Joshua Davis, Lecturing Fellow and Teaching Assistant Professor

Joshua Davis
Office Location:  033 Physics Bldg
Office Phone:  (919)-660-2823
Email Address: send me a message
Web Page:  http://www.math.duke.edu/~jdavis/

Education:

PhDUniversity of Wisconsin2005
BAOberlin College1998
Specialties:

Geometry
Topology
Research Interests: symplectic topology, algebraic geometry, string theory

Loosely speaking, Gromov-Witten invariants are rational numbers that count how many pseudoholomorphic curves (maps from closed surfaces satisfying certain stringent conditions, including the Cauchy-Riemann equation) there are in a given symplectic manifold. These invariants are used to gain information and prove results about symplectic manifolds; they also play a crucial role in (type IIA) string theory, a branch of physics that attempts to unify general relativity and quantum mechanics. My own work concerns the definition of relative Gromov-Witten invariants in certain singular situations, and how the invariants behave under symplectic surgeries.

Keywords:

symplectic topology • algebraic geometry • Gromov-Witten invariants