I was born more than a thousand years ago. Put into a cryogenic tube at age seventeen, forgotten during a holocaust that decimated the world, I've finally been awakened to a more serene and peaceful future. But things at the hospital are new and strange. And it's starting to scare me. Everyone is young. Everyone is banded and tracked. And everyone is keeping secrets. The cute geneticist Michael Bennett might be the only good thing in this crazy new world where "life is precious" but no one seems free to live it. The problem is, I don't think he's being totally honest with me, either. When I'm told only I can save the human race from extinction, it's clear my freeze didn't avoid a dreadful fate. It only delayed the horror...
This is the English translation of Professor Voisin's book reflecting the discovery of the mirror symmetry phenomenon. The first chapter is devoted to the geometry of Calabi-Yau manifolds, and the second describes, as motivation, the ideas from quantum field theory that led to the discovery of mirror symmetry. The other chapters deal with more specialized aspects of the subject: the work of Candelas, de la Ossa, Greene, and Parkes, based on the fact that under the mirror symmetry hypothesis, the variation of Hodge structure of a Calabi-Yau threefold determines the Gromov-Witten invariants of its mirror; Batyrev's construction, which exhibits the mirror symmetry phenomenon between hypersurfaces of toric Fano varieties, after a combinatorial classification of the latter; the mathematical construction of the Gromov-Witten potential, and the proof of its crucial property (that it satisfies the WDVV equation), which makes it possible to construct a flat connection underlying a variation of Hodge structure in the Calabi-Yau case. The book concludes with the first "naive" Givental computation, which is a mysterious mathematical justification of the computation of Candelas, et al.
Of all human inventions, the mirror is perhaps the one most closely connected to our own consciousness. As our first technology for contemplation of the self, the mirror is arguably as important an invention as the wheel. Mirror Mirror is the fascinating story of the mirror's invention, refinement, and use in an astonishing range of human activities -- from the fantastic mirrored rooms that wealthy Romans created for their orgies to the mirror's key role in the use and understanding of light. Pendergrast spins tales of the 2,500year mystery of whether Archimedes and his "burning mirror" really set faraway Roman ships on fire; the medieval Venetian glassmakers, who perfected the technique of making large, flat mirrors from clear glass and for whom any attempt to leave their cloistered island was punishable by death; Isaac Newton, whose experiments with sunlight on mirrors once left him blinded for three days; the artist David Hockney, who holds controversial ideas about Renaissance artists and their use of optical devices; and George Ellery Hale, the manic-depressive astronomer and telescope enthusiast who inspired (and gave his name to) the twentieth century's largest ground-based telescope. Like mirrors themselves, Mirror Mirror is a book of endless wonder and fascination.
This volume presents surveys from a workshop held during the theme year in geometry and topology at the Centre de recherches mathematiques (CRM, University of Montreal, Canada). The volume is in some senses a sequel to Mirror Symmetry I (1998) and Mirror Symmetry II (1996), co-published by the AMS and International Press. It is intended for graduate students, research mathematicians and physicists working in mathematics and theoretical physics, especially in algebraic or complex geometry or conformal field theory
Industrial Cutting of Textile Materials, Second Edition, is a comprehensive guide to cutting room operations, offering step-by-step information on processes, technologies and best practice. This new edition is updated to present the latest advances in automated cutting technology, including advanced spreading methods and machines, advanced knife cutting systems, and pattern matching methods processing garment, home and technical textiles. Drawing on her extensive practical experience, the author begins by reviewing initial steps, such as unloading, sorting and quality control of materials, before discussing subsequent operations, including lay planning and marker making, manual and automated spreading and cutting, fusing of cut components, and final work operations such as sorting cut components for further joining. The book also covers manual and advanced automated marker making, spreading and cutting methods for more intricate fabrics, such as striped fabrics and fabrics with check, motif and border patterns, narrow lace and fabrics with pile. With essential information on cutting room operations and best practice, this book provides engineers, technologists and managers with the knowledge they need to maximize accuracy and efficiency, to control production processes effectively, and to improve product quality. The book also enables academics and students engaged in the field of textile and clothing technology to gain a solid understanding of cutting room procedures. - Provides production managers, technologists, and other manufacturing specialists of textile goods the knowledge they need in order to increase raw material utilization and with it reduce productions costs, maximise cutting process efficiency, control production processes effectively, and improve ready product quality - Describes spreading and cutting of garment, home and technical textiles - Includes guidance on best practice dealing with intricate fabrics - Enables readers to benefit from the latest advances in automated textile cutting technologies
