arXiv research

Study S-duality and supersymmetry on curved manifolds using localization.

We study AKSZ-type BV constructions for the topological A- and B-models within a double field theory formulation that incorporates backgrounds with geometric and non-geometric fluxes. We relate them to a Courant sigma-model, on an open membrane, corresponding to a generalized complex structure, which reduces to the A- …

This work continues the study of $F$--manifolds $(M,\circ)$, first defined by Hertling and Manin and investigated in [He]. The notion of a compatible flat structure $\nabla$ is introduced, and it is shown that many constructions known for Frobenius manifolds do not in fact require invariant metrics and can be developed…

Here we survey questions and results on the Hodge theory of hyperkaehler quotients, motivated by certain S-duality considerations in string theory. The problems include L^2 harmonic forms, Betti numbers and mixed Hodge structures on the moduli spaces of Yang-Mills instantons on ALE gravitational instantons, magnetic mo…

We study S-dualities in analytically continued SL(2) Chern-Simons theory on a 3-manifold M. By realizing Chern-Simons theory via a compactification of a 6d five-brane theory on M, various objects and symmetries in Chern-Simons theory become related to objects and operations in dual 2d, 3d, and 4d theories. For example,…

Establishes a duality theorem connecting quasimorphisms and commutator lengths in group theory.

We study Wilson-'t Hooft loop operators in a class of N=2 superconformal field theories recently introduced by Gaiotto. In the case that the gauge group is a product of SU(2) groups, we classify all possible loop operators in terms of their electric and magnetic charges subject to the Dirac quantization condition. We t…

Mathematical proof of S-duality and universal isometries in q-map spaces.

Definition of the partition function of U(1) gauge theory is extended to a class of four-manifolds containing all compact spaces and certain asymptotically locally flat (ALF) ones including the multi-Taub--NUT spaces. The partition function is calculated via zeta-function regularization with special attention to its mo…

We show that the graph TQFT for Heegaard Floer homology satisfies a strong version of Atiyah's duality axiom for a TQFT. As an application, we compute some Heegaard Floer mixed invariants of 4-dimensional mapping tori in terms of Lefschetz numbers on $HF^+$.

S-dual of Hamiltonian spaces connects to Langlands duality.

We enhance the action of higher abelian gauge theory associated to a gerbe on an M5-brane with an action of a torus ${\mathbb T}^n (n\ge 2)$, by a noncommutative ${\mathbb T}^n$-deformation of the M5-brane. The ingredients of the noncommutative action and equations of motion include the deformed Hodge duality, deformed…

In this note we introduce the concept of F-algebroid, and give its elementary properties and some examples. We provide a description of the almost duality for Frobenius manifolds, introduced by Dubrovin, in terms of a composition of two anchor maps of a unique cotangent F-algebroid.

Study topological correlators for $SU(2)$ SYM on four-manifolds, deriving explicit formulae and confirming S-duality.

Mathematical study of instanton corrected q-map spaces and their isometries.

We study twisted N=2 superconformal gauge theory on a product of two Riemann surfaces Sigma and C. The twisted theory is topological along C and holomorphic along Sigma and does not depend on the gauge coupling or theta-angle. Upon Kaluza-Klein reduction along Sigma, it becomes equivalent to a topological B-model on C …

We establish a Kobayashi-Hitchin correspondence between solutions of the extended Bogomolny equation with a Dirac type singularity and Hecke modifications of Higgs bundles. This correspondence was conjectured by Witten and plays an important role in the physical description of the the geometric Langlands program in ter…

New methods compute geometry of hyperKähler metrics at infinity.

Topological twists for 4d N=2 theories depend on spacetime type, gerbe connections, and generalized spin-c structures.

A result of Jost and Zuo is used to show that for a large class of finite-dimensional hyperkähler quotients, the only L2 harmonic forms lie in the middle dimension, and are of type (k,k) with respect to all complex structures. The argument is extended to some moduli spaces which appear as infinite-dimensional quotients…

We prove that for any euclidean ring R and n at least 6, Gamma=SL_n(R) has no unbounded quasi-homomorphisms. From Bavard's duality theorem, this means that the stable commutator length vanishes on Gamma. The result is particularly interesting for R = F[x] for a certain field F (such as the field C of complex numbers, b…

We show that if a Legendrian knot in standard contact ${\bb R}^3$ possesses a generating family then there exists an augmentation of the Chekanov-Eliashberg DGA so that the associated linearized contact homology (LCH) is isomorphic to singular homology groups arising from the generating family. In this setting we show …

Novel gauge-theoretic Floer homologies defined from 5d N=2 theory, linking 4, 3, and 2-manifolds.

The Langlands Program was launched in the late 60s with the goal of relating Galois representations and automorphic forms. In recent years a geometric version has been developed which leads to a mysterious duality between certain categories of sheaves on moduli spaces of (flat) bundles on algebraic curves. Three years …

We use the twistorial construction of D-instantons in Calabi-Yau compactifications of type II string theory to compute an explicit expression for the metric on the hypermultiplet moduli space affected by these non-perturbative corrections. In this way we obtain an exact quaternion-Kahler metric which is a non-trivial d…

Virtual invariants defined from sheaves on surfaces.

We consider the reduction along two compact directions of a twisted N=4 gauge theory on a 4-dimensional orientable manifold which is not a global product of two surfaces but contains a non-orientable surface. The low energy theory is a sigma-model on a 2-dimensional worldsheet with a boundary which lives on branes cons…

Bavard proved a duality theorem between commutator length and quasimorphisms. Burago, Ivanov and Polterovich introduced the notion of a conjugation-invariant norm which is a generalization of commutator length. Entov and Polterovich proved that Oh-Schwarz spectral invariants are subset-controlled quasimorphisms which a…

A vector field E on an F-manifold (M, o, e) is an eventual identity if it is invertible and the multiplication X*Y := X o Y o E^{-1} defines a new F-manifold structure on M. We give a characterization of such eventual identities, this being a problem raised by Manin. We develop a duality between F-manifolds with eventu…

We conjecture a formula for the refined $\mathrm{SU}(3)$ Vafa-Witten invariants of any smooth surface $S$ satisfying $H_1(S,\mathbb{Z}) = 0$ and $p_g(S)>0$. The unrefined formula corrects a proposal by Labastida-Lozano and involves unexpected algebraic expressions in modular functions. We prove that our formula satisfi…

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…

Proves Verdier duality for sheaves on stratified spaces.

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 …

In this paper we consider the topological side of a problem which is the analogue of Sen's S-duality testing conjecture for Hitchin's moduli space of rank 2 stable Higgs bundles of fixed determinant of odd degree over a Riemann surface. We prove that all intersection numbers in the compactly supported cohomology vanish…

We show that bi-flat $F$-manifolds can be interpreted as natural geometrical structures encoding the almost duality for Frobenius manifolds without metric. Using this framework, we extend Dubrovin's duality between orbit spaces of Coxeter groups and Veselov's $\vee$-systems, to the orbit spaces of exceptional well-gene…

Computes invariant for smooth h-cobordisms families, proving duality and vanishing theorems.

T-duality acts on circle bundles by exchanging the first Chern class with the fiberwise integral of the H-flux, as we motivate using E_8 and also using S-duality. We present known and new examples including NS5-branes, nilmanifolds, Lens spaces, both circle bundles over RP^n, and the AdS^5 x S^5 to AdS^5 x CP^2 x S^1 w…

Paper offers a dual formulation for consumption problem with multiplicative habit.

Survey on invariant quasimorphisms and their relation to stable commutator length.

Symplectic homology matches dual capacities for convex domains.

Cluster varieties are geometric objects that have recently found applications in several areas of mathematics and mathematical physics. This thesis studies the geometry of a large class of cluster varieties associated to compact oriented surfaces with boundary. The main original contribution of this thesis is to develo…

The paper explores gauge theory invariants and their duals via topological-holomorphic twist.

A theorem connects two Willmore energies in 4D.

We generalise the analysis in [arXiv:0904.1744] to superspace, and explicitly prove that for any embedding of surface operators in a general, twisted N=2 pure abelian theory on an arbitrary four-manifold, the parameters transform naturally under the SL(2,Z) duality of the theory. However, for nontrivially-embedded surf…

A manifold (M,I,J,K) is called hypercomplex if I,J,K are complex structures satisfying quaternionic relations. A quaternionic Hermitian metric is called HKT (hyperkaehler with torsion) if $Idω_I = Jd ω_J=Kdω_K$, where $ω_I,ω_J, ω_K$ are Hermitian forms associated with I, J, K. A Hermitian metric $ω$ on a complex manifo…

Stable commutator length scl_G(g) of an element g in a group G is an invariant for group elements sensitive to the geometry and dynamics of G. For any group G acting on a tree, we prove a sharp bound scl_G(g)>=1/2 for any g acting without fixed points, provided that the stabilizer of each edge is relatively torsion-fre…

This paper studies the interplay between the N=2 gauge theories in three and four dimensions that have a geometric description in terms of twisted compactification of the six-dimensional (2,0) SCFT. Our main goal is to construct the three-dimensional domain walls associated to any three-dimensional cobordism. We find t…

We formalize higher dimensional and higher gauge WZW-type sigma-model local prequantum field theory, and discuss its rationalized/perturbative description in (super-)Lie n-algebra homotopy theory (the true home of the "FDA"-language used in the supergravity literature). We show generally how the intersection laws for s…