We describe local mirror symmetry from a mathematical point of view and make several A-model calculations using the mirror principle (localization). Our results agree with B-model computations from solutions of Picard-Fuchs differential equations constructed form the local geometry near a Fano surface within a Calabi-Yau manifold. We interpret the Gromov-Witten-type numbers from an enumerative point of view. We also describe the geometry of singular surfaces and show how the local invariants of singular surfaces agree with the smooth cases when they occur as complete intersections.

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

Near-superradiant scattering of charged scalars and fermions by a near-extreme Kerr-Newman black hole and photons and gravitons by a near-extreme Kerr black hole are computed as certain Fourier transforms of correlators in a two-dimensional conformal field theory. The results agree with the classic spacetime calculations from the 1970s, thereby providing good evidence for a conjectured Kerr-Newman/CFT correspondence.

In recent years, fermionic topological phases of quantum matter has attracted a lot of attention. In a pioneer work by Gu, Wang and Wen, the concept of equivalence classes of fermionic local unitary(FLU) transformations was proposed to systematically understand non-chiral topological phases in 2D fermion systems and an incomplete classification was obtained. On the other hand, the physical picture of fermion condensation and its corresponding super pivotal categories give rise to a generic mathematical framework to describe fermionic topological phases of quantum matter. In particular, it has been pointed out that in certain fermionic topological phases, there exists the so-called q-type anyon excitations, which have no analogues in bosonic theories. In this paper, we generalize the Gu, Wang and Wen construction to include those fermionic topological phases with q-type anyon excitations. We argue that all non-chiral fermionic topological phases in 2+1D are characterized by a set of tensors (N^{ij}_k,F^{ij}_k,F^{ijm,αβ}_{kln,χδ},n_i,d_i), which satisfy a set of nonlinear algebraic equations parameterized by phase factors Ξ^{ijm,αβ}_{kl}, Ξ^{ij}_{kln,χδ}, Ω^{kim,αβ}_{jl} and Ω^{ki}_{jln,χδ}. Moreover, consistency conditions among algebraic equations give rise to additional constraints on these phase factors which allow us to construct a topological invariant partition for an arbitrary triangulation of 3D spin manifold. Finally, several examples with q-type anyon excitations are discussed, including the Fermionic topological phase from Tambara-Yamagami category for \mathbb{Z}_{2N}, which can be regarded as the \mathbb{Z}_{2N} parafermion generalization of Ising fermionic topological phase.

In this paper, we review recent developments on the derivation and properties of macroscopic models of collective motion and self-organization. The starting point is a model of self-propelled particles interacting with its neighbors through alignment. We successively derive a mean-field model and its hydrodynamic limit. The resulting macroscopic model is the Self-Organized Hydrodynamics (SOH). We review the available existence results and known properties of the SOH model and discuss it in view of its possible extensions to other kinds of collective motion.