Re:String Theory Inspires a Brilliant, Baffling New Math Proof
by gsf_emergency_6 on Saturday December 13, 2025 @03:38AM
(#46253096)
TFA:
>The proof relies on ideas imported from the world of string theory. Its techniques are wholly unfamiliar to the mathematicians who have dedicated their careers to classifying polynomials.
They should have said "differential geometry", unless you count Kontsevich himself as a string theorist (maybe he does. I don't know)
From the paper, sec3.1.2:
While historically prevalent in the mirror symmetry and Gromov-Witten literature, the complex
analytic or formal analogues of an F-bundle will not be useful for constructing birational invariants
directly
Later on, however:
One largely unexplored aspect of Gromov-Witten theory is its algebraic flexibility..
I guess we can't really not credit the string theorists if Gromov can be so inspired by them :)
>The proof relies on ideas imported from the world of string theory. Its techniques are wholly unfamiliar to the mathematicians who have dedicated their careers to classifying polynomials.
They should have said "differential geometry", unless you count Kontsevich himself as a string theorist (maybe he does. I don't know)
From the paper, sec3.1.2:
While historically prevalent in the mirror symmetry and Gromov-Witten literature, the complex analytic or formal analogues of an F-bundle will not be useful for constructing birational invariants directly
Later on, however:
One largely unexplored aspect of Gromov-Witten theory is its algebraic flexibility..
I guess we can't really not credit the string theorists if Gromov can be so inspired by them :)