T-Duality for Torus Bundles with H-Fluxes via Noncommutative Topology
It is known that the T-dual of a circle bundle with H-flux (given by a Neveu-Schwarz 3-form) is the T-dual circle bundle with dual H-flux. However, it is also known that torus bundles with H-flux do not necessarily have a T-dual which is a torus bundle. A big puzzle has been to explain these mysterious “missing T-duals.” Here we show that this problem is resolved using noncommutative topology. It turns out that every principal T2-bundle with H-flux does indeed have a T-dual, but in the missing cases (which we characterize), the T-dual is non-classical and is a bundle of noncommutative tori. The duality comes with an isomorphism of twisted K-theories, just as in the classical case. The isomorphism of twisted cohomology which one gets in the classical case is replaced by an isomorphism of twisted cyclic homology.

title: A noncommutative sigma-model
abstract: We begin to study a sigma-model in which both the space-time manifold and the two-dimensional string world-sheet are made noncommutative. The most precise results apply to the case where both the space-time manifold and the two-dimensional string world-sheet are replaced by noncommutative tori. In this situation, we are able to determine when maps between such noncommutative tori exist, to derive the Euler-Lagrange equations, to classify many of the critical points of the Lagrangian, and to study the associated partition function.

title: D-branes, KK-theory and duality on noncommutative spaces
abstract: We present a new categorical classification framework for D-brane charges on noncommutative manifolds using methods of bivariant K-theory. We describe several applications including an explicit formula for D-brane charge in cyclic homology, a refinement of open string T-duality, and a general criterion for cancellation of global worldsheet anomalies.

title: T-duality for circle bundles via noncommutative geometry
abstract: Recently Baraglia showed how topological T-duality can be ex- tended to apply not only to principal circle bundles, but also to non-principal circle bundles. We show that his results can also be recovered via two other methods: the homotopy-theoretic approach of Bunke and Schick, and the non- commutative geometry approach which we previously used for principal torus bundles. This work has several interesting byproducts, including a study of the K-theory of crossed products by e O(2) = Isom(R), the universal cover of O(2), and some interesting facts about equivariant K-theory for Z/2. In the final section of this paper, some of these results are extended to the case of bundles with singular fibers, or in other words, non-free O(2)-actions.

title: K-theoretic matching of brane charges in S- and U-duality
abstract: We discuss K-theoretic matching of D-brane charges in the string duality between type I on T 4 and type IIA on K3. This case is more complex than the familiar case of IIA/IIB duality, which is already well understood, but it turns out that replacing K3 by its orbifold blow-down seems largely to resolve the apparent problems with the theory.

title: Dualities in Field Theories and the Role of K-Theory
abstract: It is now known (or in some cases just believed) that many quantum field theories exhibit dualities, equivalences with the same or a different theory in which things appear very different, but the overall physical implications are the same. We will discuss some of these dualities from the point of view of a mathematician, focusing on "charge conservation" and the role played by K-theory and noncommutative geometry. Some of the work described here is joint with Mathai Varghese and Stefan Mendez-Diez; the last section is new.

title: Design of the Chicago Air Shower Array