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.

The challenge of identifying symmetry-protected topological states (SPTs) is due to their lack of symmetry-breaking order parameters and intrinsic topological orders. For this reason, it is impossible to formulate SPTs under Ginzburg-Landau theory or probe SPTs via fractionalized bulk excitations and topology-dependent ground state degeneracy. However, the partition functions from path integrals with various symmetry twists are the universal SPT invariants defining topological probe responses, fully characterizing SPTs. In this work, we use gauge fields to represent those symmetry twists in closed spacetimes of any dimensionality and arbitrary topology. This allows us to express the SPT invariants in terms of continuum field theory. We show that SPT invariants of pure gauge actions describe the SPTs predicted by group cohomology, while the mixed gauge-gravity actions describe the beyond-group-cohomology SPTs, recently observed by Kapustin. We find new examples of mixed gauge-gravity actions for U(1) SPTs in 4+1D via mixing the gauge first Chern class with a gravitational Chern-Simons term, or viewed as a 5+1D Wess-Zumino-Witten term with a Pontryagin class. We rule out U(1) SPTs in 3+1D mixed with a Stiefel-Whitney class. We also apply our approach to the bosonic/fermionic topological insulators protected by U(1) charge and Z_2^T time-reversal symmetries whose pure gauge action is the axion θ-term. Field theory representations of SPT invariants not only serve as tools for classifying SPTs, but also guide us in designing physical probes for them. In addition, our field theory representations are independently powerful for studying group cohomology within the mathematical context.