Intersection Numbers from Higher-order Partial Differential Equations

Abstract

We propose a new method for the evaluation of intersection numbers for twisted meromorphic $n$-forms, through Stokes' theorem in $n$ dimensions. It is based on the solution of an $n$-th order partial differential equation and on the evaluation of multivariate residues. We also present an algebraic expression for the contribution from each multivariate residue. We illustrate our approach with a number of simple examples from mathematics and physics.