arXiv subjects

Tom Coates

Publications and source records attributed to Tom Coates.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Machine learning detects terminal singularities

Algebraic varieties are the geometric shapes defined by systems of polynomial equations; they are ubiquitous across mathematics and science. Amongst these algebraic varieties are Q-Fano varieties: positively curved shapes which have Q-factorial terminal singularities. Q-Fano varieties are of fundamental importance in geometry as they are "atomic pieces" of more complex shapes - the process of breaking a shape into simpler pieces in this sense is called the Minimal Model Programme. Despite their importance, the classification of Q-Fano varieties remains unknown. In this paper we demonstrate that machine learning can be used to understand this classification. We focus on 8-dimensional positively-curved algebraic varieties that have toric symmetry and Picard rank 2, and develop a neural network classifier that predicts with 95% accuracy whether or not such an algebraic variety is Q-Fano. We use this to give a first sketch of the landscape of Q-Fanos in dimension 8. How the neural network is able to detect Q-Fano varieties with such accuracy remains mysterious, and hints at some deep mathematical theory waiting to be uncovered. Furthermore, when visualised using the quantum period, an invariant that has played an important role in recent theoretical developments, we observe that the classification as revealed by ML appears to fall within a bounded region, and is stratified by the Fano index. This suggests that it may be possible to state and prove conjectures on completeness in the future. Inspired by the ML analysis, we formulate and prove a new global combinatorial criterion for a positively curved toric variety of Picard rank 2 to have terminal singularities. Together with the first sketch of the landscape of Q-Fanos in higher dimensions, this gives new evidence that machine learning can be an essential tool in developing mathematical conjectures and accelerating theoretical discovery.

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arXiv2023

Machine learning the dimension of a Fano variety

Fano varieties are basic building blocks in geometry - they are `atomic pieces' of mathematical shapes. Recent progress in the classification of Fano varieties involves analysing an invariant called the quantum period. This is a sequence of integers which gives a numerical fingerprint for a Fano variety. It is conjectured that a Fano variety is uniquely determined by its quantum period. If this is true, one should be able to recover geometric properties of a Fano variety directly from its quantum period. We apply machine learning to the question: does the quantum period of X know the dimension of X? Note that there is as yet no theoretical understanding of this. We show that a simple feed-forward neural network can determine the dimension of X with 98% accuracy. Building on this, we establish rigorous asymptotics for the quantum periods of a class of Fano varieties. These asymptotics determine the dimension of X from its quantum period. Our results demonstrate that machine learning can pick out structure from complex mathematical data in situations where we lack theoretical understanding. They also give positive evidence for the conjecture that the quantum period of a Fano variety determines that variety.

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arXiv2022

Computation and data in the classification of Fano varieties

Fano varieties are 'atomic pieces' of algebraic varieties, the shapes that can be defined by polynomial equations. We describe the role of computation and database methods in the construction and classification of Fano varieties, with an emphasis on three-dimensional Fano varieties with mild singularities called Q-Fano threefolds. The classification of Q-Fano threefolds has been open for several decades, but there has been significant recent progress. These advances combine computational algebraic geometry and large-scale data analysis with new ideas that originated in theoretical physics.

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arXiv2022

Mirror Symmetry, Laurent Inversion and the Classification of $\mathbb{Q}$-Fano Threefolds

We describe recent progress in a program to understand the classification of three-dimensional Fano varieties with $\mathbb{Q}$-factorial terminal singularities using mirror symmetry. As part of this we give an improved and more conceptual understanding of Laurent inversion, a technique that sometimes allows one to construct a Fano variety $X$ directly from a Laurent polynomial $f$ that corresponds to it under mirror symmetry.

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arXiv2022

Machine Learning the Dimension of a Polytope

We use machine learning to predict the dimension of a lattice polytope directly from its Ehrhart series. This is highly effective, achieving almost 100% accuracy. We also use machine learning to recover the volume of a lattice polytope from its Ehrhart series, and to recover the dimension, volume, and quasi-period of a rational polytope from its Ehrhart series. In each case we achieve very high accuracy, and we propose mathematical explanations for why this should be so.

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arXiv2021

Databases of quantum periods for Fano manifolds

Fano manifolds are basic building blocks in geometry - they are, in a precise sense, atomic pieces of shapes. The classification of Fano manifolds is therefore an important problem in geometry, which has been open since the 1930s. One can think of this as building a Periodic Table for shapes. A recent breakthrough in Fano classification involves a technique from theoretical physics called Mirror Symmetry. From this perspective, a Fano manifold is encoded by a sequence of integers: the coefficients of a power series called the regularized quantum period. Progress to date has been hindered by the fact that quantum periods require specialist expertise to compute, and descriptions of known Fano manifolds and their regularized quantum periods are incomplete and scattered in the literature. We describe databases of regularized quantum periods for Fano manifolds in dimensions up to four. The databases in dimensions one, two, and three are complete; the database in dimension four will be updated as new four-dimensional Fano manifolds are discovered and new regularized quantum periods computed.

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arXiv2021

Unwinding toric degenerations and mirror symmetry for Grassmannians

The most fundamental example of mirror symmetry compares the Fermat hypersurfaces in P^n and P^n/G, where G is a finite group that acts on P^n and preserves the Fermat hypersurface. We generalise this to hypersurfaces in Grassmannians, where the picture is richer and more complex. There is a finite group G that acts on the Grassmannian Gr(n,r) and preserves an appropriate Calabi-Yau hypersurface. We establish how mirror symmetry, toric degenerations, blow-ups and variation of GIT relate the Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces inside Gr(n,r) and Gr(n,r)/G. This allows us to describe a compactification of the Eguchi-Hori-Xiong mirror to the Grassmannian, inside a blow-up of the quotient of the Grassmannian by G.

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arXiv2021

The Abelian/non-Abelian Correspondence and Gromov-Witten Invariants of Blow-ups

We prove the Abelian/non-Abelian Correspondence with bundles for target spaces that are partial flag bundles, combining and generalising results by Ciocan-Fontanine-Kim-Sabbah, Brown, and Oh. From this we deduce how genus-zero Gromov-Witten invariants change when a smooth projective variety X is blown up in a complete intersection defined by convex line bundles. In the case where the blow-up is Fano, our result gives closed-form expressions for certain genus-zero invariants of the blow-up in terms of invariants of X. We also give a reformulation of the Abelian/non-Abelian Correspondence in terms of Givental's formalism, which may be of independent interest.

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arXiv2021

Maximally Mutable Laurent Polynomials

We introduce a class of Laurent polynomials, called maximally mutable Laurent polynomials (MMLPs), that we believe correspond under mirror symmetry to Fano varieties. A subclass of these, called rigid, are expected to correspond to Fano varieties with terminal locally toric singularities. We prove that there are exactly 10 mutation classes of rigid MMLPs in two variables; under mirror symmetry these correspond one-to-one with the 10 deformation classes of smooth del~Pezzo surfaces. Furthermore we give a computer-assisted classification of rigid MMLPs in three variables with reflexive Newton polytope; under mirror symmetry these correspond one-to-one with the 98 deformation classes of three-dimensional Fano manifolds with very ample anticanonical bundle. We compare our proposal to previous approaches to constructing mirrors to Fano varieties, and explain why mirror symmetry in higher dimensions necessarily involves varieties with terminal singularities. Every known mirror to a Fano manifold, of any dimension, is a rigid MMLP.

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arXiv2019

On the Topology of Fano Smoothings

Suppose that X is a Fano manifold that corresponds under Mirror Symmetry to a Laurent polynomial f, and that P is the Newton polytope of f. In this setting it is expected that there is a family of algebraic varieties over the unit disc with general fiber X and special fiber the toric variety defined by the spanning fan of P. Building on recent work and conjectures by Corti--Hacking--Petracci, who construct such families of varieties, we determine the topology of the general fiber from combinatorial data on P. This provides evidence for the Corti--Hacking--Petracci conjectures, and verifies that their construction is compatible with expectations from Mirror Symmetry.

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arXiv2018

A splitting of the virtual class for genus one stable maps

Moduli spaces of stable maps to a smooth projective variety typically have several components. We express the virtual class of the moduli space of genus one stable maps to a smooth projective variety as a sum of virtual classes of the components. The key ingredient is a generalised functoriality result for virtual classes. We show that the natural maps from 'ghost' components of the genus one moduli space to moduli spaces of genus zero stable maps satisfy the strong push forward property. As a consequence, we give a cycle-level formula which relates standard and reduced genus one Gromov--Witten invariants of a smooth projective Calabi--Yau theefold.

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arXiv2018

Gromov-Witten Invariants of Local P^2 and Modular Forms

We construct a sheaf of Fock spaces over the moduli space of elliptic curves E_y with Gamma_1(3)-level structure, arising from geometric quantization of H^1(E_y), and a global section of this Fock sheaf. The global section coincides, near appropriate limit points, with the Gromov-Witten potentials of local P^2 and of the orbifold C^3/mu_3. This proves that the Gromov-Witten potentials of local P^2 are quasi-modular functions for the group Gamma_1(3), as predicted by Aganagic-Bouchard-Klemm, and proves the Crepant Resolution Conjecture for [C^3/mu_3] in all genera.

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arXiv2017

Laurent Inversion

We describe a practical and effective method for reconstructing the deformation class of a Fano manifold X from a Laurent polynomial f that corresponds to X under Mirror Symmetry. We explore connections to nef partitions, the smoothing of singular toric varieties, and the construction of embeddings of one (possibly-singular) toric variety in another. In particular, we construct degenerations from Fano manifolds to singular toric varieties; in the toric complete intersection case, these degenerations were constructed previously by Doran--Harder. We use our method to find models of orbifold del Pezzo surfaces as complete intersections and degeneracy loci, and to construct a new four-dimensional Fano manifold.

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arXiv2016

Hodge-Theoretic Mirror Symmetry for Toric Stacks

Using the mirror theorem [CCIT15], we give a Landau-Ginzburg mirror description for the big equivariant quantum cohomology of toric Deligne-Mumford stacks. More precisely, we prove that the big equivariant quantum D-module of a toric Deligne-Mumford stack is isomorphic to the Saito structure associated to the mirror Landau-Ginzburg potential. We give a GKZ-style presentation of the quantum D-module, and a combinatorial description of quantum cohomology as a quantum Stanley-Reisner ring. We establish the convergence of the mirror isomorphism and of quantum cohomology in the big and equivariant setting.

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arXiv2015

Virasoro Constraints for Toric Bundles

We show that the Virasoro conjecture in Gromov--Witten theory holds for the the total space of a toric bundle $E \to B$ if and only if it holds for the base $B$. The main steps are: (i) we establish a localization formula that expresses Gromov--Witten invariants of $E$, equivariant with respect to the fiberwise torus action, in terms of genus-zero invariants of the toric fiber and all-genus invariants of $B$; and (ii) we pass to the non-equivariant limit in this formula, using Brown's mirror theorem for toric bundles.

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arXiv2015

Laurent Inversion

There are well-understood methods, going back to Givental and Hori--Vafa, that to a Fano toric complete intersection X associate a Laurent polynomial f that corresponds to X under mirror symmetry. We describe a technique for inverting this process, constructing the toric complete intersection X directly from its Laurent polynomial mirror f. We use this technique to construct a new four-dimensional Fano manifold.

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arXiv2015

Mirror Symmetry and the Classification of Orbifold del Pezzo Surfaces

We state a number of conjectures that together allow one to classify a broad class of del Pezzo surfaces with cyclic quotient singularities using mirror symmetry. We prove our conjectures in the simplest cases. The conjectures relate mutation-equivalence classes of Fano polygons with Q-Gorenstein deformation classes of del Pezzo surfaces.

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arXiv2014

A Fock Sheaf For Givental Quantization

We give a global, intrinsic, and co-ordinate-free quantization formalism for Gromov-Witten invariants and their B-model counterparts, which simultaneously generalizes the quantization formalisms described by Witten, Givental, and Aganagic-Bouchard-Klemm. Descendant potentials live in a Fock sheaf, consisting of local functions on Givental's Lagrangian cone that satisfy the (3g-2)-jet condition of Eguchi-Xiong; they also satisfy a certain anomaly equation, which generalizes the Holomorphic Anomaly Equation of Bershadsky-Cecotti-Ooguri-Vafa. We interpret Givental's formula for the higher-genus potentials associated to a semisimple Frobenius manifold in this setting, showing that, in the semisimple case, there is a canonical global section of the Fock sheaf. This canonical section automatically has certain modularity properties. When X is a variety with semisimple quantum cohomology, a theorem of Teleman implies that the canonical section coincides with the geometric descendant potential defined by Gromov-Witten invariants of X. We use our formalism to prove a higher-genus version of Ruan's Crepant Transformation Conjecture for compact toric orbifolds. When combined with our earlier joint work with Jiang, this shows that the total descendant potential for compact toric orbifold X is a modular function for a certain group of autoequivalences of the derived category of X.

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