News

Please Note: If you wish to receive credit points for this class, please let us know soon which module this would be for you. The physics "Pflichtseminar" requires a written summary of your talk. In any case, please provide either your notes (handwritten, pdf, beamer slides, etc.) or a one-page handout for your talk in advance (the day before the talk at the latest). This material will help the other participants following your talk.

An organizational meeting will be held on Tuesday, March 9, at 2pm, online.

First meeting on April 20

Organization

Each session will be devoted to a fairly broad topic according to the syllabus; speakers may choose how to present the material freely. They should anyway consult with the session tutors (one or more of the seminar organisers) at least one week before their talk is supposed to take place. Some particularly broad topics may be split between two speakers; a longer session of the seminar shall be planned accordingly. Although all slots are covered at present, the schedule remains flexible; if you are interested in giving a talk, please contact us for further information.

Meeting time and place: Tuesday 12:00p.m.(s.t.), ZOOM - send us an email to get the link

Instructors

Dr. Simone Noja, noja@mathi.uni-heidelberg.de
Dr. Luca Battistella, lbattistella@mathi.uni-heidelberg.de
Prof. Dr. J. Walcher, walcher@uni-heidelberg.de

Description

Supergeometry studies varieties characterized by a set of both commuting, or bosonic, and anticommuting, or fermionic, local coordinates. As such, from a physical point of view, supergeometry lies at the very foundations of supersymmetric theories — such as supergravity and superstring theory —, providing for them a suitable mathematical environment. From a mathematical point of view, supergeometry unfolds notions that force us to revise our classical geometric intuition, leading to genuinely new geometry. Remarkably, it is just where supergeometry diverts from ordinary geometry that the most interesting relations with physics happen.

Prerequisites: The seminar is aimed at advanced bachelor's or master's students in physics and mathematics. A certain degree of understanding of differential geometry is a pre-requisite for a fruitful participation. A nodding acquaintance with homological algebra and algebraic geometry will help, but it is not to be considered as a pre-requisite. On the physical side, some notions from quantum field theory and supersymmetry might help as well.

Schedule of Talks

Schedule still subject to change.