
Dr. Dr Abdul Rahnam
Department of Physics & Astronomy
Howard University
Wednesday February 13, 4 pm
Thirkield Hall (Physics), room 103
Investigating String Theoretic Massless Modes Using Perverse
Sheaves
String propagation in smooth Calabi-Yau target spaces has been known
and studied for over two decades. The determination of the matter and
interaction content of such models requires a detailed analysis of the
(co)homology of these spaces: nearly all massless fields in the
effective physics model are represented by certain (co)homology
elements. This has been calculated for numerous models and is well
understood in general. Yet, to date there is no self-contained
(co)homology theory suitable for String theory that takes into account
the varying possibilities of the topology of the target space and
provides the correct (co)cyclic contributions in all degrees. In this
talk I will discuss the motivation of the problem, the relevant
constructions for simple singular spaces, and current developments for
generalizing the construction.
Refreshments will be served at 3:40pm