For an arbitrary integer $r\geq 1$, we compute $r$-framed motivic PT and DT invariants of small crepant resolutions of toric Calabi-Yau $3$-folds, establishing a "higher rank" version of the motivic DT/PT wall-crossing formula. This generalises the work of Morrison and Nagao. Our formulae, in particular their relationship with the $r=1$ theory, fit nicely in the current development of higher rank refined DT invariants.
We prove the crepant resolution conjecture for Donaldson-Thomas invariants of hard Lefschetz CY3 orbifolds, formulated by Bryan-Cadman-Young, interpreting the statement as an equality of rational functions. In order to do so, we show that the generating series of stable pair invariants on any CY3 orbifold is the expansion of a rational function. As a corollary, we deduce a symmetry of this function induced by the derived dualising functor. Our methods also yield a proof of the orbifold DT/PT correspondence for multi-regular curve classes on hard Lefschetz CY3 orbifolds.
We prove a comparison formula for curve-counting invariants in the setting of the McKay correspondence, related to the crepant resolution conjecture for Donaldson-Thomas invariants. The conjecture is concerned with comparing the invariants of a (hard Lefschetz) Calabi-Yau orbifold of dimension three with those of a specific crepant resolution of its coarse moduli space. We prove the conjecture for point classes and give a conditional proof for general curve classes. We also prove a variant of the formula for curve classes. Along the way we identify the image of the standard heart of the orbifo…
We study motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants in the sense of Behrend-Bryan-Szendroi. A wall-crossing formula under a mutation is proved for a certain class of quivers with potentials.
We present a new tool for the calculation of Denef and Loeser's motivic nearby fiber and motivic Milnor fiber: a motivic Fubini theorem for the tropicalization map, based on Hrushovski and Kazhdan's theory of motivic volumes of semi-algebraic sets. As applications, we prove a conjecture of Davison and Meinhardt on motivic nearby fibers of weighted homogeneous polynomials, and give a very short and conceptual new proof of the integral identity conjecture of Kontsevich and Soibelman, first proved by Lê Quy Thuong. Both of these conjectures emerged in the context of motivic Donaldson-Thomas theor…
In this paper we calculate the motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants for (-2)-curves arising from 3-fold flopping contractions in the minimal model programme. We translate this geometric situation into the machinery developed by Kontsevich and Soibelman, and using the results and framework developed previously by the authors we describe the monodromy on these invariants. In particular, in contrast to all existing known Donaldson-Thomas invariants for small resolutions of Gorenstein singularities these monodromy actions are nontrivial.
The aim of this paper is to study an analog of non-commutative Donaldson-Thomas theory corresponding to the refined topological vertex for small crepant resolutions of toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds. We define the invariants using dimer models and provide "wall-crossing" formulas. In particular, we get normalized generating functions which are unchanged under "wall-crossing".
We study motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants for a class of quivers with potentials using the strategy of Behrend, Bryan, and Szendroi. This class includes quivers with potentials arising from consistent brane tilings and quivers with zero potential. Our construction is an alternative to the constructions of Kontsevich and Soibelman. We construct an integration map from the equivariant Hall algebra to the quantum torus and show that our motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants are images of the natural elements in the equivariant Hall algebra. We show that the inegration map is an algebra homomorph…
In this paper we compute the motivic Donaldson--Thomas invariants for the quiver with one loop and any potential. As the presence of arbitrary potentials requires the full machinery of \hat(μ)-equivariant motives, we give a detailed account of them. In particular, we will prove two results for the motivic vanishing cycle which might be of importance not only in Donaldson--Thomas theory.
We derive some combinatorial consequences from the positivity of Donaldson-Thomas invariants for symmetric quivers conjectured by Kontsevich and Soibelman and proved recently by Efimov. These results are used to prove the Kac conjecture for quivers having at least one loop at every vertex.
We study the Donaldson-Thomas type invariants for the Calabi-Yau threefold Deligne-Mumford stacks under flops. A crepant birational morphism between two smooth Calabi-Yau threefold Deligne-Mumford stacks is called an orbifold flop if the flopping locus is the quotient of weighted projective lines by a cyclic group action. We prove that the Donaldson-Thomas invariants are preserved under orbifold flops.
Donaldson-Thomas invariant is expressed as the weighted Euler characteristic of the so-called Behrend (constructible) function. In \cite{Behrend} Behrend introduced a DT-type invariant for a morphism. Motivated by this invariant, we extend the motivic Hirzebruch class to naive Donaldson-Thomas type analogues. We also discuss a categorification of the DT-type invariant for a morphism from a bivariant-theoretic viewpoint, and we finally pose some related questions for further investigations.
We compute, via motivic wall-crossing, the generating function of virtual motives of the Quot scheme of points on $\mathbb{A}^3$, generalising to higher rank a result of Behrend, Bryan and Szendrői. We show that this motivic partition function converges to a Gaussian distribution, extending a result of Morrison.
We compute the motivic Donaldson-Thomas theory of the resolved conifold, in all chambers of the space of stability conditions of the corresponding quiver. The answer is a product formula whose terms depend on the position of the stability vector, generalizing known results for the corresponding numerical invariants. Our formulae imply in particular a motivic form of the DT/PT correspondence for the resolved conifold. The answer for the motivic PT series is in full agreement with the prediction of the refined topological vertex formalism.
Let $G\subset SL_2(C)\subset SL_3(C)$ be a finite group. We compute motivic Pandharipande-Thomas and Donaldson-Thomas invariants of the crepant resolution $Hilb^G(C^3)$ of $C^3/G$ generalizing results of Gholampour and Jiang who computed numerical DT/PT invariants using localization techniques. Our formulas rely on the computation of motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants for a special class of quivers with potentials. We show that these motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants are closely related to the polynomials counting absolutely indecomposable quiver representations over finite fields introduce…
Hilbert scheme topological invariants of plane curve singularities are identified to framed threefold stable pair invariants. As a result, the conjecture of Oblomkov and Shende on HOMFLY polynomials of links of plane curve singularities is given a Calabi-Yau threefold interpretation. The motivic Donaldson-Thomas theory developed by M. Kontsevich and the third author then yields natural motivic invariants for algebraic knots. This construction is motivated by previous work of V. Shende, C. Vafa and the first author on the large $N$ duality derivation of the above conjecture.
We define a new type of Hall algebras associated e.g. with quivers with polynomial potentials. The main difference with the conventional definition is that we use cohomology of the stack of representations instead of constructible sheaves or functions. In order to take into account the potential we introduce a generalization of theory of mixed Hodge structures, related to exponential integrals. Generating series of our Cohomological Hall algebra is a generalization of the motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants introduced in arXiv:0811.2435. Also we prove a new integrality property of motivic Dona…
This is a short summary of main results of our paper arXiv:0811.2435 where the concept of motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariant was introduced. It also contains a discussion of some open questions from the loc.cit., in particular, the geometry related to the split attractor flow.
The aim of the paper is to provide a rather gentle introduction into Donaldson-Thomas theory using quivers with potential. The reader should be familiar with some basic knowledge in algebraic or complex geometry. The text contains many examples and exercises to support the process of understanding the main concepts and ideas.
We propose a conjecture that relates some local Gromov-Witten invariants of some crepant resolutions of Calabi-Yau 3-folds with isolated singularities with some Donaldson-Thomas type invariants of the moduli spaces of representations of some quivers with potentials.
We provide a reduction formula for the motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants associated to a quiver with superpotential. The method is valid provided the superpotential has a linear factor, it allows us to compute virtual motives in terms of ordinary motivic classes of simpler quiver varieties. We outline an application, giving explicit formulas for the motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants of the orbifolds $[\CC \times \CC^2/\ZZ_n]$.
Given a smooth complex threefold X, we define the virtual motive of the Hilbert scheme of n points on X. In the case when X is Calabi-Yau, this gives a motivic refinement of the n-point degree zero Donaldson-Thomas invariant of X. The key example is affine three-space, where the Hilbert scheme can be expressed as the critical locus of a regular function on a smooth variety, and its virtual motive is defined in terms of the Denef-Loeser motivic nearby fiber. A crucial technical result asserts that if a function is equivariant with respect to a suitable torus action, its motivic nearby fiber is …
We compute motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants for crepant resolutions of quotients of affine three-space by even dihedral groups in terms of an affine type D root system, using double dimensional reduction and the representation theory of affine type D quivers.
This paper is motivated by the question of how motivic Donaldson--Thomas invariants behave in families. We compute the invariants for some simple families of noncommutative Calabi--Yau threefolds, defined by quivers with homogeneous potentials. These families give deformation quantizations of affine three-space, the resolved conifold, and the resolution of the transversal $A_n$-singularity. It turns out that their invariants are generically constant, but jump at special values of the deformation parameter, such as roots of unity. The corresponding generating series are written in closed form, …
Let $X$ be a smooth projective curve over a field of characteristic zero and let $D$ be a non-empty set of rational points of $X$. We calculate the motivic classes of moduli stacks of semistable parabolic bundles with connections on $(X,D)$ and motivic classes of moduli stacks of semistable parabolic Higgs bundles on $(X,D)$. As a by-product we give a criteria for non-emptiness of these moduli stacks, which can be viewed as a version of the Deligne-Simpson problem.
Let $A$ be an abelian variety. We introduce $A$-equivariant Grothendieck rings and $A$-equivariant motivic Hall algebras, and endow them with natural integration maps to the ring of dual numbers. The construction allows a systematic treatment of reduced Donaldson-Thomas invariants by Hall algebra techniques. We calculate reduced Donaldson-Thomas invariants for $\mathrm{K3} \times E$ and abelian threefolds for several imprimitive curve classes. This verifies (in special cases) multiple cover formulas conjectured by Oberdieck-Pandharipande and Bryan-Oberdieck-Pandharipande-Yin.
This is a survey article on Hall algebras and their applications to the study of motivic invariants of moduli spaces of coherent sheaves on Calabi-Yau threefolds. It is a write-up of my talks at the 2015 Salt Lake City AMS Summer Research Institute and will appear in the Proceedings. The ideas presented here are mostly due to Joyce, Kontsevich, Reineke, Soibelman and Toda.
By associating a `motivic integral' to every complex projective variety X with at worst canonical, Gorenstein singularities, Kontsevich proved that, when there exists a crepant resolution of singularities Y of X, the Hodge numbers of Y do not depend upon the choice of the resolution. In this article we provide an elementary introduction to the theory of motivic integration, leading to a proof of the result described above. We calculate the motivic integral of several quotient singularities and discuss these calculations in the context of the cohomological McKay correspondence.
Given a quiver algebra A with relations defined by a superpotential, this paper defines a set of invariants of A counting framed cyclic A-modules, analogous to rank-1 Donaldson-Thomas invariants of Calabi-Yau threefolds. For the special case when A is the non-commutative crepant resolution of the threefold ordinary double point, it is proved using torus localization that the invariants count certain pyramid-shaped partition-like configurations, or equivalently infinite dimer configurations in the square dimer model with a fixed boundary condition. The resulting partition function admits an inf…
We prove the Yau-Tian-Donaldson's conjecture for any $\mathbb{Q}$-Fano variety that has a log smooth resolution of singularities such that the discrepancies of all exceptional divisors are non-positive. In other words, if such a Fano variety is K-polystable, then it admits a Kähler-Einstein metric. This extends the previous result for smooth Fano varieties to this class of singular $\mathbb{Q}$-Fano varieties, which include those admitting crepant log resolutions.
We prove a comparison formula for the Donaldson-Thomas curve-counting invariants of two smooth and projective Calabi-Yau threefolds related by a flop. By results of Bridgeland any two such varieties are derived equivalent. Furthermore there exist pairs of categories of perverse coherent sheaves on both sides which are swapped by this equivalence. Using the theory developed by Joyce we construct the motivic Hall algebras of these categories. These algebras provide a bridge relating the invariants on both sides of the flop.
We define new invariants of 3d Calabi-Yau categories endowed with a stability structure. Intuitively, they count the number of semistable objects with fixed class in the K-theory of the category ("number of BPS states with given charge" in physics language). Formally, our motivic DT-invariants are elements of quantum tori over a version of the Grothendieck ring of varieties over the ground field. Via the quasi-classical limit "as the motive of affine line approaches to 1" we obtain numerical DT-invariants which are closely related to those introduced by Behrend. We study some properties of bot…
Motives of Brauer-Severi schemes of Cayley-smooth algebras associated to homogeneous superpotentials are used to compute inductively the motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants of the corresponding Jacobian algebras. This approach can be used to test the conjectural exponential expressions for these invariants, proposed in arXiv:1510.08116. As an example we confirm the second term of the conjectured expression for the motivic series of the homogenised Weyl algebra.
We construct curve counting invariants for a Calabi-Yau threefold $Y$ equipped with a dominant birational morphism $π:Y \to X$. Our invariants generalize the stable pair invariants of Pandharipande and Thomas which occur for the case when $π:Y\to Y$ is the identity. Our main result is a PT/DT-type formula relating the partition function of our invariants to the Donaldson-Thomas partition function in the case when $Y$ is a crepant resolution of $X$, the coarse space of a Calabi-Yau orbifold $\mathcal{X}$ satisfying the hard Lefschetz condition. In this case, our partition function is equal to t…
For a given symmetric quiver $Q$, we define a supercommutative quadratic algebra $\mathcal{A}_Q$ whose Poincaré series is related to the motivic generating function of $Q$ by a simple change of variables. The Koszul duality between supercommutative algebras and Lie superalgebras assigns to the algebra $\mathcal{A}_Q$ its Koszul dual Lie superalgebra $\mathfrak{g}_Q$. We prove that the motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants of the quiver $Q$ may be computed using the Poincaré series of a certain Lie subalgebra of $\mathfrak{g}_Q$ that can be described, using an action of the first Weyl algebra on …
We study the relative orbifold Donaldson-Thomas theory of $[\mathbb{C}^2/\mathbb{Z}_{n+1}]\times \mathbb{P}^1$. We establish a correspondence between the DT theory relative to 3 fibers to quantum multiplication by divisors in the Hilbert scheme of points on $[\mathbb{C}^2/\mathbb{Z}_{n+1}]$. This determines the whole theory if a further nondegeneracy condition is assumed. The result can also be viewed as a crepant resolution correspondence to the DT theory of $\mathcal{A}_n\times \mathbb{P}^1$.
We consider the moduli space of the McKay quiver representations associated to the binary polyhedral groups G < SU(2) < SU(3). The derived category of such representations is equivalent to the derived category of coherent sheaves on the corresponding ADE resolution Y=G-Hilb(C^3). Following the ideas of Nagao and Nakajima, by making particular choices of parameters in the space of stability conditions on the equivalent derived categories above, we recover Donaldson-Thomas (DT), Pandharipande-Thomas (PT) and Szendroi (NCDT) moduli spaces. We also compute the Gromov-Witten (GW) partition function…
On certain M-theory backgrounds which are a circle fibration over a smooth Calabi-Yau, the quantum theory of M2 branes can be studied in terms of the K-theoretic Donaldson-Thomas theory on the threefold. We extend this relation to noncommutative crepant resolutions. In this case the threefold develops a singularity and classical smooth geometry is replaced by the algebra of paths of a certain quiver. K-theoretic quantities on the quiver representation moduli space can be computed via toric localization and result in certain rational functions of the toric parameters. We discuss in particular t…
We prove wall-crossing formulas for the motivic invariants of the moduli spaces of framed objects in the ind-constructible abelian categories. Developed techniques are applied in the case of the motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants of quivers with potentials. Another application is a new proof of the formula for the motivic invariants of smooth models of quiver moduli spaces.
The main result of this paper is the statement that the Hodge theoretic Donaldson-Thomas invariant for a quiver with zero potential and a generic stability condition agrees with the compactly supported intersection cohomology of the closure of the stable locus inside the associated coarse moduli space of semistable quiver representations. In fact, we prove an even stronger result relating the Donaldson-Thomas "function" to the intersection complex. The proof of our main result relies on a relative version of the integrality conjecture in Donaldson-Thomas theory. This will be the topic of the s…
In this paper, we give a construction of the global Chern-Simons functions for toric Calabi-Yau stacks of dimension three using strong exceptional collections. The moduli spaces of sheaves on such stacks can be identified with critical loci of these functions. We give two applications of these functions. First, we prove Joyce's integrality conjecture of generalized DT invariants on local surfaces. Second, we prove a dimension reduction formula for virtual motives, which leads to two recursion formulas for motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants.
We develop theoretical aspects of refined Donaldson-Thomas theory for threefold flops, and use these to determine all DT invariants for a doubly infinite family of length 2 flopping contractions. Our results show that a refined version of the strong-rationality conjecture of Pandharipande-Thomas holds in this setting, and also that refined DT invariants do not classify flops. Our main innovation is the application of tilting theory to better understand the stability conditions and cyclic A-infinity-deformation theory of these spaces. Where possible we work in the motivic setting, but we also c…
We define Donaldson-Thomas invariants of Calabi-Yau orbifolds and we develop a topological vertex formalism for computing them. The basic combinatorial object is the orbifold vertex, a generating function for the number of 3D partitions asymptotic to three given 2D partitions and colored by representations of a finite Abelian group G acting on C^3. In the case where G=Z_n acting on C^3 with transverse A_{n-1} quotient singularities, we give an explicit formula for the vertex in terms of Schur functions. We discuss applications of our formalism to the Donaldson-Thomas Crepant Resolution Conject…
Since its first use by Behrend, Bryan, and Szendrői in the computation of motivic Donaldson-Thomas (DT) invariants of $\mathbb{A}_{\mathbb{C}}^3$, dimensional reduction has proved to be an important tool in motivic and cohomological DT theory. Inspired by a conjecture of Cazzaniga, Morrison, Pym, and Szendrői on motivic DT invariants, work of Dobrovolska, Ginzburg, and Travkin on exponential sums, and work of Orlov and Hirano on equivalences of categories of singularities, we generalize the dimensional reduction theorem in motivic and cohomological DT theory and use it to prove versions of the…
We introduce moduli spaces of stable perverse coherent systems on small crepant resolutions of Calabi-Yau 3-folds and consider their Donaldson-Thomas type counting invariants. The stability depends on the choice of a component (= a chamber) in the complement of finitely many lines (= walls) in the plane. We determine all walls and compute generating functions of invariants for all choices of chambers when the Calabi-Yau is the resolved conifold. For suitable choices of chambers, our invariants are specialized to Donaldson-Thomas, Pandharipande-Thomas and Szendroi invariants.
We compute the Donaldson-Thomas invariants of a local elliptic surface with section. We introduce a new computational technique which is a mixture of motivic and toric methods. This allows us to write the partition function for the invariants in terms of the topological vertex. Utilizing identities for the topological vertex proved in arXiv:1603.05271, we derive product formulas for the partition functions. The connected version of the partition function is written in terms of Jacobi forms. In the special case where the elliptic surface is a K3 surface, we get a derivation of the Katz-Klemm-Va…
The present paper is an extension of a previous paper written in collaboration with Markus Reineke dealing with quiver representations. The aim of the paper is to generalize the theory and to provide a comprehensive theory of Donaldson-Thomas invariants for abelian categories of homological dimension one (without potential) satisfying some technical conditions. The theory will apply for instance to representations of quivers, coherent sheaves on smooth projective curves, and some coherent sheaves on smooth projective surfaces. We show that the (motivic) Donaldson-Thomas invariants satisfy the …
This paper shows that the motivic BPS invariants associated to a noncommutative crepant resolution of a compound Du-Val singularity are controlled by the labelled Dynkin combinatorics appearing in the work of Iyama--Wemyss. In particular, we show that the invariants vanish for dimension vectors which are not a multiple of a restricted root obtained from the affine root system under a natural quotient map. An immediate corollary is a description of the curve classes for which the Gopakumar--Vafa invariants of geometric crepant resolutions vanish, generalising a recent result of Nabijou--Wemyss …
