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Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the UniverseWPI

IPMU Seminar

Date: October 16, 2008, 15:30 - 17:00
Place: Seminar Room at IPMU Prefab. B, Kashiwa Campus of the University of Tokyo
Speaker: Domenico Orland (IPMU)
Title: Quantum Crystals and Topological Strings [PDF]
Abstract: Random partitions appear in many branches of mathematics and physics, such as Gromov--Witten theory, random matrix theory, Seiberg--Witten theory and others. In particular, the partition function of the melting crystal corner, given by the MacMahon function, has been shown to equal the partition function of the topological string A--model with target space C3. In this talk I will discuss the equivalent crystal melting problem in two and three dimensions. Particular emphasis will be given to the quantized version that is deeply related to the XXZ spin chain. After having shown exact and numerical results I will also comment on the possible implications for topological strings.
Partly based on 0803.1927[cond-mat.stat-mech].