The genus-two Kawazumi-Zhang (KZ) invariant is a real-analytic modular function on the Siegel upper half-plane of degree two, which plays an important role in arithmetic geometry. In String theory, it appears as part of the integrand in two-loop four-graviton scattering amplitudes. With hindsight from String theory, I will show that the KZ invariant can be obtained as a generalized Borcherds lift from a weak Jacobi form of index 1 and weight 2. This implies that the KZ invariant is an eigenmode of the quadratic and quartic Casimir operators, and gives access to the full asymptotic expansion in all possible degeneration limits. It also reveals a mock-type holomorphic Siegel modular form underlying the KZ invariant. String theory amplitudes involves modular integrals of the KZ invariant (times lattice partition functions) on the Siegel upper half-plane, which provide new examples of automorphic objects on orthogonal Grassmannians, beyond the usual Langlands-Eisenstein series.

Note: this talk is based on the preprint  "A Theta lift representation for the Kawazumi-Zhang and Faltings invariants of genus-two Riemann surfaces" available on arXiv:1504.04182. Following up on a question asked during the talk (which was answered very poorly), the author obtained shortly after a proof of the conjecture stated in this preprint and during the talk. The proof is available in the revised version arXiv:1504.04182v2.[-]

I will talk about joint work during the recent years with Amin Gholampour, Richard Thomas and Yukinobu Toda, on proving the modularity property of the generating series of certain DT invariants of torsion sheaves with two dimensional support in ambient threefolds. More specifically, I will talk about algebraic-geometric proof of S-duality conjecture in superstring theory made formerly by physicists: Gaiotto, Strominger, Yin, regarding the modularity of DT invariants of sheaves supported on hyperplane sections of the quintic Calabi-Yau threefold. Our strategy is to first use degeneration and localization techniques to reduce the threefold theory to a certain intersection theory over relative Hilbert scheme of points on surfaces and then prove modularity; More precisely, together with Gholampour we have proven that the generating series, associated to the top intersection numbers of the Hibert scheme of points, relative to an effective divisor, on a smooth quasi-projective surface is a modular form. This is a generalization of the result of Okounkov-Carlsson for absolute Hilbert schemes. These intersection numbers, together with the generating series of Noether-Lefschetz numbers, will provide the ingrediants to prove modularity of the above DT invariants over the quintic threefold.[-]

There are five superstring theories, all formulated in 9+1 spacetime dimensions; lower-dimensional theories are studied by taking some of the spatial dimensions to be compact (and small). One of the remarkable features of this setup is that the same lower-dimensional theory can often be realized by pairing different superstring theories with different geometries. The focus of these lectures will be on the mathematical implications of some of these physical “dualities.”
Our main focus from the string theory side will be the superstring theories known as type IIA and type IIB. The duality phenomenon occurs for compact spaces of various dimensions and types. We will begin by discussing “T-duality” which uses tori as the compact spaces. We will then digress to introduce M-theory as a strong-coupling limit of the type IIA string theory, and F-theory as a variant of the type IIB string theory whose existence is motivated by T-duality. The next topic is compactifying the type IIA and IIB string theories on K3 surfaces (where the duality involves a change of geometric parameters but not a change of string theory).
By the third lecture, we will have turned our attention to Calabi-Yau manifolds of higher dimension, and the “mirror symmetry” which relates pairs of them. Various aspects of mirror symmetry have various mathematical implications, and we will explain how these are conjecturally related to each other.[-]

There are five superstring theories, all formulated in 9+1 spacetime dimensions; lower-dimensional theories are studied by taking some of the spatial dimensions to be compact (and small). One of the remarkable features of this setup is that the same lower-dimensional theory can often be realized by pairing different superstring theories with different geometries. The focus of these lectures will be on the mathematical implications of some of these physical “dualities.”
Our main focus from the string theory side will be the superstring theories known as type IIA and type IIB. The duality phenomenon occurs for compact spaces of various dimensions and types. We will begin by discussing “T-duality” which uses tori as the compact spaces. We will then digress to introduce M-theory as a strong-coupling limit of the type IIA string theory, and F-theory as a variant of the type IIB string theory whose existence is motivated by T-duality. The next topic is compactifying the type IIA and IIB string theories on K3 surfaces (where the duality involves a change of geometric parameters but not a change of string theory).
By the third lecture, we will have turned our attention to Calabi-Yau manifolds of higher dimension, and the “mirror symmetry” which relates pairs of them. Various aspects of mirror symmetry have various mathematical implications, and we will explain how these are conjecturally related to each other.[-]