When two topologically identical shapes are blended, various possible transformation paths exist from the source shape to the target shape. Which one is the most plausible? Here we propose that the transformation process should obey a quasi-physical law. This paper combines morphing with deformation theory from continuum mechanics. By using strain energy, which reflects the magnitude of deformation, as an objective function, we convert the problem of path interpolation into an unconstrained optimization problem. To reduce the number of variables in the optimization we adopt shape functions, as used in the finite element method (FEM). A point-to-point correspondence between the source and target shapes is naturally established using these polynomial functions plus a distance map.

We use the polynomial formulation of the holomorphic anomaly equations governing perturbative topological string theory to derive the free energies in a scaling limit to all orders in perturbation theory for any CalabiYau threefold. The partition function in this limit satisfies an Airy differential equation in a rescaled topological string coupling. One of the two solutions of this equation gives the perturbative expansion and the other solution provides geometric hints of the non-perturbative structure of topological string theory. Both solutions can be expanded naturally around strong coupling.

As a continuation of [1], we study modular properties of the periods, the mirror maps and Yukawa couplings for multi-moduli Calabi-Yau varieties. In Part A of this paper, motivated by the recent work of Kachru-Vafa, we degenerate a three-moduli family of Calabi-Yau toric varieties along a codimension one subfamily which can be described by the vanishing of certain Mori coordinate, corresponding to going to the large volume limit in a certain direction. Then we see that the deformation space of the subfamily is the same as a certain family of K3 toric surfaces. This family can in turn be studied by further degeneration along a subfamily which in the end is described by a family of elliptic curves. The periods of the K3 family (and hence the original Calabi-Yau family) can be described by the squares of the periods of the elliptic curves. The consequences include: (1) proofs of various conjectural formulas of physicists [2

We study a variational problem whose critical point determines the Reeb vector field for a SasakiEinstein manifold. This extends our previous work on Sasakian geometry by lifting the condition that the manifolds are toric. We show that the EinsteinHilbert action, restricted to a space of Sasakian metrics on a link <i>L</i> in a CalabiYau cone <i>X</i>, is the volume functional, which in fact is a function on the space of Reeb vector fields. We relate this function both to the DuistermaatHeckman formula and also to a limit of a certain equivariant index on <i>X</i> that counts holomorphic functions. Both formulae may be evaluated by localisation. This leads to a general formula for the volume function in terms of topological fixed point data. As a result we prove that the volume of a SasakiEinstein manifold, relative to that of the round sphere, is always an algebraic number. In complex dimension <i>n</i>=3 these results provide, via AdS

Based on earlier work of the latter two named authors on the higher super-Teichmueller space with N=1, a component of the flat OSp(1\2) connections on a punctured surface, here we extend to the case N=2 of flat OSp(2\2) connections. Indeed, we construct here coordinates on the higher super-Teichmueller space of a surface F with at least one puncture associated to the supergroup OSp(2\2), which in particular specializes to give another treatment for N=1 simpler than the earlier work. The Minkowski space in the current case, where the corresponding super Fuchsian groups act, is replaced by the superspace R2,2\4, and the familiar lambda lengths are extended by odd invariants of triples of special isotropic vectors in R2,2\4 as well as extra bosonic parameters, which we call ratios, defining a flat R+-connection on F. As in the pure bosonic or N=1 cases, we derive the analogue of Ptolemy transformations for all these new variables.