The Department of Mathematics at Stony Brook University will host a week-long conference entitled "Cycles, Calibrations and Nonlinear Partial Differential Equations'' from October 22-28, 2012. The last two decades have seen a flourishing of research on calibrations and cycles, sparked in part by the work of Strominger, Yau and Zaslow, which relates a concrete form of the mirror symmetry conjecture to singular foliations by special Lagrangian submanifolds. This conference will bring together a large group of world experts on the many aspects of this topic ranging from the study of nonlinearpartial differential equations, through the geometry of special holonomy spaces, to aspects of string theory in physics. There will be an internal workshop for young researchers aimed specifically at fostering collaboration. Funds will be used largely for housing and travel expenses of graduate students and post-docs, together with some junior faculty who do not have NSF support, and a few of the principal speakers.
The conference is dedicated to the mathematics surrounding cycles and calibrated geometry, an area which has been the focus of much recent activity in both mathematics and physics. A large number of eminent researchers, from a variety of fields related to this topic, have agreed to give talks. This should result in wide-ranging and fruitful discussions. There will be a focus on young researchers. In particular, there will be a week-long internal workshop for graduate students and post-docs designed to encourage interaction and collaboration. This workshop will be directed by Blaine Lawson (Stony Brook) together with Sergei Grigorian (Simons Center for Geometry and Physics), and Sema Salur (University of Rochester). Further details on the conference can be found at:
www.math.sunysb.edu/~cycles2012
The NSF grant provided partial financial support to hold a conference at Stony Brook University during October 23 to 28, 2012 in the areas of mathematics surrounding calibrations, minimal varieties and complex geometry. These areas are very active topics of current research, both in geometry and analysis within mathematics and also in aspects of theoretical physics related to string theory. A highly distinguished list of mathematicians and physicists from around the world presented cutting edge research on these topics and engaged with the full range of participants at the meeting. There were 26 speakers during the conference, with about 5 lectures each day. Within the conference, a workshop was organized for graduate students and post-doctoral fellows working in related areas. The workshop was designed to develop the collaboration skills of the participants and bring them in contact with the state of the art developments in the fields. NSF funding was primarlly used in support of the workshop and other participants. The speakers were all funded with outside (independent) funds. Based on feedback from the participants, the conference was a great success. All lectures were recorded on video and are available to the public via the Stony Brook University Mathematics Department website.
