Geometry and String Theory
HomePage (Rev #375)

This is the homepage for the UT Geometry and Quantum Field Theory Seminar. At the organizational meeting we will flesh out the details of our plans for the semester. Below are some suggestions to get us started.

There is a mailing list. To subscribe, send an email to sympa@utlists.utexas.edu with subject
“subscribe math-gst Your Name”.

Fall 2026 Schedule

Date	Speaker	Topic
8/26		Organizational Meeting
9/2	Gopakumar	Lecture 1
9/9	Lunch	Aidan Herderschee
9/16	Gopakumar	Lecture 2
9/23	Harita	2d/1d
9/30	Yasin	TMF
10/7		TMF
10/14		TMF
10/21
10/28
11/4
11/11
11/18
12/2

Spring 2027 Schedule

Date	Speaker	Topic
1/13		Organizational Meeting
1/20
1/27
2/3
2/10
2/17
2/24
3/3
3/10
3/24
3/31
4/7
4/14
4/21
4/28

References

TMF

• Y. Tachikawa, M. Yamashita, “Anderson duality of topological modular forms and its differential-geometric manifestations”
• S. Gukov, D. Pei, P. Putrov, C. Vafa, “4-manifolds and topological modular forms”

Worldsheet Duals to 1-Matrix Models

• R. Gopakumar, E. Mazenc, “Deriving the Simplest Gauge-String Duality – I: Open-Closed-Open Triality”
• A. Giacchetto, R. Gopakumar, E. Mazenc, “Worldsheet Duals to One-Matrix Models”

Twisted Unitarity of Chiral Algebras

• A. Ardehali, C. Beem, M. Lemos, L. Rastelli, “Graded unitarity in the SCFT/VOA correspondence”
• C. Beem, N. Garner,“On the semi-infinite cohomology of graded-unitary vertex algebras”
• C. Beem, H. Kulkarni, “Towards a classification of graded unitary $W_3$ algebras”

Resurgence

• I. Aniceto, G. Basar, R. Schiappa, “A Primer on Resurgent Transseries and Their Asymptotics”
• H. Liu, ““Filtering” CFTs at large N: Euclidean Wormholes, Closed Universes, and Black Hole Interiors”
• H. Liu, “Ramp, Plateau, and Wormholes without Averaging, and Hyper-non-perturbative Structures in Gravity”

Functorial QFT

• J. McNamara, Z. Wang, “Wormholes as red herrings: reflection positivity and the reconstruction of unitary quantum field theories”
• M. Kontsevich, G. Segal, “Wick Rotation and the Positivity of Energy in Quantum Field Theory”

Old References

Complex Chern-Simons theory, resurgence, and quantum modularity

• S. Gukov, M. Marino, P. Putrov, “Resurgence in complex Chern-Simons theory”
• S. Garoufalidis, J. Gu, M. Marino, “Peacock patterns and resurgence in complex Chern-Simons theory”
• S. Garoufalidis, J. Gu, M. Marino, C. Wheeler, “Resurgence of Chern-Simons theory at the trivial flat connection”
• S. Garoufalidis, D. Zagier, “Knots, perturbative series and quantum modularity”
• S. Garoufalidis, C. Wheeler, “Modular q-holonomic modules”
• Z. Duan, J. Gu, “Resurgence in complex Chern-Simons theory at generic levels”

Anomaly Cancellation in String Theory

• S. Hosseini, Y. Tachikawa, H. Zhang, “Type I anomaly cancellation revisited”
• J. Distler, D. Freed, G. Moore, “Orientifold Precis”
• D. Freed, M. Hopkins, “On Ramond-Ramond fields and K-theory”
• D. Freed, “Dirac Charge Quantization and Generalized Differential Cohomology”
• C. Hsieh, Y. Tachikawa, K. Yonekura, “Anomaly inflow and -form gauge theories”

Deformation Quantization and Unitarity

• Beem, Peelaers and Rastelli, “Deformation quantization and superconformal symmetry in three dimensions”
• Etingof and Stryker, “Short Star-Products for Filtered Quantizations, I”
• Gaiotto, “Sphere quantization of Higgs and Coulomb branches and Analytic Symplectic Duality”
• Losev, “Deformations of symplectic singularities and Orbit method for semisimple Lie algebras”
• Simpson, “Mixed Twistor Structures”

Fusion Category Symmetry Basics and Reviews

• L. Bhardwaj and Y. Tachikawa, “On finite symmetries and their gauging in two dimensions”
• S. Schafer-Nameki, “ICTP Lectures on (Non)-Invertible Generalized Symmetries”
• S. Shao “What’s Done Cannot Be Undone: TASI Lectures on Non-Invertible Symmetry”

Donaldson Theory and $\mathcal{N}=2$ SUSY Field Theory

• Alexandru Scorpan, “The Wild World of 4-Manifolds”
• J.D. Moore, “Lecture Notes on Seiberg-Witten Invariants”
• Gompf & Stipsicz “[4-Manifolds and Kirby Calculus]”
• Griffiths & Harris “[Principles of Algebraic Geometry]”
• G. Moore, “Lectures On The Physical Approach To Donaldson And Seiberg-Witten Invariants Of Four-Manifolds”
• E. Witten, “Supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on a four manifold”
• N. Seiberg, E. Witten, “Monopole Condensation, and confinement in N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory”
• E. Witten, “Monopoles and four manifolds”
• G. W. Moore, E. Witten, “Integration over the u-plane in Donaldson theory.”
• D. Baraglia, H. Konno, “On the Bauer-Furuta and Seiberg-Witten invariants of families of 4-manifolds”
• P. Kronheimer, T. Mrowka, “The Dehn twist on a sum of two K3 surfaces”
• J. Cushing, G. W. Moore, M. Rocek, V. Saxena, “Superconformal gravity and the topology of diffeomorphism groups”

Anomaly in S-duality Symmetry of IIB

• A. Debray, M. Diergl, J. Heckman, M. Montero, “The anomaly that was not meant IIB”