We study the twisted indices of $\mathcal{N}=4$ supersymmetric gauge theories in three dimensions on spatial $S^{2}$ with an angular momentum refinement. We demonstrate factorisation of the index into holomorphic blocks for the $T[SU(N)]$ theory in the presence of generic fluxes and fugacities. We also investigate the relation between the twisted index, Hilbert series and the moduli space of vortices. In particular, we show that each holomorphic block coincides with a generating function for the $χ_{t}$ genera of the moduli spaces of "local" vortices. The twisted index itself coincides with a corresponding generating function for the $χ_{t}$ genera of moduli spaces of "global" vortices in agreement with a proposal of Bullimore et. al. We generalise this geometric interpretation of the twisted index to include fluxes and Chern-Simons levels. For the $T[SU(N)]$ theory, the relevant moduli spaces are the local and global versions of Laumon space respectively and we demonstrate the proposed agreements explicitly using results from the mathematical literature. Finally, we exhibit a precise relation between the Coulomb branch Hilbert series and the Poincaré polynomials of the corresponding vortex moduli spaces.
We compute logarithmic corrections to the twisted index $B^g_6$ in four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=4$ and $\mathcal{N}=8$ string theories using the framework of the Quantum Entropy Function. We find that these vanish, matching perfectly with the large--charge expansion of the corresponding microscopic expressions.
We study three-dimensional ${\mathcal N}=2$ supersymmetric gauge theories on ${Σ_g \times S^1}$ with a topological twist along $Σ_g$, a genus-$g$ Riemann surface. The twisted supersymmetric index at genus $g$ and the correlation functions of half-BPS loop operators on $S^1$ can be computed exactly by supersymmetric localization. For $g=1$, this gives a simple UV computation of the 3d Witten index. Twisted indices provide us with a clean derivation of the quantum algebra of supersymmetric Wilson loops, for any Yang-Mills-Chern-Simons-matter theory, in terms of the associated Bethe equations for…
We continue the study of 3d ${\mathcal N}=2$ Chern-Simons (CS) quiver gauge theories on $Σ_{\mathfrak{g}}\times S^1$. Using localization results, we compute the twisted index of recently constructed SCFTs in the large rank limit. According to AdS/CFT correspondence, this field theory computation gives a prediction for two quantities corresponding to their holographic duals: the volumes of certain 7-dimensional Sasaki-Einstein manifolds and the entropy of black holes in $\text{AdS}_4\times Y_7$.
We study the large $N$ limit of the refined topologically twisted index of three-dimensional $\mathcal{N} = 2$ gauge theories with a holographic dual, which is relevant for counting the number of microstates of rotating, magnetically charged and twisted AdS$_4$ black holes. As a difference with previous computations, we perform a direct saddle point analysis of the relevant matrix model. Among other things we explicitly identify the distribution of gauge magnetic fluxes that contributes at large $N$. The index exhibits a large $N$ factorized form in agreement with the supergravity expectations…
We revisit the factorisation of supersymmetric partition functions of 3d $\mathcal{N}=4$ gauge theories. The building blocks are hemisphere partition functions of a class of UV $\mathcal{N}=(2,2)$ boundary conditions that mimic the presence of isolated vacua at infinity in the presence of real mass and FI parameters. These building blocks can be unambiguously defined and computed using supersymmetric localisation. We show that certain limits of these hemisphere partition functions coincide with characters of lowest weight Verma modules over the quantised Higgs and Coulomb branch chiral rings. …
This thesis studies the algebro-geometric aspects of supersymmetric abelian gauge theories in three dimensions. The supersymmetric vacua are demonstrated to exhibit a window phenomenon in Chern-Simons levels, which is analogous to the window phenomenon in quantum K-theory with level structures. This correspondence between three-dimensional gauge theories and quantum K-theory is investigated from the perspectives of semi-classical vacua, twisted chiral rings, and twisted indices. In particular, the twisted index admits an algebro-geometric interpretation as the supersymmetric index of an effect…
We provide a formula for the partition function of five-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=1$ gauge theories on $\mathcal{M}_4 \times S^1$, topologically twisted along $\mathcal{M}_4$ in the presence of general background magnetic fluxes, where $\mathcal{M}_4$ is a toric Kähler manifold. The result can be expressed as a contour integral of the product of copies of the K-theoretic Nekrasov's partition function, summed over gauge magnetic fluxes. The formula generalizes to five dimensions the topologically twisted index of three- and four-dimensional field theories. We analyze the large $N$ limit of the p…
We explore the geometric interpretation of the twisted index of 3d ${\mathcal N} =4$ gauge theories on $S^1\times Σ$ where $Σ$ is a closed Riemann surface. We focus on a rich class of supersymmetric quiver gauge theories that have isolated vacua under generic mass and FI parameter deformations. We show that the path integral localises to a moduli space of generalised vortex equations on $Σ$, which can be understood algebraically as quasi-maps to the Higgs branch. We show that the twisted index reproduces the virtual Euler characteristic of the moduli spaces of twisted quasi-maps and demonstrat…
A 2-torsion topological phase exists for Hamiltonians symmetric under the wallpaper group with glide reflection symmetry, corresponding to the unorientable cycle of the Klein bottle fundamental domain. We prove a mod 2 twisted Toeplitz index theorem, which implies a bulk-edge correspondence between this bulk phase and the exotic topological zero modes that it acquires along a boundary glide axis.
We propose a general formula for the perturbative large N superconformal index of 5d quiver fixed point theories that have an AdS(6)xS(4)/Z(n) supergravity dual. This index is obtained from the parent theory by projecting to orbifold-invariant states and adding the twisted sector contributions. Our result agrees with expectations from the dual supergravity description. We test our formula against the direct computation of the index for Z(2) and Z(3) and find complete agreement.
We study the large $ N$ sign oscillation of the twisted indices for 3D theories of class $\mathcal{R}$ obtained from M5-branes wrapped on a hyperbolic 3-manifold. Holographically, the oscillatory behavior can be understood from the imaginary part of on-shell actions for the two Euclidean supergravity solutions, Bolt$_{\pm}$ with $p=0$, which are Wick rotation of magnetically charged AdS$_4$ black holes. The two solutions have the same imaginary part with opposite sign. The imaginary part comes from the $F\wedge F$-term in the supergravity and the coefficient is proportional to the Chern-Simons…
We find closed-form expressions for the Schur indices of 4d $\mathcal{N}=2^{*}$ super Yang-Mills theory with unitary gauge groups for arbitrary ranks via the Fermi-gas formulation. They can be written as a sum over the Young diagrams associated with spectral zeta functions of an ideal Fermi-gas system. These functions are expressed in terms of the twisted Weierstrass functions, generating functions for quasi-Jacobi forms. The indices lie in the polynomial ring generated by the Kronecker theta function and the Weierstrass functions which contains the polynomial ring of the quasi-Jacobi forms. T…
We compute the supersymmetric partition function of $\mathcal{N}{=}1$ supersymmetric gauge theories with an $R$-symmetry on $\mathcal{M}_4 \cong \mathcal{M}_{g,p}\times S^1$, a principal elliptic fiber bundle of degree $p$ over a genus-$g$ Riemann surface, $Σ_g$. Equivalently, we compute the generalized supersymmetric index $I_{\mathcal{M}_{g,p}}$, with the supersymmetric three-manifold ${\mathcal{M}_{g,p}}$ as the spatial slice. The ordinary $\mathcal{N}{=}1$ supersymmetric index on the round three-sphere is recovered as a special case. We approach this computation from the point of view of a…
We discuss the large $N$ factorization properties of five-dimensional supersymmetric partition functions for CFT with a holographic dual. We consider partition functions on manifolds of the form $\mathcal{M}= \mathcal{M}_3 \times S^2_ε$, where $ε$ is an equivariant parameter for rotation. We show that, when $\mathcal{M}_3$ is a squashed three-sphere, the large $N$ partition functions can be obtained by gluing elementary blocks associated with simple physical quantities. The same is true for various observables of the theories on $\mathcal{M}_3=Σ_\mathfrak{g} \times S^1$, where $Σ_\mathfrak{g}$…
We continue the study of partition functions of 5d supersymmetric theories on manifolds taking the form of a twisted product $\mathcal{M}_3\times Σ_{\mathfrak{g}}$ with $Σ_{\mathfrak{g}}$ denoting a Riemann surface of genus $\mathfrak{g}$. The 5d theory compactified on $Σ_{\mathfrak{g}}$ leads to a novel class of 3d theories in IR, whose existence at large $N$ is expected from holography. Focussing on $\mathcal{M}_3$ being $S^2\times S^1$ without or with a topological twist on the 2-sphere leads to the superconformal index or topologically twisted index, respectively, for such a class of 3d 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…
We revisit the D0 bound state problems, of the M/IIA duality, with the Orientifolds. The cases of O4 and O8 have been studied recently, from the perspective of five-dimensional theories, while the case of O0 has been much neglected. The computation we perform for D0-O0 states boils down to the Witten indices for $\mathcal N=16$ $O(m)$ and $Sp(n)$ quantum mechanics, where we adapt and extend previous analysis by the authors. The twisted partition function $Ω$, obtained via localization, proves to be rational, and we establish a precise relation between $Ω$ and the integral Witten index $\mathca…
We discuss the Cardy limit of 3d supersymmetric partition functions which allow the factorization into the hemisphere indices: the generalized superconformal index, the refined topologically twisted index and the squashed sphere partition function. In the Cardy limit, the hemisphere index can be evaluated by the saddle point approximation where there exists a dominant saddle point contribution, which we call the Cardy block. The Cardy block turns out to be a simple but powerful object as it is a building block of other partition functions in the Cardy limit. The factorization to the Cardy bloc…
We construct 3D $\mathcal{N}=2$ abelian gauge theories on $\mathbb{S}^2 \times \mathbb{S}^1$ labeled by knot diagrams whose K-theoretic vortex partition functions, each of which is a building block of twisted indices, give the colored Jones polynomials of knots in $\mathbb{S}^3$. The colored Jones polynomials are obtained as the Wilson loop expectation values along knots in $SU(2)$ Chern-Simons gauge theories on $\mathbb{S}^3$, and then our construction provides an explicit correspondence between 3D $\mathcal{N}=2$ abelian gauge theories and 3D $SU(2)$ Chern-Simons gauge theories. We verify, i…
We provide a physical definition of new homological invariants $\mathcal{H}_a (M_3)$ of 3-manifolds (possibly, with knots) labeled by abelian flat connections. The physical system in question involves a 6d fivebrane theory on $M_3$ times a 2-disk, $D^2$, whose Hilbert space of BPS states plays the role of a basic building block in categorification of various partition functions of 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ theory $T[M_3]$: $D^2\times S^1$ half-index, $S^2\times S^1$ superconformal index, and $S^2\times S^1$ topologically twisted index. The first partition function is labeled by a choice of boundary c…
