in connection to mirror symmetry, in the 1980s the first superstring theory revolution happened, it was when in 1985 Strominger submitted a paper
New manifolds for superstring compactification
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01216094
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and in 1991 a 2D gravity was used by Strominger et al to study hawking radiation
https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/9111056
well... i also study a 2D gravity, a (1+1)-dimensionally reduced version of GR, still a work in progress
https://foxtrotpaparomeo.wordpress.com/2022/12/05/rough-draft05122022static-solutions-to-einsteins-field-equations-in-11-space-time/