We derive the wall crossing formula for the decay of a quarter BPS dyon into a pair of half-BPS dyons by analyzing the quantum dynamics of multi-centered black holes in N=4 supersymmetric string theories. Our analysis encompasses the cases where the final decay products are non-primitive dyons. The results are in agreement with the microscopic formula for the dyon spectrum in the special case of heterotic string theory on T^6.
Recently, using supergravity analysis, a hyperbolic reflection group was found to underlie the structure of wall-crossing, or the discontinuous moduli dependence of the supersymmetric index due to the presence of walls of marginal stability, of the BPS dyons in the N=4, d=4 compactification. In this paper we work in the regime where four-dimensional gravity decouples and we show how the presence of such a group structure can be easily understood as a consequence of the supersymmetry of a system of (p,q) five-brane network, or equivalently the holomorphicity of the Riemann surface wrapped by th…
The original proposal of Dijkgraaf, Verlinde and Verlinde for the quarter BPS dyon partition function in heterotic string theory on T^6 is known to correctly produce the degeneracy of dyons of torsion 1, i.e. dyons for which gcd(Q\wedge P)=1. We propose a generalization of this formula for dyons of arbitrary torsion. Our proposal satisfies the constraints coming from S-duality invariance, wall crossing formula, black hole entropy and the gauge theory limit. Furthermore using our proposal we derive a general wall crossing formula that is valid even when both the decay products are non-primitive…
We determine the generating functions of 1/4 BPS dyons in a class of 4d $\mathcal{N}=4$ string vacua arising as CHL orbifolds of $K3 \times T^2$, a classification of which has been recently completed. We show that all such generating functions obey some simple physical consistency conditions that are very often sufficient to fix them uniquely. The main constraint we impose is the absence of unphysical walls of marginal stability: discontinuities of 1/4 BPS degeneracies can only occur when 1/4 BPS dyons decay into pairs of 1/2 BPS states. Formally, these generating functions in spacetime can be…
We propose a general set of constraints on the partition function of quarter BPS dyons in any N=4 supersymmetric string theory by drawing insight from known examples, and study the consequences of this proposal. The main ingredients of our analysis are duality symmetries, wall crossing formula and black hole entropy. We use our analysis to constrain the dyon partition function for two hitherto unknown cases -- the partition function of dyons of torsion two (i.e. gcd(Q\wedge P)=2) in heterotic string theory on T^6 and the partition function of dyons carrying untwisted sector electric charge in …
We study spectrum of D=2 N=(2,2) QED with N+1 massive charged chiral multiplets, with care given to precise supermultiplet countings. In the infrared the theory flows to CP^N model with twisted masses, where we construct generic flavored kink solitons for the large mass regime, and study their quantum degeneracies. These kinks are qualitatively different and far more numerous than those of small mass regime, with features reminiscent of multi-pronged (p,q) string web, complete with the wall-crossing behavior. It has been also conjectured that spectrum of this theory is equivalent to the hyperm…
We formulate supersymmetric low energy dynamics for BPS dyons in strongly-coupled N=2 Seiberg-Witten theories, and derive wall-crossing formulae thereof. For BPS states made up of a heavy core state and n probe (halo) dyons around it, we derive a reliable supersymmetric moduli dynamics with 3n bosonic coordinates and 4n fermionic superpartners. Attractive interactions are captured via a set of supersymmetric potential terms, whose detail depends only on the charges and the special Kaehler data of the underlying N=2 theories. The small parameters that control the approximation are not electric …
We present a microscopic index formula for the degeneracy of dyons in four-dimensional N=4 string theory. This counting formula is manifestly symmetric under the duality group, and its asymptotic growth reproduces the macroscopic Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. We give a derivation of this result in terms of the type II five-brane compactified on K3, by assuming that its fluctuations are described by a closed string theory on its world-volume. We find that the degeneracies are given in terms of the denominator of a generalized super Kac-Moody algebra. We also discuss the correspondence of this res…
We study various aspects of power suppressed as well as exponentially suppressed corrections in the asymptotic expansion of the degeneracy of quarter BPS dyons in N=4 supersymmetric string theories. In particular we explicitly calculate the power suppressed corrections up to second order and the first exponentially suppressed corrections. We also propose a macroscopic origin of the exponentially suppressed corrections using the quantum entropy function formalism. This suggests a universal pattern of exponentially suppressed corrections to all four dimensional extremal black hole entropies in s…
We outline a comprehensive and first-principle solution to the wall-crossing problem in D=4 N=2 Seiberg-Witten theories. We start with a brief review of the multi-centered nature of the typical BPS states and recall how the wall-crossing problem thus becomes really a bound state formation/dissociation problem. Low energy dynamics for arbitrary collections of dyons is derived, from Seiberg-Witten theory, with the proximity to the so-called marginal stability wall playing the role of the small expansion parameter. We find that, surprisingly, the $\mathbb{R}^{3n}$ low energy dynamics of n+1 BPS d…
We construct the partition function of 1/8 BPS dyons in type II string theory on T^6 from counting of microstates of a D1-D5 system in Taub-NUT space. Our analysis extends the earlier ones by Shih, Strominger and Yin and by Pioline by taking into account the walls of marginal stability on which a 1/8 BPS dyon can decay into a pair of half-BPS dyons. Across these walls the dyon spectrum changes discontinuously, and as a result the spectrum is not manifestly invariant under S-duality transformation of the charges. However the partition function is manifestly S-duality invariant and takes the sam…
The appearance of a generalized (or Borcherds-) Kac-Moody algebra in the spectrum of BPS dyons in N=4, d=4 string theory is elucidated. From the low-energy supergravity analysis, we identify its root lattice as the lattice of the T-duality invariants of the dyonic charges, the symmetry group of the root system as the extended S-duality group PGL(2,Z) of the theory, and the walls of Weyl chambers as the walls of marginal stability for the relevant two-centered solutions. This leads to an interpretation for the Weyl group as the group of wall-crossing, or the group of discrete attractor flows. F…
Motivated by recent advances in Donaldson-Thomas theory, four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=4$ string-string duality is examined in a reduced rank theory on a less studied BPS sector. In particular we identify candidate partition functions of "untwisted" quarter-BPS dyons in the heterotic $\mathbb{Z}_2$ CHL model by studying the associated chiral genus two partition function, based on the M-theory lift of string webs argument by Dabholkar and Gaiotto. This yields meromorphic Siegel modular forms for the Iwahori subgroup $B(2) \subset \text{Sp}_4 (\mathbb{Z}) $ which generate BPS indices for dyons w…
In $D=4,N=2$ theories on $R^{3,1}$, the index receives contributions not only from single-particle BPS states, counted by the BPS indices, but also from multi-particle states made of BPS constituents. In a recent work [arXiv:1406.2360], a general formula expressing the index in terms of the BPS indices was proposed, which is smooth across walls of marginal stability and reproduces the expected single-particle contributions. In this note, I analyze the two-particle contributions predicted by this formula, and show agreement with the spectral asymmetry of the continuum of scattering states in th…
In four dimensional string theories with N=4 and N=8 supersymmetries one can often define twisted index in a subspace of the moduli space which captures additional information on the partition function than the ones contained in the usual helicity trace index. We compute several such indices in type IIB string theory on K3 x T^2 and T^6, and find that they share many properties with the usual helicity trace index that captures the spectrum of quarter BPS states in N=4 supersymmetric string theories. In particular the partition function is a modular form of a subgroup of Sp(2,Z) and the jumps a…
N=2 Seiberg-Witten theories allow an interesting interplay between the Argyres-Douglas loci, singularity structures and wall-crossing formulae. In this paper we investigate this connection by first studying the singularity structures of hyper-elliptic Seiberg-Witten curves for pure N=2 gauge theories with SU(r+1) and Sp(2r) gauge groups, and propose new methods to locate the Argyres-Douglas loci in the moduli space, where multiple mutually non-local BPS states become massless. In a region of the moduli space, we compute dyon charges for all 2r+2 and 2r+1 massless dyons for SU(r+1) and Sp(2r) g…
We survey recent results on the exact dyon spectrum in a class of N=4 supersymmetric string theories, and discuss how the results can be understood from the macroscopic viewpoint using AdS_2/CFT_1 correspondence. The comparison between the microscopic and the macroscopic results includes power suppressed corrections to the entropy, the sign of the index, logarithmic corrections and also the twisted index measuring the distribution of discrete quantum numbers among the microstates.
We derive supersymmetric quantum mechanics of n BPS objects with 3n position degrees of freedom and 4n fermionic partners with SO(4) R-symmetry. The potential terms, essential and sufficient for the index problem for non-threshold BPS states, are universal, and 2(n-1) dimensional classical moduli spaces M_n emerge from zero locus of the potential energy. We emphasize that there is no natural reduction of the quantum mechanics to M_n, contrary to the conventional wisdom. Nevertheless, via an index-preserving deformation that breaks supersymmetry partially, we derive a Dirac index on M_n as the …
Motivated by precision counting of BPS black holes, we analyze six-derivative couplings in the low energy effective action of three-dimensional string vacua with 16 supercharges. Based on perturbative computations up to two-loop, supersymmetry and duality arguments, we conjecture that the exact coefficient of the $\nabla^2(\nablaϕ)^4$ effective interaction is given by a genus-two modular integral of a Siegel theta series for the non-perturbative Narain lattice times a specific meromorphic Siegel modular form. The latter is familiar from the Dijkgraaf-Verlinde-Verlinde (DVV) conjecture on exact…
We study the BPS spectrum and walls of marginal stability of the $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric theory in four dimensions with gauge group SU(n) and $n\le N_{f}<2n$ fundamental flavours at the root of the Higgs branch. The strong-coupling spectrum of this theory was conjectured in hep-th/9902134 to coincide with that of the two-dimensional supersymmetric $\mathbb{CP}^{2n-N_{f}-1}$ sigma model. Using the Kontsevich--Soibelman wall-crossing formula, we start with the conjectured strong-coupling spectrum and extrapolate it to all other regions of the moduli space. In the weak-coupling regime, our…
We study the dynamics of BPS string-like objects obtained by lifting monopole and dyon solutions of N=2 Super-Yang-Mills theory to five dimensions. We present exact traveling wave solutions which preserve half of the supersymmetries. Upon compactification this leads to macroscopic BPS rings in four dimensions in field theory. Due to the fact that the strings effectively move in six dimensions the same procedure can also be used to obtain rings in five dimensions by using the hidden dimension.
We investigate the structure of the macroscopic $n$-loop amplitude obtained from the two-matrix model at the unitary minimal critical point $(m+1,m)$. We derive a general formula for the $n$-resolvent correlator at the continuum planar limit whose inverse Laplace transform provides the amplitude in terms of the boundary lengths $\ell_{i}$ and the renormalized cosmological constant $t$. The amplitude is found to contain a term consisting of $\left( \frac{\partial} {\partial t} \right)^{n-3}$ multiplied by the product of modified Bessel functions summed over their degrees which conform to the fu…
BPS spectra give important insights into the non-perturbative regimes of supersymmetric theories. Often from the study of BPS states one can infer properties of the geometrical or algebraic structures underlying such theories. In this paper we approach this problem from the perspective of persistent homology. Persistent homology is at the base of topological data analysis, which aims at extracting topological features out of a set of points. We use these techniques to investigate the topological properties which characterize the spectra of several supersymmetric models in field and string theo…
