String Theory Seminar
Monday, September 8, 2003, 4:00 pm, 215 Phillips Hall, Physics
Colloquium at UNC
Katrin Wendland (University of Warwick),
A Story of K3
K3-surfaces are interesting complex two-dimensional
geometric objects
which also play a role in modern theoretical
physics, namely in
string theory and conformal field theory. Though to
the very day
many questions concerning the geometry of
K3-surfaces remain unanswered,
these objects first appeared in the scientific
literature in a rather
indigenous way: A special class of K3-surfaces
arises from the study of
geometric optics for biaxal crystals and was
investigated in that
context by Sir W.R. Hamilton and E.E. Kummer in the
1860s.
My talk tells this story of K3-surfaces. I will also
point out how
K3-surfaces are used in string theory and conformal
field theory and
give a brief synopsis of their current status in the
field, explaining
why the special class studied by Hamilton and Kummer
is particularly
useful.
transparencies