In mathematics, the geometric Langlands correspondence is a reformulation of the
Langlands correspondence
In representation theory and algebraic number theory, the Langlands program is a web of far-reaching and influential conjectures about connections between number theory and geometry. Proposed by , it seeks to relate Galois groups in algebraic num ...
obtained by replacing the
number fields
In mathematics, an algebraic number field (or simply number field) is an extension field K of the field of rational numbers such that the field extension K / \mathbb has finite degree (and hence is an algebraic field extension).
Thus K is a ...
appearing in the original
number theoretic version by
function fields and applying techniques from
algebraic geometry
Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics, classically studying zeros of multivariate polynomials. Modern algebraic geometry is based on the use of abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, for solving geometrical ...
.
The geometric Langlands correspondence relates
algebraic geometry
Algebraic geometry is a branch of mathematics, classically studying zeros of multivariate polynomials. Modern algebraic geometry is based on the use of abstract algebraic techniques, mainly from commutative algebra, for solving geometrical ...
and
representation theory
Representation theory is a branch of mathematics that studies abstract algebraic structures by ''representing'' their elements as linear transformations of vector spaces, and studies modules over these abstract algebraic structures. In essen ...
.
History
In mathematics, the classical
Langlands correspondence
In representation theory and algebraic number theory, the Langlands program is a web of far-reaching and influential conjectures about connections between number theory and geometry. Proposed by , it seeks to relate Galois groups in algebraic num ...
is a collection of results and conjectures relating number theory and representation theory. Formulated by
Robert Langlands
Robert Phelan Langlands, (; born October 6, 1936) is a Canadian mathematician. He is best known as the founder of the Langlands program, a vast web of conjectures and results connecting representation theory and automorphic forms to the study o ...
in the late 1960s, the Langlands correspondence is related to important conjectures in number theory such as the
Taniyama–Shimura conjecture, which includes
Fermat's Last Theorem
In number theory, Fermat's Last Theorem (sometimes called Fermat's conjecture, especially in older texts) states that no three positive integers , , and satisfy the equation for any integer value of greater than 2. The cases and have been k ...
as a special case.
[Frenkel 2007, p. 3] Establishing the Langlands correspondence in the number theoretic context has proven extremely difficult. As a result, some mathematicians have posed the geometric Langlands correspondence.
Connection to physics
In a paper from 2007,
Anton Kapustin
Anton Nikolayevich Kapustin (born November 10, 1971, Moscow) is a Russian-American theoretical physicist and the Earle C. Anthony Professor of Theoretical Physics at the California Institute of Technology. His interests lie in quantum field th ...
and
Edward Witten
Edward Witten (born August 26, 1951) is an American mathematical and theoretical physicist. He is a Professor Emeritus in the School of Natural Sciences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. Witten is a researcher in string theory, q ...
described a connection between the geometric Langlands correspondence and
S-duality
In theoretical physics, S-duality (short for strong–weak duality, or Sen duality) is an equivalence of two physical theories, which may be either quantum field theories or string theories. S-duality is useful for doing calculations in theoret ...
, a property of certain
quantum field theories
In theoretical physics, quantum field theory (QFT) is a theoretical framework that combines classical field theory, special relativity, and quantum mechanics. QFT is used in particle physics to construct physical models of subatomic particles ...
.
In 2018, when accepting the Abel Prize, Langlands delivered a paper reformulating the geometric program using tools similar to his original Langlands correspondence.
Notes
References
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External links
*{{wikiquote-inline
Quantum geometric Langlands correspondenceat
nLab
Algebraic geometry
Langlands program
Representation theory