arXiv research

New invariants defined from 6d fivebrane theory BPS states.

We study the cohomological physics of fivebranes in type II and heterotic string theory. We give an interpretation of the one-loop term in type IIA, which involves the first and second Pontrjagin classes of spacetime, in terms of obstructions to having bundles with certain structure groups. Using a generalization of th…

Study of knot complements yields quantum modularity insights.

We study supergravity solutions corresponding to fivebranes wrapped on a three-sphere inside a G_2 holonomy manifold. By changing a parameter the solutions interpolate between a G_2 manifold X_i \cong S^3 x R^4 with flux on a three-sphere and a distinct G_2 manifold X_j \cong S^3 x R^4 with branes on another three-sphe…

We show that 3D gravity, in its pure connection formulation, admits a natural 6D interpretation. The 3D field equations for the connection are equivalent to 6D Hitchin equations for the Chern-Simons 3-form in the total space of the principal bundle over the 3-dimensional base. Turning this construction around one gets …

New 4-manifold invariants derived from vertex algebras.

The abstract discusses fiber sum formulas for 4-manifolds using topological modular forms.

In the background effective field theory of heterotic string theory, the Green-Schwarz anomaly cancellation mechanism plays a key role. Here we reinterpret it and its magnetic dual version in terms of differential twisted String- and differential twisted Fivebrane-structures that generalize the notion of Spin-structure…

Extending previous work that involved D3-branes ending on a fivebrane with $θ_{\mathrm{YM}}\not=0$, we consider a similar two-sided problem. This construction, in case the fivebrane is of NS type, is associated to the three-dimensional Chern-Simons theory of a supergroup U$(m|n)$ or OSp$(m|2n)$ rather than an ordinary …

We study solutions of the Bogomolny equation on R^2\times S^1$ with prescribed singularities. We show that Nahm transform establishes a one-to-one correspondence between such solutions and solutions of the Hitchin equations on a punctured cylinder with the eigenvalues of the Higgs field growing at infinity in a particu…

Motivated by physical constructions of homological knot invariants, we study their analogs for closed 3-manifolds. We show that fivebrane compactifications provide a universal description of various old and new homological invariants of 3-manifolds. In terms of 3d/3d correspondence, such invariants are given by the Q-c…

Anomaly cancellation condition for M5-brane action is proven using twisted Cohomotopy.

Study 6D localized matter spectrum on singular Calabi-Yau 3-folds.

The paper proves transversality for special Lagrangian submanifolds in a 6D manifold.

Connects 4-manifold topology to topological modular forms.

Corrected an error in a 6D Nijenhuis tensor theorem.

Topological field theories of 2- and 3-forms in 6D, showing no propagating degrees of freedom.

In fivebrane compactifications on 3-manifolds, we point out the importance of all flat connections in the proper definition of the effective 3d N=2 theory. The Lagrangians of some theories with the desired properties can be constructed with the help of homological knot invariants that categorify colored Jones polynomia…

We present a survey of the calibrated geometries arising in the study of the local singularity structure of supersymmetric fivebranes in M-theory. We pay particular attention to the geometries of 4-planes in eight dimensions, for which we present some new results as well as many details of the computations. We also ana…

Extended symmetries and anomalies in compactified 6d SCFTs on various internal manifolds.

The paper studies rational higher tangential structures from Lie groups, revealing systematic effects of variations.

Proposes Teichmüller TQFT as a Chern-Simons theory with a new integration cycle.

Abstract M5 branes on ADE singularities yields BPS spectrum and partition functions.

Classifies complex structures on 6D Lie algebras as products.

We consider the topological and geometric structures associated with cohomological and homological objects in M-theory. For the latter, we have M2-branes and M5-branes, the analysis of which requires the underlying spacetime to admit a String structure and a Fivebrane structure, respectively. For the former, we study h…

We describe rules for building 2d theories labeled by 4-manifolds. Using the proposed dictionary between building blocks of 4-manifolds and 2d N=(0,2) theories, we obtain a number of results, which include new 3d N=2 theories T[M_3] associated with rational homology spheres and new results for Vafa-Witten partition fun…

We systematically analyse the necessary and sufficient conditions for the preservation of supersymmetry for bosonic geometries of the form R^{1,9-d} \times M_d, in the common NS-NS sector of type II string theory and also type I/heterotic string theory. The results are phrased in terms of the intrinsic torsion of G-str…

String structures in degree four are associated with cancellation of anomalies of string theory in ten dimensions. Fivebrane structures in degree eight have recently been shown to be associated with cancellation of anomalies associated to the NS5-brane in string theory as well as the M5-brane in M-theory. We introduce …

Study on Dirac operators on 6D manifolds with boundary.

6D manifolds with special symmetries have limited automorphism groups.

Generic low-entropy hypersurfaces in 4-6D flow with only generic singularities.

We develop an approach to Khovanov homology of knots via gauge theory (previous physics-based approches involved other descriptions of the relevant spaces of BPS states). The starting point is a system of D3-branes ending on an NS5-brane with a nonzero theta-angle. On the one hand, this system can be related to a Chern…

These notes are based on lectures given at the Clay School on Geometry and String Theory, Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge, 25 March - 19 April 2002. They attempt to provide an elementary and somewhat self contained discussion of the construction of supergravity solutions describing branes wrapping calibrated cycles, …

We study complex Chern-Simons theory on a Seifert manifold $M_3$ by embedding it into string theory. We show that complex Chern-Simons theory on $M_3$ is equivalent to a topologically twisted supersymmetric theory and its partition function can be naturally regularized by turning on a mass parameter. We find that the d…

New result on energy-genus bounds for 6D symplectic Calabi-Yau manifolds.

Study of black hole entropy from 4d theories on hyperbolic manifolds.

We study knots in 3d Chern-Simons theory with complex gauge group $SL(N,\mathbb{C})$, in the context of its relation with 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ theory (the so-called 3d-3d correspondence). The defect has either co-dimension 2 or co-dimension 4 inside the 6d $(2,0)$ theory, which is compactified on a 3-manifold $\hat{M}$. …

The paper explores how fields in higher dimensions are quantized.

The paper derives curvature identities for 5D and 6D Einstein manifolds.

New invariants for 3-manifolds derived from supergroup representations.

Studying the M-branes leads us naturally to new structures that we call Membrane-, Membrane^c-, String^K(Z,3)- and Fivebrane^K(Z,4)-structures, which we show can also have twisted counterparts. We study some of their basic properties, highlight analogies with structures associated with lower levels of the Whitehead tow…

Criterion found for blowing down in 6D symplectic geometry.

We propose a new description of 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ theories which do not admit conventional Lagrangians. Given a quiver $Q$ and a mutation sequence $m$ on it, we define a 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ theory $\mathcal{T}[(Q,m)]$ in such a way that the $S^3_b$ partition function of the theory coincides with the cluster partition f…

In this note we find the metric of 6-dimensional h-space of the [33] type and then determine an important projective group characteristic of this h-space.

We compute the equivariant elliptic genera of several classes of ALE and ALF manifolds using localization in gauged linear sigma models. In the sigma model computation the equivariant action corresponds to chemical potentials for U(1) currents and the elliptic genera exhibit interesting pole structure as a function of …

We simplify and extend a 6D conformal gravity theory to 8D, linking it to Q-curvature.

What are called secondary characteristic classes in Chern-Weil theory are a refinement of ordinary characteristic classes of principal bundles from cohomology to differential cohomology. We consider the problem of refining the construction of secondary characteristic classes from cohomology sets to cocycle spaces; and …

Classifies theories with eight supercharges using pseudo-periodic maps and Riemann surfaces.