ANTONIO SCIARAPPA SISSA Trieste: Recently, the partition function of N=(2,2) supersymmetric gauge theories on the two-sphere has been shown to provide a new way of computing genus zero Gromov-Witten invariants for Calabi-Yau manifolds, even when the mirror manifold is not known. I will explain the relation between this partition function and Givental's approach to Gromov-Witten theory; the connection with physics provides new ideas on open problems in Givental's formalism, such as the crepant resolution conjecture.

DATA: 10-10-2013