First Steps in Mirror Symmetry 

for Generalized Complex Geometry

Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions: Project number 887857;
Funded by the European Union under Horizon 2020. 

Aim: Developing Floer theory techniques for selected types of
generalized complex manifolds

Generalized complex geometry unifies complex and symplectic geometry, two important research areas in modern pure mathematics. While generalized complex (GC) structures in full generality are not yet well-understood, a number of important results from complex or symplectic geometry have already been extended to these more general structures. Further, complex and symplectic geometry are intimately related to each other via mirror symmetry, a conjectured duality between certain complex and symplectic manifolds discovered in theoretical physics in the context of string theory. This duality has been proven in special cases.

This project proposes an approach to extend homological mirror symmetry to certain subclasses and examples of GC manifolds, centred around three objectives:

(O1) Quantify the effect of stable GC compactifications of Landau-Ginzburg mirrors of del Pezzo surfaces on their Fukaya category.

(O2) Construct a Wrapped Fukaya category for oriented surfaces with log symplectic structures.

(O3) Develop and study a notion of 'holomorphic families of Fukaya categories'.

New to generalized (complex) geometry and want to know more? Visit the blog! 

Not a mathematician, but interested in what I do? Read the general introduction to FuSeGC or watch me speak at Soapbox Science Brussels 2021

Charlotte Kirchhoff-Lukat, PhD

Charlotte studied physics and mathematics at the universities of Heidelberg (Germany) and Cambridge (UK), before embarking on a PhD in string theory at Cambridge. Her strong interest in geometry prompted her to investigate some of the mathematical structures underlying high-energy physics, specifically in generalized complex geometry. This research project led her as a visiting researcher to the University of Toronto, the University of Utrecht and the Fields Institute.

After defending her PhD thesis in late 2018, Charlotte moved to KU Leuven as a postdoctoral researcher in pure mathematics. She has recently been awarded both a Junior Postdoctoral Fellowship by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Global Fellowship by the European Union to investigate mirror symmetry in generalized complex geometry. 


Charlotte spent the first two years of this MSC Fellowship at the Department of Mathematics at MIT (Cambridge, MA) and has now returned to KU Leuven. 


Read more on Charlotte's website

KU Leuven

EU Institution

The project is situated in the Geometry section at the Department of Mathematics, mentored by Prof. Marco Zambon. 

MIT

International institution

At MIT, Charlotte is part of the symplectic geometry community at the Department of Mathematics, mentored by Prof. Paul Seidel. 


 

Questions or requests?

I can be reached by e-mail at

(firstname).kirchhofflukat (AT) kuleuven.be