This is the second in a series of papers on a new equivariant cohomology that takes values in a vertex algebra. In an earlier paper, the first two authors gave a construction of the cohomology functor on the category of O(sg) algebras. The new cohomology theory can be viewed as a kind of "chiralization'' of the classical equivariant cohomology, the latter being defined on the category of $G^*$ algebras a la H. Cartan. In this paper, we further develop the chiral theory by first extending it to allow a much larger class of algebras which we call sg[t] algebras. In the geometrical setting, our principal example of an O(sg) algebra is the chiral de Rham complex Q(M) of a G manifold M. There is an interesting subalgebra of Q(M) which does not admit a full O(sg) algebra structure but retains the structure of an sg[t] algebra, enough for us to define its chiral equivariant cohomology. The latter then turns out to have many surprising features that allows us to delineate a number of interesting geometric aspects of the G manifold M, sometimes in ways that are quite different from the classical theory.

This project was sponsored through the Schiff Fellowship program of Brandeis University. This project involved using the power series method to construct a third order nonlinear ordinary differential equation, a Schwarzian equation, for each of the "genus zero" modular functions, described in the Conway-Norton paper. We first use the Borcherd recursion formuli to generate, in each case, a modular function up to whatever degree we desire, and then use the fact that there is a Schwarzian equation, determined by a single rational function we call a Q-value. By similar power series methods, we compute the coefficients of our rational function, and hence have all the necessary data to create a Schwarzian differential equation for each modular function. This equation can, in turn, be used to recover the modular function itself.

This is the third of a series of papers on a new equivariant cohomology that takes values in a vertex algebra, and contains and generalizes the classical equivariant cohomology of a manifold with a Lie group action a la H. Cartan. In this paper, we compute this cohomology for spheres and show that for any simple connected group G, there is a sphere with infinitely many actions of G which have distinct chiral equivariant cohomology, but identical classical equivariant cohomology. Unlike the classical case, the description of the chiral equivariant cohomology of spheres requires a substantial amount of new structural theory, which we fully develop in this paper. This includes a quasi-conformal structure, equivariant homotopy invariance, and the values of this cohomology on homogeneous spaces. These results rely on crucial features of the underlying vertex algebra valued complex that have no classical analogues. ,

We study the variation of relative cohomology for a pair consisting of a smooth projective hypersurface and an algebraic subvariety in it. We construct an inhomogeneous Picard-Fuchs equation by applying a Picard-Fuchs operator to the holomorphic top form on a toric Calabi-Yau hypersurface, and deriving a general formula for the d -exact form on one side of the equation. We also derive a double residue formula, giving a purely algebraic way to compute the inhomogeneous Picard-Fuchs equations for Abel-Jacobi map, which has played an important role in recent study of D-branes [25]. Using the variation formalism, we prove that the relative periods of toric B-branes on a toric Calabi-Yau hypersurface satisfy the enhanced GKZ-hypergeometric system proposed in physics literature [6], and discuss the relations between the works [25] [21] [6] in recent study of open string mirror symmetry. We also give the general solutions to the enhanced hypergeometric system.

We study period integrals of CY hypersurfaces in a partial flag variety. We construct a holonomic system of differential equations which govern the period integrals. By means of representation theory, a set of generators of the system can be described explicitly. The results are also generalized to CY complete intersections. The construction of these new systems of differential equations have lead us to the notion of a tautological system.