We prove that the topological recursion reconstructs the WKB expansion of a quantum curve for all spectral curves whose Newton polygons have no interior point (and that are smooth as affine curves). This includes nearly all previously known cases in the literature, and many more; in particular, it includes many quantum curves of order greater than two. We also explore the connection between the choice of ordering in the quantization of the spectral curve and the choice of integration divisor to reconstruct the WKB expansion.
The purpose of this article is to analyze the connection between Eynard-Orantin topological recursion and formal WKB solutions of a $\hbar$-difference equation: $Ψ(x+\hbar)=\left(e^{\hbar\frac{d}{dx}}\right) Ψ(x)=L(x;\hbar)Ψ(x)$ with $L(x;\hbar)\in GL_2( (\mathbb{C}(x))[\hbar])$. In particular, we extend the notion of determinantal formulas and topological type property proposed for formal WKB solutions of $\hbar$-differential systems to this setting. We apply our results to a specific $\hbar$-difference system associated to the quantum curve of the Gromov-Witten invariants of $\mathbb{P}^1$ f…
We show that a 2-parameter family of $τ$-functions for the first Painlevé equation can be constructed by the discrete Fourier transform of the topological recursion partition function for a family of elliptic curves. We also perform an exact WKB theoretic computation of the Stokes multipliers of associated isomonodromy system assuming certain conjectures.
Quantum curves were introduced in the physics literature. We develop a mathematical framework for the case associated with Hitchin spectral curves. In this context, a quantum curve is a Rees $\mathcal{D}$-module on a smooth projective algebraic curve, whose semi-classical limit produces the Hitchin spectral curve of a Higgs bundle. We give a method of quantization of Hitchin spectral curves by concretely constructing one-parameter deformation families of opers. We propose a variant of the topological recursion of Eynard--Orantin and Mirzakhani for the context of singular Hitchin spectral curve…
In this article, a novel description of the hypergeometric differential equation found from Gel'fand-Kapranov-Zelevinsky's system (referred to GKZ equation) for Givental's $J$-function in the Gromov-Witten theory will be proposed. The GKZ equation involves a parameter $\hbar$, and we will reconstruct it as the WKB expansion from the classical limit $\hbar\to 0$ via the topological recursion. In this analysis, the spectral curve (referred to GKZ curve) plays a central role, and it can be defined as the critical point set of the mirror Landau-Ginzburg potential. Our novel description is derived …
This is a survey article describing the relationship between quantum curves and topological recursion. A quantum curve is a Schrödinger operator-like noncommutative analogue of a plane curve which encodes (quantum) enumerative invariants in a new and interesting way. The Schrödinger operator annihilates a wave function which can be constructed using the WKB method, and conjecturally constructed in a rather different way via topological recursion.
We apply the Chekhov-Eynard-Orantin topological recursion to the curve corresponding to the quantum harmonic oscillator and demonstrate that the result is equivalent to the WKB wave function. We also show that using the multi-differentials obtained by the topological recursion from the harmonic oscillator curve, one generates naturally the so-called Poincaré polynomials associated with the orbifolds of the metric ribbon graphs.
Starting from a $d\times d$ rational Lax pair system of the form $\hbar \partial_x Ψ= LΨ$ and $\hbar \partial_t Ψ=RΨ$ we prove that, under certain assumptions (genus $0$ spectral curve and additional conditions on $R$ and $L$), the system satisfies the "topological type property". A consequence is that the formal $\hbar$-WKB expansion of its determinantal correlators, satisfy the topological recursion. This applies in particular to all $(p,q)$ minimal models reductions of the KP hierarchy, or to the six Painlevé systems.
In my joint papers with Iwaki and Koike ([IKoT1, IKoT2]) we found an intriguing relation between the Voros coefficients in the exact WKB analysis and the free energy in the topological recursion introduced by Eynard and Orantin in the case of the confluent family of the Gauss hypergeometric differential equations. In this paper we discuss its generalization to the case of the hypergeometric differential equations associated with $2$-dimensional degenerate Garnier systems.
We prove that the topological recursion formalism can be used to compute the WKB expansion of solutions of second order differential operators obtained by quantization of any hyper-elliptic curve. We express this quantum curve in terms of spectral Darboux coordinates on the moduli space of meromorphic $\mathfrak{sl}_2$-connections on $\mathbb{P}^1$ and argue that the topological recursion produces a $2g$-parameter family of associated tau functions, where $2g$ is the dimension of the moduli space considered. We apply this procedure to the 6 Painlevé equations which correspond to $g=1$ and cons…
The KP and 2D Toda tau-functions of hypergeometric type that serve as generating functions for weighted single and double Hurwitz numbers are related to the topological recursion programme. A graphical representation of such weighted Hurwitz numbers is given in terms of weighted constellations. The associated classical and quantum spectral spectral curves are derived, and these are interpreted combinatorially in terms of the graphical model. The pair correlators are given a finite Christoffel-Darboux representation and determinantal expressions are obtained for the multipair correlators. The g…
The \hbar-dependent KP hierarchy is a formulation of the KP hierarchy that depends on the Planck constant \hbar and reduces to the dispersionless KP hierarchy as \hbar -> 0. A recursive construction of its solutions on the basis of a Riemann-Hilbert problem for the pair (L,M) of Lax and Orlov-Schulman operators is presented. The Riemann-Hilbert problem is converted to a set of recursion relations for the coefficients X_n of an \hbar-expansion of the operator X = X_0 + \hbar X_1 + \hbar^2 X_2 +... for which the dressing operator W is expressed in the exponential form W = \exp(X/\hbar). Given th…
The goal of this article is to rederive the connection between the Painlevé $5$ integrable system and the universal eigenvalues correlation functions of double-scaled hermitian matrix models, through the topological recursion method. More specifically we prove, \textbf{to all orders}, that the WKB asymptotic expansions of the $τ$-function as well as of determinantal formulas arising from the Painlevé $5$ Lax pair are identical to the large $N$ double scaling asymptotic expansions of the partition function and correlation functions of any hermitian matrix model around a regular point in the bul…
Multiparametric families of hypergeometric $τ$-functions of KP or Toda type serve as generating functions for weighted Hurwitz numbers, providing weighted enumerations of branched covers of the Riemann sphere. A graphical interpretation of the weighting is given in terms of constellations mapped onto the covering surface. The theory is placed within the framework of topological recursion, with the Baker function at ${\bf t} ={\bf 0}$ shown to satisfy the quantum spectral curve equation, whose classical limit is rational. A basis for the space of formal power series in the spectral variable is …
We show that the topological recursion for the (semi-classical) spectral curve of the first Painlevé equation $P_{\rm I}$ gives a WKB solution for the isomonodromy problem for $P_{\rm I}$. In other words, the isomonodromy system is a quantum curve in the sense of [Dumitrescu O., Mulase M., Lett. Math. Phys. 104 (2014), 635-671, arXiv:1310.6022] and [Dumitrescu O., Mulase M., arXiv:1411.1023].
We generalize the topological recursion of Eynard-Orantin (2007) to the family of spectral curves of Hitchin fibrations. A spectral curve in the topological recursion, which is defined to be a complex plane curve, is replaced with a generic curve in the cotangent bundle $T^*C$ of an arbitrary smooth base curve $C$. We then prove that these spectral curves are quantizable, using the new formalism. More precisely, we construct the canonical generators of the formal $\hbar$-deformation family of $D$-modules over an arbitrary projective algebraic curve $C$ of genus greater than $1$, from the geome…
To any solution of a linear system of differential equations, we associate a kernel, correlators satisfying a set of loop equations, and in presence of isomonodromic parameters, a Tau function. We then study their semiclassical expansion (WKB type expansion in powers of the weight hbar per derivative) of these quantities. When this expansion is of topological type (TT), the coefficients of expansions are computed by the topological recursion with initial data given by the semiclassical spectral curve of the linear system. This provides an efficient algorithm to compute them at least when the s…
We propose a definition for a Tau function and a spinor kernel (closely related to Baker-Akhiezer functions), where times parametrize slow (of order 1/N) deformations of an algebraic plane curve. This definition consists of a formal asymptotic series in powers of 1/N, where the coefficients involve theta functions whose phase is linear in N and therefore features generically fast oscillations when N is large. The large N limit of this construction coincides with the algebro-geometric solutions of the multi-KP equation, but where the underlying algebraic curve evolves according to Whitham equat…
