Any genus $g$ surface, $\Sigma_{g,n},$ with $n$ boundary components may be given a trinion decomposition: a realization of the surface as a union of $2g-2+n$ trinions glued together along $3g-3+n$ of their boundary circles. Together with the flows of Goldman, Jeffrey and Weitsman use the trinion boundary circles in a decomposition of $\Sigma_{g,n}$ to obtain a Hamiltonian action of a compact torus $(S^1)^{3g-3+n'} $ on an open dense subset of the moduli space of certain gauge equivalence classes of flat $SU(2)-$connections on $\Sigma_{g,n}.$ Jeffrey and Weitsman also provide a complete description of the moment polytopes for these torus actions, and we make use of this description to study the cohomology of associated toric varieties. While we are able to make use of the work of Danilov to obtain the integral (rational) cohomology ring in the smooth (orbifold) case, we show that the aforementioned toric varieties almost always possess singularities worse than those of an orbifold. In these cases we use an algorithm of Bressler and Lunts to recover the intersection cohomology Betti numbers using the combinatorial information provided by the corresponding moment polytopes. The main contribution of this thesis is a computation of the intersection cohomology Betti numbers for the toric varieties associated to trinion decomposed surfaces $\Sigma_{2,0},\Sigma_{2,1},\Sigma_{3,0}, \Sigma_{3,1}, \Sigma_{4,0},$ and $\Sigma_{4,1}.$

Any genus $g$ surface, $\Sigma_{g,n},$ with $n$ boundary components may be given a trinion decomposition: a realization of the surface as a union of $2g-2+n$ trinions glued together along $3g-3+n$ of their boundary circles. Together with the flows of Goldman, Jeffrey and Weitsman use the trinion boundary circles in a decomposition of $\Sigma_{g,n}$ to obtain a Hamiltonian action of a compact torus $(S^1)^{3g-3+n'} $ on an open dense subset of the moduli space of certain gauge equivalence classes of flat $SU(2)-$connections on $\Sigma_{g,n}.$ Jeffrey and Weitsman also provide a complete description of the moment polytopes for these torus actions, and we make use of this description to study the cohomology of associated toric varieties. While we are able to make use of the work of Danilov to obtain the integral (rational) cohomology ring in the smooth (orbifold) case, we show that the aforementioned toric varieties almost always possess singularities worse than those of an orbifold. In these cases we use an algorithm of Bressler and Lunts to recover the intersection cohomology Betti numbers using the combinatorial information provided by the corresponding moment polytopes. The main contribution of this thesis is a computation of the intersection cohomology Betti numbers for the toric varieties associated to trinion decomposed surfaces $\Sigma_{2,0},\Sigma_{2,1},\Sigma_{3,0}, \Sigma_{3,1}, \Sigma_{4,0},$ and $\Sigma_{4,1}.$

Toric geometry studies manifolds M2n acted on effectively by a torus of half their dimension, Tn. Joyce shows that for such a 4-manifold sufficient conditions for a conformal class of metrics on the free part of the action to be self-dual can be given by a pair of linear ODEs and gives criteria for a metric in this class to extend to the degenerate orbits. Joyce and Calderbank-Pedersen use this result to find representatives which are scalar flat K¨ahler and self-dual Einstein respectively. We review some results concerning the topology of toric manifolds and the construction of Joyce metrics. We then extend this construction to give explicit complete scalar-flat K¨ahler and self-dual Einstein metrics on manifolds of infinite topological type, and to find a new family of Joyce metrics on open submanifolds of toric spaces. We then give two applications of these extensions — first, to give a large family of scalar flat K¨ahler perturbations of the Ooguri-Vafa metric, and second to search for a toric scalar flat K¨ahler metric on a neighbourhood of the origin in C2 whose restriction to an annulus on the degenerate hyperboloid {(z1, z2)|z1z2 = 0} is the cusp metric.

Gauge theories is one of the most pervasive and important subject of modern theoretical physics, and there are still many things about them we do not understand. In particular dealing with strongly coupled theories where normal perturbative techniques do not apply is a fundamental open problem. In this thesis, we study a particular class of toy-models that have supersymmetry, which makes them much easier to deal with. We employ the mathematical technique of localization, which for supersymmetric theories lets us evaluate certain path integrals exactly and for any value of the coupling. This is used to study the 5d N=1 theories placed on toric Sasaki-Einstein manifolds and compute their partition functions, finding that they factorize into a product of contributions from each closed Reeb orbit of the manifold. This computation leads us to define two new hierarchies of special functions associated to these manifolds, and we study their properties. Finally, we use the 5d N=1 theories to construct new 4d N=2 theories on a large class of curved backgrounds. These theories have some interesting features, such as supporting both instantons and anti-instantons, and having a position-dependent complexified coupling constant.

Systems of polynomial equations appear both in mathematics, as well as in many applications in the sciences, economics and engineering. Solving these systems is at the heart of computational algebraic geometry, a field which is often associated with symbolic computations based on Gr¨obner bases. Over the last thirty years, increasing performance and versatility made numerical algebraic geometry emerge as an alternative. It enables us to solve problems which are infeasible with symbolic methods. The focus of this thesis is the rich interplay between algebraic geometry, numerical computation and optimization in various instances. As a first application of algebraic geometry, we investigate global optimization problems whose objective function and constraints are all described by multivariate polynomials. One of the most important, and also most common, features of real world data is sparsity. We explore the effects of sparsity in global optimization, when exhibited by constraints and objective functions. Exploiting this property can lead to dramatic improvements of computational performance of algorithms. As a second application of geometry we study a particularly structured class of polynomial programs which stems from the optimization of sequencial decision rules. In the framework of partially observable Markov decision rules, an agent manipulates a system in a sequence of events. It selects an action at every time step, which in turn influences the state of the system at the next time step, and depending on the state it receives an instantaneous reward. Optimizing the long term reward has a long-standing history in computer science, economics and statistics. The ability to incorporate nondeterministic effects makes the framework particularly well suited for real world applications. We initiate a novel, geometric perspective on the underlying optimization problem and explore algorithmic consequences. As a third application of geometry we present the usage of tropical geometry in order to numerically compute defining equations of unirational varieties from their parametrization. Tropical geometry is an emerging field in mathematics at the boundary of discrete geometry and algebraic geometry. The tropicalization of a variety is a polyhedral complex which encodes geometric information of the variety. Tropical implicitization means computing the tropicalization of a unirational variety from its parametrization. In the case of a hypersurface, this amounts to finding the Newton polytope of the implicit equation, without computing its coefficients. We use this as a preprocessing step for numerical computation. Contrary to the above uses of geometry in application, we also employ numerical computation in pure mathematics. When relying on numerical methods, problems can be solved that are infeasible with symbolic methods, but the computational results lack a certificate for correctness. This often hinders the application of numerical computation with the purpose of proving mathematical theorems. With this in mind, we develop interval arithmetic as a practical tool for certification in numerical algebraic geometry.:1. Introduction 2. Certifying zeros of polynomial systems using interval arithmetic 3. Algebraic methods in decision processes 4. Discriminants and tropical implicitization

Cette thèse concerne le problème de trouver une notion naturelle de «courbure scalaire» en géométrie kählérienne généralisée. L'approche utilisée consiste à calculer l'application moment pour l'action du groupe des difféomorphismes hamiltoniens sur l'espace des structures kählériennes généralisées de type symplectique. En effet, il est bien connu que l'application moment pour la restriction de cette action aux structures kählériennes s'identifie à la courbure scalaire riemannienne. On se limite à une certaine classe de structure kählériennes généralisées sur les variétés toriques notée $DGK_{\omega}^{\mathbb{T}}(M)$ que l'on reconnaît comme étant classifiées par la donnée d'une matrice antisymétrique $C$ et d'une fonction réelle strictement convexe $\tau$ (ayant un comportement adéquat au voisinage de la frontière du polytope moment). Ce point de vue rend évident le fait que toute structure kählérienne torique peut être déformée en un élément non kählérien de $DGK_{\omega}^{\mathbb{T}}(M)$, et on note que cette déformation à lieu le long d'une des classes que R. Goto a démontré comme étant libre d'obstruction. On identifie des conditions suffisantes sur une paire $(\tau,C)$ pour qu'elle donne lieu à un élément de $DGK_{\omega}^{\mathbb{T}}(M)$ et on montre qu'en dimension 4, ces conditions sont également nécessaires. Suivant l'adage «l'application moment est la courbure» mentionné ci-haut, des formules pour des notions de «courbure scalaire hermitienne généralisée» et de «courbure scalaire riemannienne généralisée» (en dimension 4) sont obtenues en termes de la fonction $\tau$. Enfin, une expression de la courbure scalaire riemannienne généralisée en termes de la structure bihermitienne sous-jacente est dégagée en dimension 4. Lorsque comparée avec le résultat des physiciens Coimbra et al., notre formule suggère un choix canonique pour le dilaton de leur théorie. / This thesis is about the problem of finding a natural notion of "scalar curvature" in generalized Kähler geometry. The approach taken here is to compute the moment map for the action of the group of hamiltonian diffeomorphisms on the space of generalized Kähler structures of symplectic type. Indeed, it is well known that the moment map for the restriction of this action to the space of ordinary Kähler structures can be naturally identified with the riemannian scalar curvature. We concern ourselves only with a certain class of generalized Kähler structures on toric manifolds which we denote by $DGK_{\omega}^{\mathbb{T}}(M)$ and which we recognize as being classified by the data of an antisymetric matrix $C$ and a real-valued strictly convex functions $\tau$ (exhibiting appropriate behavior on a neighborhood of the boundary of the moment polytope). This viewpoint makes obvious the fact that any toric Kähler structure can be deformed to a non-Kähler element of $DGK_{\omega}^{\mathbb{T}}(M)$, and we note that this deformation happens along one of the classes which were shown by R. Goto to be unobstructed. We identify sufficient conditions on a pair $(\tau,C)$ for it to define an element of $DGK_{\omega}^{\mathbb{T}}(M)$ and we show that in dimension 4, these conditions are also necessary. Following the adage "the moment map is the curvature" mentioned above, formulas for notions of "generalized Hermitian scalar curvature" and "generalized Riemannian scalar curvature" (in dimension 4) are obtained in terms of the function $\tau$. Finally, an expression for the generalized Riemannian scalar curvature in terms of the underlying bi-Hermitian structure is found in dimension 4. When compared with the results of the physicists Coimbra et al., our formula suggests a canonical choice for the dilaton of their theory.

Cette thèse établit l'existence d'une variante de l'homologie de Floer de type Morse-Bott. Étant donnés une variété torique (W²ⁿ, ω, µ) et un hamiltonien H : W × S ¹ → ℝ invariant par l’action du tore de dimension n Tⁿ, , les orbites de H sont stables par l’action torique. Cette dernière admettant des points fixes dans W, elle n’est pas libre, pareillement pour celle induit sur les lacets de W et il est, a priori, impossible de construire une théorie de Morse-Bott équivariante au niveau de C∞(S¹, W)/Tⁿ. Nous remédions à ce problème en adoptant la construction de Borel : nous choisissons un espace E contractile muni d’une action libre du tore regardons l’homologie de Morse-Bott en dimension infinie de l’espace (C∞(S¹, W) × E)/Tⁿ où Tⁿ agit cette fois de manière diagonale sur le produit.L’homologie obtenue est un invariant pour les variétés symplectiques toriques et nous le calculons dans le cas d’une variété fermée. / This thesis establishes the existence of a version of Floer homology in a Morse-Bottcontext. Given a toric manifold (Wⁿ, ω, µ) and a hamiltonian H : W × S¹ → ℝ invariant bythe action of the torus Tⁿ, the periodical orbits of H are stable by the toric action.The latter admits fix points in W and hence it not free, neither one induced on the spaceof the loops of W and it is, a priori, impossible to establish a equivariant infinite-dimensionalMorse-Bott theory on C∞(S¹, W)/Tⁿ. We deal with this problem using Borel’s construction : we choose a space contractible E witha free action from the torus and look at the infinite-dimensional Morse-Bott homology of thespace (C∞(S¹, W) × E)/Tⁿ where Tⁿ act in a diagonal way on the product.We obtain an invariant for symplectic toric manifold and computes it for a closed manifold.

Dans cette thèse on s’intéresse à deux types de structures conformes non-dégénérées sur une variété complexe compacte donnée. La première c’est une forme holomorphe symplectique twistée (THS), i.e. une deux-forme holomorphe non-dégénérée à valeurs dans un fibré en droites. Dans le deuxième contexte, il s’agit des métriques localement conformément kähleriennes (LCK). Dans la première partie, on se place sur un variété de type Kähler. Les formes THS généralisent les formes holomorphes symplectiques, dont l’existence équivaut à ce que la variété admet une structure hyperkählerienne, par un théorème de Beauville. On montre un résultat similaire dans le cas twisté, plus précisément: une variété compacte de type kählerien qui admet une structure THS est un quotient fini cyclique d’une variété hyperkählerienne. De plus, on étudie sous quelles conditions une variété localement hyperkählerienne admet une structure THS. Dans la deuxième partie, les variétés sont supposées de type non-kählerien. Nous présentons quelques critères pour l’existence ou non-existence de métriques LCK spéciales, en terme du groupe de biholomorphismes de la variété. En outre, on étudie le problème d’irréductibilité analytique des variétés LCK, ainsi que l’irréductibilité de la connexion de Weyl associée. Dans un troisième temps, nous étudions les variétés LCK toriques, qui peuvent être définies en analogie avec les variétés de Kähler toriques. Nous montrons qu’une variété LCK torique compacte admet une métrique de Vaisman torique, ce qui mène à une classification de ces variétés par le travail de Lerman. Dans la dernière partie, on s’intéresse aux propriétés cohomologiques des variétés d’Oeljeklaus-Toma (OT). Plus précisément, nous calculons leur cohomologie de de Rham et celle twistée. De plus, on démontre qu’il existe au plus une classe de de Rham qui représente la forme de Lee d’une métrique LCK sur un variété OT. Finalement, on détermine toutes les classes de cohomologie twistée des métriques LCK sur ces variétés. / In this thesis, we are concerned with two types of non-degenerate conformal structures on a given compact complex manifold. The first structure we are interested in is a twisted holomorphic symplectic (THS) form, i.e. a holomorphic non-degenerate two-form valued in a line bundle. In the second context, we study locally conformally Kähler (LCK) metrics. In the first part, we deal with manifolds of Kähler type. THS forms generalise the well-known holomorphic symplectic forms, the existence of which is equivalent to the manifold admitting a hyperkähler structure, by a theorem of Beauville. We show a similar result in the twisted case, namely: a compact manifold of Kähler type admitting a THS structure is a finite cyclic quotient of a hyperkähler manifold. Moreover, we study under which conditions a locally hyperkähler manifold admits a THS structure. In the second part, manifolds are supposed to be of non-Kähler type. We present a few criteria for the existence or non-existence for special LCK metrics, in terms of the group of biholomorphisms of the manifold. Moreover, we investigate the analytic irreducibility issue for LCK manifolds, as well as the irreducibility of the associated Weyl connection. Thirdly, we study toric LCK manifolds, which can be defined in analogy with toric Kähler manifolds. We show that a compact toric LCK manifold always admits a toric Vaisman metric, which leads to a classification of such manifolds by the work of Lerman. In the last part, we study the cohomological properties of Oeljeklaus-Toma (OT) manifolds. Namely, we compute their de Rham and twisted cohomology. Moreover, we prove that there exists at most one de Rham class which represents the Lee form of an LCK metric on an OT manifold. Finally, we determine all the twisted cohomology classes of LCK metrics on these manifolds.