Special Langrangian geometry and slightly deformed algebraic geometry (spLag and sdAG)

Abstract

The special geometry of calibrated cycles, closely related to mirror symmetry among Calabi--Yau 3-folds, is itself a real form of a new subject, which we call slightly deformed algebraic geometry. On the other hand, both of these geometries are parallel to classical gauge theories and their complexifications. This article explains this parallelism, so that the appearance of invariants of new type in complexified gauge theory (see Donaldson--Thomas [D-T] and Thomas [T]) can be accompanied by analogous invariants in the theory of special Lagrangian cycles, for which the development is at present much more modest than in gauge theory. We discuss related geometric constructions, arising from mirror symmetry and symplectic geometry.