We identify a combinatorial quantity (the alternating sum of the h-vector) defined for any simple polytope as the signature of a toric variety. This quantity was introduced by R. Charney and M. Davis in their work, which in particular showed that its nonnegativity is closely related to a conjecture of H. Hopf on the Euler characteristic of a nonpositively curved manifold. We prove positive (or nonnegative) lower bounds for this quantity under geometric hypotheses on the polytope and, in particular, resolve a special case of their conjecture. These hypotheses lead to ampleness (or weaker conditions) for certain line bundles on toric divisors, and then the lower bounds follow from calculations using the Hirzebruch signature formula. Moreover, we show that under these hypotheses on the polytope, the ith L-class of the corresponding toric variety is (−1)^i times an effective class for any i .

We develop a unifed theory to study geometry of manifolds with different holonomy groups. They are classified by (1) real, complex, quaternion or octonion number (in the appropriate cases) and (2) being special or not. Specialty is an orientation with respect to the corresponding normed algebra A. For example, special Riemannian A-manifolds are oriented Riemannian, Calabi-Yau, hyperk¨ahler and G2-manifolds respectively. For vector bundles over such manifolds, we introduce (special) A-connections. They include holomorphic, Hermitian Yang-Mills, Anti-Self-Dual and Donaldson-Thomas connections. Similarly we introduce (special) 1/2 A-Lagrangian submanifolds as maximally real submanifolds. They include (special) Lagrangian, complex Lagrangian, Cayley and (co-)associative submanifolds. We also discuss geometric dualities from this viewpoint: Fourier transformations on A-geometry for flat tori and a conjectural SYZ mirror transformation from (special) A-geometry to (special) 1/2 A-Lagrangian geometry on mirror special A-manifolds.

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In this article we discuss the geometry of moduli spaces of (1) flat bundles over special Lagrangian submanifolds and (2) deformed Hermitian-Yang-Mills bundles over complex submanifolds in Calabi-Yau manifolds. These moduli spaces reflect the geometry of the Calabi-Yau itself like a mirror. Strominger, Yau and Zaslow conjecture that the mirror Calabi-Yau manifold is such a moduli space and they argue that the mirror symmetry duality is a Fourier-Mukai transformation. We review various aspects of the mirror symmetry conjecture and discuss a geometric approach in proving it. The existence of rigid Calabi-Yau manifolds poses a serious challenge to the conjecture. The proposed mirror partners for them are higher dimensional generalized Calabi-Yau manifolds. For example, the mirror partner for a certain K3 surface is a cubic fourfold and its Fano variety of lines is birational to the Hilbert scheme of two points on the K3. This hyperk¨ahler manifold can be interpreted as the SYZ mirror of the K3 by considering singular special Lagrangian tori. We also compare the geometries between a CY and its associated generalized CY. In particular we present a new construction of Lagrangian submanifolds.

We apply the geometric-topology surgery theory on the spacetime manifold to study the constraints of quantum statistics data in 2+1 and 3+1 spacetime dimensions. First we introduce the fusion data for worldline and worldsheet operators capable creating anyon excitations of particles and strings, well-defined in gapped states of matter with intrinsic topological orders. Second we introduce the braiding statistics data of particles and strings, such as the geometric Berry matrices for particle-string Aharonov-Bohm and multi-loop adiabatic braiding process, encoded by submanifold linkings, in the closed spacetime 3-manifolds and 4-manifolds. Third we derive new "quantum surgery" constraints analogous to Verlinde formula associating fusion and braiding statistics data via spacetime surgery, essential for defining the theory of topological orders, and potentially correlated to bootstrap boundary physics such as gapless modes, conformal field theories or quantum anomalies.