Curriculum Vitae

Paul S. Aspinwall

Box 90320, Durham, NC 27708-0320 +1 919 660 2874 (office)
(email)
Personal

Born 1/26/1964 England. British citizen.

Education

Theoretical Elementary Particle PhysicsOxford1991
D.Phil.University of Oxford (United Kingdom)1988
B.A.University of Oxford (United Kingdom)1985
Areas of Research

String Theory

Areas of Interest

String Theory
Calabi-Yau Manifolds
D-Branes
Duality

Areas of Experience

Mathematical Physics

Quantum field theory

Algebraic geometry

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

Sloan fellowship 1999

Invited address ICM 1998

Invited address at regional AMS 1999
Langford Award 2001
Langford Lecture, Duke, March 2001
Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, Alfred P. Sloan Foundadtion, September 1999
Sloan Research Fellowship-Physics, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, 0 1999
Invited Talk at ICM, ICM, July 1998

Major Grant Support

NSF DMS-0074072
NSF DMS-0301476

Sloan fellowship

Conferences Organized

Coorganizer : String Theory for Mathematicians 5/14/12 – 5/18/12, Coorganizer : String Theory for Mathematicians 5/14/12 – 5/18/12. December 14, 2012, December 2012  
Director, School on Mathematics in String and Field Theory, June 2003  
Professional Service

A&S Council
Math representative in A&S Council, November, 2009 - September, 2010  
DGS
Director of Graduate Studies, August 15, 2005 - June 30, 2008  
Major Advisor
Major Advisor, August, 2008 - present  
Dept Officer
Associate Chair, August, 2010 - present  
Faculty Computer Liaison
Faculty Computer Liaison, September 1, 2003 - August 1, 2004  
Papers Refereed
Referee reports for Journal of High Energy Physics, Many  
Nuclear Physics B, referee, April 2003  
NSF Reviews And Panels
NSF Proposal Review, NSF Proposal Review. December, 2013, December, 2013  
NSF Panel, NSF Panel. February, 2013, February, 2013  
NSF and other proposals reviewed, NSF and other proposals reviewed. November, 2011, November, 2011  
Proposal Review NSF, Proposal Review NSF. December 15, 2010, December 2010  
Other
Additional Service, September, 2010 - present  
Additional Service, September 2011 - present  
Selected Recent Invited Talks

Bad Conformal Field Theories, Physics Department, University of Pennsylvania, 18 April 2016  
Discriminants and Mirror Symmetry, Banff, Canada, 9 March 2016  
Discriminants and Mirror Symmetry, CalTech, 25 February 2016  
Massless D-branes and Discriminants, Physics Department, Stanford, 21 December 2015  
Exoflops in Two Dimensions, AMS regional Meeting, Greensboro, November 9, 2014  
A-infinity Algebras and Superpotentials, Freiburg University, Germany, October 13, 2014  
(0,2)-Deformations and Rational Curves, Texas A & M, April 27, 2014  
The Kahler Moduli Space of Calabi-Yau Manifolds, Hamburg University, August 12-15, 2013  
Exoflops and Extremal Transitions, Stanford, December 17, 2013  
Monodromy and Collapsing del Pezzo Surfaces, CRM Montreal, June 11, 2013  
The topological B-model and superpotentials, BIRS Banff, August 14, 2012  
D-Branes on Calabi-Yau Threefolds, Warwick University, July 9-10, 2012  
D-Branes on Calabi-Yau Threefolds, Bonn University, July 2-4, 2012  
Linear sigma models and (0,2) models, Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, Stony Brook, May 14, 2012  
A (0,2) McKay Correspondence, Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, December 12, 2011  
A (0,2) McKay Correspondence, Mirror Symmetry Conference, Kansas State U, November 5, 2011  
A Study of (0,2) Deformations of (2,2) Theories, String-Math conference, Penn, June 9, 2011  
Quivers and Matrix Factorizations, Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, May 18, 2011  
A Study of (0,2) Deformations of (2,2) Theories, Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, May 9, 2011  
D-Branes, Toric Geometry and Matrix Factorizations, Commutative Algebra Conference, Univ of South Carolina, March 18, 2011  
Can Instantons Kill H1(End(T)) Singlets?, Stanford University, December 20, 2010  
String Theory and the McKay Correspondence, University of Pennsylvania, June 15, 2009 - June 19, 2009  
Probing Calabi-Yau Geometry with D-Branes, University of Michigan, March 30, 2009  
Geometry and String Theory, University of Central Florida, February 6, 2009  
Probing Calabi-Yau Geometry with D-Branes, Stony Brook University, January 14, 2009  
Probing Calabi-Yau Geometry with D-Branes, Texas A&M University, November 6, 2008  
Probing Calabi-Yau Geometry with D-Branes, Virginia Tech, October 20, 2008  
B-Type D-Branes on Calabi-Yau Manifolds, KITP, Santa Barbara, July 21, 2008  
Non-Commutative Resolutions and Toric Geometry, BIRS, Banff, May 12, 2008  
Computations in String Theory with Macaulay 2, Cornell University, March 17, 2008  
Matrix Factorizations Made Easy, Snowbird, Utah, June 20, 2007  
B-Type D-Branes on Calabi-Yau Manifolds, Oxford University, May 28, 2007  
Matrix Factorizations and D-Branes, Univ. of Washington, April 19, 2007  
D-Branes and Triangulated Categories, UNC Chapel Hill, April 12, 2007  
Matrix Factorizations and D-Branes, Univ. of Chicago, January 31, 2007  
Matrix Factorizations and D-Branes, Stanford, December 18, 2006  
Superstring Theory and Compactification, UNC, Wilmington, October 13, 2006  
A Simple Superpotential, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, July 3, 2006  
D-Branes, Mukai and McKay, MSRI, Berkeley, CA, March 20, 2006  
D-Brane Superpotentials, University of Durham, England, July 23, 2005  
Algebraic Geometry for String Theorists, Perimeter Institute, Waterloo ON, Canada, June 20, 2005  
An Analysis of Fluxes by Duality, KITP, Santa Barbara, April 28, 2005  
D-Brane Superpotentials, Rutgers University, February 22, 2005  
D-Brane Superpotentials, University of California, Berkeley, February 1, 2005  
D-Brane Superpotentials, University of Utah, January 21, 2005  
Algebraic Geometry of D-Branes, Stanford University, November 22, 2004  
D-Brane Superpotentials, UC, San Diego, November 9, 2004  
D-Brane Superpotentials, Stanford Linear Accelerator, November 5, 2004  
D-Branes and Quivers, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champange, October 28, 2004  
D-Branes and Pi-Stability, Edinburgh, Scotland, August 4, 2004  
D-Branes and Pi-Stability, Snowbird, Utah, June 7, 2004  
D-Branes on Calabi-Yau Manifolds (4 lectures), TASI, Boulder, 19 June 2003  
Introduction to Algebraic Geometry (5 lectures), ICTP, Trieste, Italy, 2 June 2003  
Mirror Symmetry for Open Strings, PIMS, Banff, 17 March 2003  
D-Branes and Mirror Symmetry (3 lectures), University of Utah, 24 February 2003  
Doctoral Theses Directed

Arya Roy, (January, 2007 - August, 2010)  

Publications

Books

  1. P.S. Aspinwall, Tom Bridgeland, Alastair Craw, Micheal Douglas, Mark Gross, Anton Kapustin, Greg Moore, Graeme Segal, Balazs Szendroi, Pelham Wilson, Dirichlet Branes and Mirror Symmetry (2009), American Mathematical Society

Papers Published

  1. Aspinwall, PS; Plesser, MR, General mirror pairs for gauged linear sigma models, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2015 no. 11 (November, 2015), pp. 1-33, Springer Nature
  2. Aspinwall, PS, Exoflops in two dimensions, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2015 no. 7 (July, 2015), Springer Nature
  3. Aspinwall, PS; Gaines, B, Rational curves and (0, 2)-deformations, Journal of Geometry and Physics, vol. 88 (February, 2015), pp. 1-15, Elsevier BV, ISSN 0393-0440
  4. Aspinwall, PS, A McKay-like correspondence for (0, 2)-deformations, Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics, vol. 18 no. 4 (January, 2014), pp. 761-797, International Press of Boston
  5. Aspinwall, PS, Some applications of commutative algebra to string theory, in Commutative Algebra: Expository Papers Dedicated to David Eisenbud on the Occasion of His 65th Birthday (November, 2013), pp. 25-56, Springer New York, ISBN 9781461452911
  6. Addington, N; Aspinwall, PS, Categories of massless D-branes and del Pezzo surfaces, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2013 no. 7 (August, 2013), Springer Nature
  7. Aspinwall, PS; Morrison, DR, Quivers from Matrix Factorizations, Communications in Mathematical Physics, vol. 313 no. 3 (August, 2012), pp. 607-633, Springer Nature, ISSN 0010-3616
  8. Aspinwall, PS; Melnikov, IV; Ronen Plesser, M, (0,2) elephants, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2012 no. 1 (February, 2012), pp. 060, Springer Nature, ISSN 1126-6708
  9. P.S. Aspinwall and M.R. Plesser, Elusive Worldsheet Instantons in Heterotic String Compactifications, in Proceedings of Symposia in Pure Mathematics, vol. 85 (2012), pp. 33-52
  10. Aspinwall, PS; Plesser, MR, Decompactifications and massless D-branes in hybrid models, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2010 no. 7 (January, 2010), pp. 078, Springer Nature, ISSN 1126-6708
  11. Aspinwall, PS, Topological D-branes and commutative algebra, Communications in Number Theory and Physics, vol. 3 no. 3 (January, 2009), pp. 445-474, International Press of Boston, ISSN 1931-4523
  12. Aspinwall, PS, Landau-Ginzburg to Calabi-Yau dictionary for D-branes, Journal of Mathematical Physics, vol. 48 no. 8 (September, 2007), pp. 082304-082304, AIP Publishing, ISSN 0022-2488
  13. Aspinwall, PS; Maloney, A; Simons, A, Black hole entropy, marginal stability and mirror symmetry, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2007 no. 7 (July, 2007), pp. 034-034, Springer Nature, ISSN 1126-6708
  14. P.S. Aspinwall, The Landau-Ginzburg to Calabi-Yau Dictionary for D-Branes, J.Math.Phys., vol. 48 (2007), pp. 082304
  15. Aspinwall, PS; Fidkowski, LM, Superpotentials for quiver gauge theories, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2006 no. 10 (October, 2006), pp. 047-047, Springer Nature, ISSN 1029-8479
  16. Aspinwall, PS; Katz, S, Computation of superpotentials for D-branes, Communications in Mathematical Physics, vol. 264 no. 1 (May, 2006), pp. 227-253, Springer Nature, ISSN 0010-3616
  17. P.S. Aspinwall, D-Branes, Pi-Stability and Theta-Stability, in Snowbird Lectures on String Geometry, Contemporary Mathematics, vol. 401 (2006), AMS
  18. Aspinwall, PS; Horja, RP; Karp, RL, Massless D-branes on Calabi-Yau threefolds and monodromy, Communications in Mathematical Physics, vol. 259 no. 1 (October, 2005), pp. 45-69, Springer Nature
  19. Aspinwall, PS; Kallosh, R, Fixing all moduli for M-theory on K3×K3, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2005 no. 10 (October, 2005), pp. 1-20, Springer Nature
  20. Aspinwall, PS, D-branes on Calabi-Yau manifolds, in Progress in String Theory, TASI 2003 Lecture Notes (January, 2005), pp. 1-152, World Scientific
  21. Aspinwall, PS, The breakdown of topology at small scales, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 8 no. 7 (2004), pp. 453-463
  22. Aspinwall, PS; Melnikov, IV, D-branes on vanishing del Pezzo surfaces, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 8 no. 12 (2004), pp. 901-930
  23. Aspinwall, PS, A point's point of view of stringy geometry, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 7 no. 1 (2003), pp. 17-31
  24. Aspinwall, PS; Karp, RL, Solitons in Seiberg-Witten theory and D-branes in the derived category, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 7 no. 4 (2003), pp. 1119-1137
  25. Aspinwall, PS; Douglas, MR, D-brane stability and monodromy, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 6 no. 5 (May, 2002), pp. 739-773, Springer Nature, ISSN 1029-8479
  26. Aspinwall, PS, Some navigation rules for D-brane monodromy, Journal of Mathematical Physics, vol. 42 no. 12 (December, 2001), pp. 5534-5552, AIP Publishing
  27. Aspinwall, PS; Plesser, MR, D-branes, discrete torsion and the McKay correspondence, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 5 no. 2 (January, 2001), pp. XIX-25, ISSN 1029-8479
  28. Aspinwall, PS; Lawrence, A, Derived categories and zero-brane stability, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 5 no. 8 (January, 2001), pp. 1-26, Springer Nature, ISSN 1029-8479
  29. Aspinwall, PS; Katz, S; Morrison, DR, Lie groups, Calabi-Yau threefolds, and F-theory, Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics, vol. 4 no. 1 (January, 2000), pp. 95-126, ISSN 1095-0761
  30. Aspinwall, PS, A note on the equivalence of Vafa's and Douglas's picture of discrete torsion, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 4 no. 12 (January, 2000), pp. 029-029, Springer Nature
  31. Aspinwall, PS; Plesser, MR, Heterotic string corrections from the dual type-II string, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 4 no. 4 (2000), pp. XXXIV-21
  32. Aspinwall, PS, Compactification, Geometry and Duality: N=2 (December, 1999)
  33. Aspinwall, PS; Plesser, MR, T-duality can fail, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 3 no. 8 (January, 1999), pp. XI-18, ISSN 1029-8479
  34. Aspinwall, PS; Morrison, DR, Non-simply-connected gauge groups and rational points on elliptic curves, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 1998 no. 7 (January, 1998), pp. 012-012, Springer Nature, ISSN 1029-8479
  35. Aspinwall, PS; Donagi, RY, The heterotic string, The tangent bundle and derived categories, Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics, vol. 2 no. 5 (January, 1998), pp. 1041-1074, International Press of Boston, ISSN 1095-0761
  36. Aspinwall, PS, Aspects of the hypermultiplet moduli space in string duality, Journal of High Energy Physics, vol. 2 no. 4 (January, 1998), pp. 019-019, Springer Nature, ISSN 1029-8479
  37. Aspinwall, PS; Morrison, DR, Point-like instantons on K3 orbifolds, Nuclear Physics B, vol. 503 no. 3 (October, 1997), pp. 533-564, Elsevier BV
  38. Aspinwall, PS, Point-like instantons and the Spin(32)/ℤ2 heterotic string, Nuclear Physics B, vol. 496 no. 1-2 (July, 1997), pp. 149-176
  39. Aspinwal, PS; Gross, M, The SO(32) heterotic string on a K3 surface, Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics, vol. 387 no. 4 (October, 1996), pp. 735-742, Elsevier BV
  40. Aspinwall, PS; Gross, M, Heterotic-heterotic string duality and multiple K3 fibrations, Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics, vol. 382 no. 1-2 (August, 1996), pp. 81-88, Elsevier BV
  41. Aspinwall, PS; Morrison, DR; Gross, M, Stable singularities in string theory, Communications in Mathematical Physics, vol. 178 no. 1 (May, 1996), pp. 115-134, Springer Nature
  42. Aspinwall, PS, Enhanced gauge symmetries and Calabi-Yau threefolds, Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics, vol. 371 no. 3-4 (March, 1996), pp. 231-237, Elsevier BV
  43. Aspinwall, PS; Louis, J, On the ubiquity of K3 fibrations in string duality, Physics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics, vol. 369 no. 3-4 (February, 1996), pp. 233-242, Elsevier BV
  44. Aspinwall, PS, An N = 2 dual pair and a phase transition, Nuclear Physics B, vol. 460 no. 1 (January, 1996), pp. 57-76, Elsevier BV
  45. Aspinwall, PS, Some relationships between dualities in string theory, Nuclear Physics B - Proceedings Supplements, vol. 46 no. 1-3 (January, 1996), pp. 30-38, Elsevier BV
  46. Aspinwall, PS, Enhanced gauge symmetries and K3 surfaces, Physics Letters B, vol. 357 no. 3 (September, 1995), pp. 329-334, Elsevier BV, ISSN 0370-2693
  47. Aspinwall, PS; Morrison, DR, U-duality and integral structures, Physics Letters B, vol. 355 no. 1-2 (July, 1995), pp. 141-149, Elsevier BV, ISSN 0370-2693
  48. Aspinwall, PS; Greene, BR, On the geometric interpretation of N = 2 superconformal theories, Nuclear Physics, Section B, vol. 437 no. 1 (March, 1995), pp. 205-227, Elsevier BV, ISSN 0550-3213
  49. Aspinwall, PS, Minimum distances in non-trivial string target spaces, Nuclear Physics, Section B, vol. 431 no. 1-2 (December, 1994), pp. 78-96, Elsevier BV
  50. Aspinwall, PS; Morrison, DR, Chiral rings do not suffice: N=(2,2) theories with nonzero fundamental group, Physics Letters B, vol. 334 no. 1-2 (August, 1994), pp. 79-86, Elsevier BV, ISSN 0370-2693
  51. Aspinwall, PS; Greene, BR; Morrison, DR, Measuring small distances in N = 2 sigma models, Nuclear Physics, Section B, vol. 420 no. 1-2 (May, 1994), pp. 184-242, Elsevier BV, ISSN 0550-3213
  52. Aspinwall, PS; Greene, BR; Morrison, DR, Calabi-Yau moduli space, mirror manifolds and spacetime topology change in string theory, Nuclear Physics, Section B, vol. 416 no. 2 (March, 1994), pp. 414-480, Elsevier BV
  53. Aspinwall, PS; Greene, BR; Morrison, DR, Space-time topology change and stringy geometry a, Journal of Mathematical Physics, vol. 35 no. 10 (January, 1994), pp. 5321-5337, AIP Publishing, ISSN 0022-2488
  54. ASPINWALL, PS; GREENE, BR; MORRISON, DR, THE MONOMIAL-DIVISOR MIRROR MAP, DUKE MATHEMATICAL JOURNAL, vol. 72 no. 3 (December, 1993), pp. 319-337, DUKE UNIV PRESS
  55. Aspinwall, PS; Greene, BR; Morrison, DR, Multiple mirror manifolds and topology change in string theory, Physics Letters B, vol. 303 no. 3-4 (April, 1993), pp. 249-259, Elsevier BV, ISSN 0370-2693
  56. Aspinwall, PS; Morrison, DR, Topological field theory and rational curves, Communications in Mathematical Physics, vol. 151 no. 2 (January, 1993), pp. 245-262, Springer Nature, ISSN 0010-3616
  57. Aspinwall, PS; Morrison, DR; Greene, BR, The monomial-divisor mirror map, International Mathematics Research Notices, vol. 1993 no. 12 (January, 1993), pp. 319-337
  58. Aspinwall, PS; Lütken, CA, Quantum algebraic geometry of superstring compactifications, Nuclear Physics, Section B, vol. 355 no. 2 (May, 1991), pp. 482-510, Elsevier BV, ISSN 0550-3213
  59. Aspinwall, PS; Lütken, CA, Geometry of mirror manifolds, Nuclear Physics, Section B, vol. 353 no. 2 (April, 1991), pp. 427-461, Elsevier BV
  60. Aspinwall, PS; Lütken, CA; Ross, GG, Construction and couplings of mirror manifolds, Physics Letters B, vol. 241 no. 3 (May, 1990), pp. 373-380, Elsevier BV
  61. Aspinwall, P, (2, 2)-Superconformal field theories near orbifold points, Communications in Mathematical Physics, vol. 128 no. 3 (March, 1990), pp. 593-611, Springer Nature, ISSN 0010-3616
  62. Aspinwall, PS; Greene, BR; Kirklin, KH; Miron, PJ, Searching for three-generation Calabi-Yau manifolds, Nuclear Physics, Section B, vol. 294 no. C (January, 1987), pp. 193-222, ISSN 0550-3213
  63. Paul S. Aspinwall and Albion Lawrence, Derived Categories and 0-Brane Stability, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2001) 004
  64. Paul S Aspinwall, String Theory and Duality, Doc. Math. J. DMV Extra Volume ICM II (1998) 229-238.
  65. Paul S Aspinwall, K3 Surfaces and String Duality, in C. Esthimiou and B. Greene, editors, "Fields, Strings and Duality, TASI 1996", pages 421-540, World Scientific, 1997.
  66. Paul S Aspinwall, M-Theory Versus F-Theory Pictures of the Heterotic String, Adv. Theo. Math. Phys. 1 (1997) 127-147, hep-th/9707014.
  67. Paul S Aspinwall, D.R. Morrison, String Theory on K3 Surfaces, in B. Greene and S.T. Yau, editors, "Mirror Symmetry II", pages 703-716, International Press, 1996, hep-th/9404151.
  68. Paul S Aspinwall, Resolution of Orbifold Singularities in String Theory, in B. Greene and S.T. Yau, editors, "Mirror Symmetry II", pages 355-426, International Press, 1996, hep-th/9403123.
  69. Paul S Aspinwall, B.R. Greene, D.R. Morrison, Spacetime Topology Change: The Physics of Calabi-Yau Moduli Space, in M.B. Halpern et al., editors, "Strings '93", pages 241-262, World Scientific, 1995, hep-th/9311186.
  70. Paul S Aspinwall, The Moduli Space of N = 2 Superconformal Field Theories, in E. Gava et al., editors, "1994 Summer School in High Engergy Physics and Cosmology" pages 352-401, World Scientific, 1995, hep-th/9412115.

Preprints

  1. P.S. Aspinwall, Probing Geometry with Stability Conditions (May, 2009)
  2. P.S. Aspinwall, D-Branes on Toric Calabi-Yau Varieties (2008)
  3. P.S. Aspinwall, An Analysis of Fluxes by Duality (2005)
Last modified: 2024/04/24