Spectra and strains

Abstract

This is a blend of two informal reports on the activities of the seminar on Galois representations and mirror symmetry given at the Conference on classification problems and mirror duality at the Steklov Institute, in March 2006, and at the Seminar on Algebra, Geometry and Physics at MPI, in November 2007. We assess where we are on the issue of the spectra of Fano varieties, and state problems. We introduce higher dimensional irreducible analogues of dessins, the low ramified sheaves, and hypothesize that Fano spectra relate to their geometric conductors. We give a recipe to a physicist.