In two very detailed, technical, and fundamental works, Jun Li constructed a theory of Gromov-Witten invariants for a singular scheme of the gluing form Y_1\cup_D Y_2 that arises from a degeneration Y_1\cup_D Y_2 and a theory of relative Gromov-Witten invariants for a codimension-1 relative pair Y_1\cup_D Y_2 . As a summit, he derived a degeneration formula that relates a finite summation of the usual Gromov-Witten invariants of a general smooth fiber Y_1\cup_D Y_2 of Y_1\cup_D Y_2 to the Gromov-Witten invariants of the singular fiber Y_1\cup_D Y_2 via gluing the relative pairs Y_1\cup_D Y_2 and Y_1\cup_D Y_2 . The finite sum mentioned above depends on a relative ample line bundle Y_1\cup_D Y_2 on Y_1\cup_D Y_2 . His theory has already applications to string theory and mathematics alike. For other new applications of Jun Li's theory, one needs a refined degeneration formula that depends on a curve class Y_1\cup_D Y_2 in Y_1\cup_D Y_2 or Y_1\cup_D Y_2 , rather than on the line bundle Y_1\cup_D Y_2 . Some monodromy effect has to be taken care of to deal with this. For the simple but useful case of a degeneration Y_1\cup_D Y_2 that arises from blowing up a trivial family Y_1\cup_D Y_2 , we explain how the details of Jun Li's work can be employed to reach such a desired degeneration formula. The related set Y_1\cup_D Y_2 of admissible triples adapted to Y_1\cup_D Y_2 that appears in the formula can be obtained via an analysis on the intersection numbers of relevant cycles and a study of Mori cones that appear in the problem. This set is intrinsically determined by Y_1\cup_D Y_2 and the normal bundle Y_1\cup_D Y_2 of the smooth subscheme Y_1\cup_D Y_2 in Y_1\cup_D Y_2 to be blown up.

In this Part II of D (11), we introduce new objects: super- C^ k -schemes and Azumaya super- C^ k -manifolds with a fundamental module (or, synonymously, matrix super- C^ k -manifolds with a fundamental module), and extend the study in D (11.1)([L-Y3], arXiv: 1406.0929 [math. DG]) to define the notion ofdifferentiable maps from an Azumaya/matrix supermanifold with a fundamental module to a real manifold or supermanifold'. This allows us to introduce the notion offermionic D-branes' in two different styles, one parallels Ramond-Neveu-Schwarz fermionic string and the other Green-Schwarz fermionic string. A more detailed discussion on the Higgs mechanism on dynamical D-branes in our setting, taking maps from the D-brane world-volume to the space-time in question and/or sections of the Chan-Paton bundle on the D-brane world-volume as Higgs fields, is also given for the first time in the D-project. Finally note that mathematically string theory begins with the notion of a differentiable map from a string world-sheet (a C^ k -manifold) to a target space-time (a real manifold). In comparison to this, D (11.1) and the current D (11.2) together bring us to the same starting point for studying D-branes in string theory as dynamical objects.

A bstract M5 branes probing D-type singularities give rise to 6d (1, 0) SCFTs with SO SO flavor symmetry known as D-type conformal matter theories. Gauging the diagonal SO-flavor symmetry leads to a little string theory with an intrinsic scale which can be engineered in F-theory by compactifying on a doubly-elliptic Calabi-Yau manifold. We derive Seiberg-Witten curves for these little string theories which can be interpreted as mirror curves for the corresponding Calabi-Yau manifolds. Under fiber-base duality these models are mapped to D-type quiver gauge theories and we check that their Seiberg-Witten curves match. By taking decompactification limits, we construct the curves for the related 6d SCFTs and connect to known results in the literature by further taking 5d and 4d limits.

In 1976, the author (see the open problem section in [3]) asked the following question: if p is a function defined on i? 3, what is the condition on p so that there is a sphere in R3 whose mean curvature is given by p. There were important works by Treibergs-Wei [2] and others on this question. Recently in a lecture that I gave in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, I realized that my work with R. Schoen on the existence of black hole can be used to settle the prescribed mean curvature question for a large class of p.

We discuss a method for deriving differential equations for the prepotential and the mirror map arising from a pair of Calabi-Yau manifold. Examples with one Kahler modulus are given. Here we nd that the differential equations we derive almost entirely characterize the prepotential and the mirror map in question. Some of the results here have been announced previously in