CMSA Mathematical Physics Seminar: Differential equations and mixed Hodge structures

CMSA EVENTS

Speaker:

Matt Kerr - Washington University in St. Louis

We report on a new development in asymptotic Hodge theory, arising from work of Golyshev--Zagier and Bloch--Vlasenko, and connected to the Gamma Conjectures in Fano/LG-model mirror symmetry. The talk will focus exclusively on the Hodge/period-theoretic aspects through two main examples. Given a variation of Hodge structure M on a Zariski open in P^1, the periods of the limiting mixed Hodge structures at the punctures are interesting invariants of M.  More generally, one can try to compute these asymptotic invariants for iterated extensions of M by "Tate objects", which may arise for example from normal functions associated to algebraic cycles. The main point of the talk will be that (with suitable assumptions on M) these invariants are encoded in an entire function called the motivic Gamma function, which is determined by the Picard-Fuchs operator L underlying M. In particular, when L is hypergeometric, this is easy to compute and we get a closed-form answer (and a limiting motive).  In the non-hypergeometric setting, it yields predictions for special values of normal functions; this part of the story is joint with V. Golyshev and T. Sasaki.

Zoom: https://harvard.zoom.us/j/91780604388?pwd=d3BqazFwbDZLQng0cEREclFqWkN4UT09