This volume contains the proceedings of the conference String-Math 2015, which was held from December 31, 2015–January 4, 2016, at Tsinghua Sanya International Mathematics Forum in Sanya, China. Two of the main themes of this volume are frontier research on Calabi-Yau manifolds and mirror symmetry and the development of non-perturbative methods in supersymmetric gauge theories. The articles present state-of-the-art developments in these topics. String theory is a broad subject, which has profound connections with broad branches of modern mathematics. In the last decades, the prosperous interaction built upon the joint efforts from both mathematicians and physicists has given rise to marvelous deep results in supersymmetric gauge theory, topological string, M-theory and duality on the physics side, as well as in algebraic geometry, differential geometry, algebraic topology, representation theory and number theory on the mathematics side.

Physics World's 'Book of the Year' for 2016 An Entertaining and Enlightening Guide to the Who, What, and Why of String Theory, now also available in an updated reflowable electronic format compatible with mobile devices and e-readers. During the last 50 years, numerous physicists have tried to unravel the secrets of string theory. Yet why do these scientists work on a theory lacking experimental confirmation? Why String Theory? provides the answer, offering a highly readable and accessible panorama of the who, what, and why of this large aspect of modern theoretical physics. The author, a theoretical physics professor at the University of Oxford and a leading string theorist, explains what string theory is and where it originated. He describes how string theory fits into physics and why so many physicists and mathematicians find it appealing when working on topics from M-theory to monsters and from cosmology to superconductors.

At what point does theory depart the realm of testable hypothesis and come to resemble something like aesthetic speculation, or even theology? The legendary physicist Wolfgang Pauli had a phrase for such ideas: He would describe them as "not even wrong," meaning that they were so incomplete that they could not even be used to make predictions to compare with observations to see whether they were wrong or not. In Peter Woit's view, superstring theory is just such an idea. In Not Even Wrong , he shows that what many physicists call superstring "theory" is not a theory at all. It makes no predictions, even wrong ones, and this very lack of falsifiability is what has allowed the subject to survive and flourish. Not Even Wrong explains why the mathematical conditions for progress in physics are entirely absent from superstring theory today and shows that judgments about scientific statements, which should be based on the logical consistency of argument and experimental evidence, are instead based on the eminence of those claiming to know the truth. In the face of many books from enthusiasts for string theory, this book presents the other side of the story.

The purpose of this book is to thoroughly prepare the reader for research in string theory at an intermediate level. As such it is not a compendium of results but intended as textbook in the sense that most of the material is organized in a pedagogical and self-contained fashion. Beyond the basics, a number of more advanced topics are introduced, such as conformal field theory, superstrings and string dualities - the text does not cover applications to black hole physics and cosmology, nor strings theory at finite temperatures. End-of-chapter references have been added to guide the reader wishing to pursue further studies or to start research in well-defined topics covered by this book.

The conference String-Math 2014 was held from June 9–13, 2014, at the University of Alberta. This edition of String-Math is the first to include satellite workshops: “String-Math Summer School” (held from June 2–6, 2014, at the University of British Columbia), “Calabi-Yau Manifolds and their Moduli” (held from June 14–18, 2014, at the University of Alberta), and “Quantum Curves and Quantum Knot Invariants” (held from June 16–20, 2014, at the Banff International Research Station). This volume presents the proceedings of the conference and satellite workshops. For mathematics, string theory has been a source of many significant inspirations, ranging from Seiberg-Witten theory in four-manifolds, to enumerative geometry and Gromov-Witten theory in algebraic geometry, to work on the Jones polynomial in knot theory, to recent progress in the geometric Langlands program and the development of derived algebraic geometry and n-category theory. In the other direction, mathematics has provided physicists with powerful tools, ranging from powerful differential geometric techniques for solving or analyzing key partial differential equations, to toric geometry, to K-theory and derived categories in D-branes, to the analysis of Calabi-Yau manifolds and string compactifications, to modular forms and other arithmetic techniques. Articles in this book address many of these topics.

Why do weather forecasters get it wrong? What are the best tactics for playing "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" and "The Weakest Link"? And what is the link between a tin of baked beans and a men's urinal? These and many other questions are answered in this book. It is for anyone wanting to remind themselves - or discover for the first time - that maths is relevant to almost everything we do. Dating, cooking, travelling by car, gambling and ranking sportsmen all have links with intriguing mathematical problems that are explained in this book. It reveals the secrets behind some of the best con tricks and the hidden workings of the taxi meter, and explains how epidemics start and stop.

This volume contains the proceedings of the conference `String-Math 2013' which was held June 17-21, 2013 at the Simons Center for Geometry and Physics at Stony Brook University. This was the third in a series of annual meetings devoted to the interface of mathematics and string theory. Topics include the latest developments in supersymmetric and topological field theory, localization techniques, the mathematics of quantum field theory, superstring compactification and duality, scattering amplitudes and their relation to Hodge theory, mirror symmetry and two-dimensional conformal field theory, and many more. This book will be important reading for researchers and students in the area, and for all mathematicians and string theorists who want to update themselves on developments in the math-string interface.

"A multimedia professional learning resource"--Cover.

The nature of interactions between mathematicians and physicists has been thoroughly transformed in recent years. String theory and quantum field theory have contributed a series of profound ideas that gave rise to entirely new mathematical fields and revitalized older ones. The influence flows in both directions, with mathematical techniques and ideas contributing crucially to major advances in string theory. A large and rapidly growing number of both mathematicians and physicists are working at the string-theoretic interface between the two academic fields. The String-Math conference series aims to bring together leading mathematicians and mathematically minded physicists working in this interface. This volume contains the proceedings of the inaugural conference in this series, String-Math 2011, which was held June 6-11, 2011, at the University of Pennsylvania.

This volume contains the proceedings of the conference String-Math 2016, which was held from June 27–July 2, 2016, at Collége de France, Paris, France. String-Math is an annual conference covering the most significant progress at the interface of string theory and mathematics. The two fields have had a very fruitful dialogue over the last thirty years, with string theory contributing key ideas which have opened entirely new areas of mathematics and modern mathematics providing powerful concepts and tools to deal with the intricacies of string and quantum field theory. The papers in this volume cover topics ranging from supersymmetric quantum field theories, topological strings, and conformal nets to moduli spaces of curves, representations, instantons, and harmonic maps, with applications to spectral theory and to the geometric Langlands program.