We show that the free energy of the topological string admits a certain pole structure by using the operator formalism. Combined with the results of Peng that proved the integrality, this gives a combinatoric proof of the Gopakumar-Vafa conjecture.
The local topological zeta function is a rational function associated to a germ of a complex holomorphic function. This function can be computed from an embedded resolution of singularities of the germ. For nondegenerate functions it is also possible to compute it from the Newton polyhedron. Both ways give rise to a set of candidate poles of the topological zeta function, containing all poles. For plane curves, Veys showed how to filter the actual poles out of the candidate poles induced by the resolution graph. In this note we show how to determine from the Newton polyhedron of a nondegenerat…
We show some examples of topological zeta functions associated to an isolated plane curve singular point and an allowed, in the sense of Némethi and Veys, differential form that have several poles of order two. This is in contrast to the case of the standard differential form where, as showed by Veys for plane curves and by Nicaise and Xu in general, there is always at most one pole of order two.
We study the local topological zeta function associated to a complex function that is holomorphic at the origin of C^2 (respectively C^3). We determine all possible poles less than -1/2 (respectively -1). On C^2 our result is a generalization of the fact that the log canonical threshold is never in ]5/6,1[. Similar statements are true for the motivic zeta function.
We study the topological zeta function Z_{top,f}(s) associated to a polynomial f with complex coefficients. This is a rational function in one variable and we want to determine the numbers that can occur as a pole of some topological zeta function; by definition these poles are negative rational numbers. We deal with this question in any dimension. Denote P_n := {s_0 | \exists f in C[x_1,..., x_n] : Z_{top,f}(s) has a pole in s_0}. We show that {-(n-1)/2-1/i | i in Z_{>1}} is a subset of P_n; for n=2 and n=3, the last two authors proved before that these are exactly the poles less then -(n-1)/…
To an ideal in $\mathbb{C}[x,y]$ one can associate a topological zeta function. This is an extension of the topological zeta function associated to one polynomial. But in this case we use a principalization of the ideal instead of an embedded resolution of the curve. In this paper we will study two questions about the poles of this zeta function. First, we will give a criterion to determine whether or not a candidate pole is a pole. It turns out that we can know this immediately by looking at the intersection diagram of the principalization, together with the numerical data of the exceptional …
These are notes of a series of lectures on mirror symmetry and topological string theory given at the Mathematical Sciences Center at Tsinghua University. The N=2 superconformal algebra, its deformations and its chiral ring are reviewed. A topological field theory can be constructed whose observables are only the elements of the chiral ring. When coupled to gravity, this leads to topological string theory. The identification of the topological string A- and B-models by mirror symmetry leads to surprising connections in mathematics and provides tools for exact computations as well as new insigh…
Perturbative string amplitudes are correctly derived from the string geometry theory, which is one of the candidates of a non-perturbative formulation of string theory. In order to derive non-perturbative effects rather easily, we formulate topological string geometry theory. We derive the perturbative partition function of the topological string theory from fluctuations around a classical solution in the topological string geometry theory.
We discuss the relation between open and closed string correlators using topological string theories as a toy model. We propose that one can reconstruct closed string correlators from the open ones by considering the Hochschild cohomology of the category of D-branes. We compute the Hochschild cohomology of the category of D-branes in topological Landau-Ginzburg models and partially verify the conjecture in this case.
In this note we reformulate topological string theory using supermanifolds and supermoduli spaces, following the approach worked out by Witten for superstring perturbation theory in arXiv:1209.5461. We intend to make the construction geometrical in nature, by using supergeometry techniques extensively. The goal is to establish the foundation of studying topological string amplitudes in terms of integration over appropriate supermoduli spaces.
We propose to use the identification of topological string partition functions as equivariant indices on framed moduli spaces of instantons to study the Gopakumar-Vafa conjecture for some local Calabi-Yau geometries.
We propose a formalism inspired by matrix models to compute open and closed topological string amplitudes in the B-model on toric Calabi-Yau manifolds. We find closed expressions for various open string amplitudes beyond the disk, and in particular we write down the annulus amplitude in terms of theta functions on a Riemann surface. We test these ideas on local curves and local surfaces, providing in this way generating functionals for open Gromov-Witten invariants in the spirit of mirror symmetry. In the case of local curves, we study the open string sector near the critical point which leads…
By embedding N=2 gauge theories in string theory and utilizing string dualities we map the counting of BPS states with arbitrary electric and magnetic charges to computations of an A-model topological string on an associated geometry constructed from the data of the SW curve. We show how the conjecture of Kontsevich and Soibelman regarding wall crossing, as well as a more refined version which captures the spin content of BPS states, is a natural consequence. Chern-Simons theory realized on A-branes and a twistorial construction play key roles.
In this expository paper written for physicists and geometers we introduce the notions of TQFT and of orbifold. Then we survey the construction of TQFT's originating from orbifolds such as Chen-Ruan theory and Orbifold String Topology.
We describe a topological string theory which reproduces many aspects of the 1/N expansion of SU(N) Yang-Mills theory in two spacetime dimensions in the zero coupling (A=0) limit. The string theory is a modified version of topological gravity coupled to a topological sigma model with spacetime as target. The derivation of the string theory relies on a new interpretation of Gross and Taylor's ``Ω^{-1} points.'' We describe how inclusion of the area, coupling of chiral sectors, and Wilson loop expectation values can be incorporated in the topological string approach.
We demonstrate the equivalence of all loop closed topological string amplitudes on toric local Calabi-Yau threefolds with computations of certain knot invariants for Chern-Simons theory. We use this equivalence to compute the topological string amplitudes in certain cases to very high degree and to all genera. In particular we explicitly compute the topological string amplitudes for P2 up to degree 12 and P1 x P1 up to total degree 10 to all genera. This also leads to certain novel large N dualities in the context of ordinary superstrings, involving duals of type II superstrings on local Calab…
An arbitrary Feynman graph for string field theory interactions is analysed and the homeomorphism type of the corresponding world sheet surface is completely determined even in the non-orientable cases. Algorithms are found to mechanically compute the topological characteristics of the resulting surface from the structure of the signed oriented graph. Whitney's permutation-theoretic coding of graphs is utilized.
We use the polynomial formulation of the holomorphic anomaly equations governing perturbative topological string theory to derive the free energies in a scaling limit to all orders in perturbation theory for any Calabi-Yau threefold. The partition function in this limit satisfies an Airy differential equation in a rescaled topological string coupling. One of the two solutions of this equation gives the perturbative expansion and the other solution provides geometric hints of the non-perturbative structure of topological string theory. Both solutions can be expanded naturally around strong coup…
We study refined topological string theory in the presence of orientifolds by counting second-quantized BPS states in M-theory. This leads us to propose a new integrality condition for both refined and unrefined topological strings when orientifolds are present. We define the SO(2N) refined Chern-Simons theory which computes refined open string amplitudes for branes wrapping Seifert three-manifolds. We use the SO(2N) refined Chern-Simons theory to compute new invariants of torus knots that generalize the Kauffman polynomials. At large N, the SO(2N) refined Chern-Simons theory on the three-sphe…