We study Nekrasov's deformed partition function of 5-dimensional supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory compactified on a circle. Mathematically it is the generating function of the characters of the coordinate rings of the moduli spaces of instantons on $\mathbb R^4$.
We show that it satisfies a system of functional equations, called blowup equations, whose solution is unique.
As applications, we prove (a) logarithm of the partition function times $ε_1ε_2$ is regular at $ε_1 = ε_2 = 0$, (a part of Nekrasov's conjecture), and (b) the genus 1 parts, which are first several Taylor coefficients of the logarithm of the partition function, are written explicitly in terms of the Seiberg-Witten curves in rank 2 case.
We give a mathematically rigorous proof of Nekrasov's conjecture: the integration in the equivariant cohomology over the moduli spaces of instantons on $\mathbb R^4$ gives a deformation of the Seiberg-Witten prepotential for N=2 SUSY Yang-Mills theory. Through a study of moduli spaces on the blowup of $\mathbb R^4$, we derive a differential equation for the Nekrasov's partition function. It is a deformation of the equation for the Seiberg-Witten prepotential, found by Losev et al., and further studied by Gorsky et al.
We generalize Nakajima-Yoshioka blowup equations to arbitrary gauge group with hypermultiplets in arbitrary representations. Using our blowup equations, we compute the instanton partition functions for 4d N=2 and 5d N=1 gauge theories for arbitrary gauge theory with a large class of matter representations, without knowing explicit construction of the instanton moduli space. Our examples include exceptional gauge theories with fundamentals, SO(N) gauge theories with spinors, and SU(6) gauge theories with rank-3 antisymmetric hypers. Remarkably, the instanton partition function is completely det…
There have been two distinct schemes studied in the literature for instanton counting in A_{p-1} asymptotically locally Euclidean (ALE) spaces. We point out that the two schemes---namely the counting of orbifolded instantons and instanton counting in the resolved space---lead in general to different results for partition functions. We illustrate this observation in the case of N=2 U(N) gauge theory with 2N flavors on the A_{p-1} ALE space. We propose simple relations between the instanton partition functions given by the two schemes and test them by explicit calculations.
We show how to obtain the instanton partition function of N=2 SYM with exceptional gauge group EFG using blow-up recursion relations derived by Nakajima and Yoshioka. We compute the two instanton contribution and match it with the recent proposal for the superconformal index of rank 2 SCFTs with E6, E7 global symmetry.
We survey some features of equivariant instanton partition functions of topological gauge theories on four and six dimensional toric Kahler varieties, and their geometric and algebraic counterparts in the enumerative problem of counting holomorphic curves. We discuss the relations of instanton counting to representations of affine Lie algebras in the four-dimensional case, and to Donaldson-Thomas theory for ideal sheaves on Calabi-Yau threefolds. For resolutions of toric singularities, an algebraic structure induced by a quiver determines the instanton moduli space through the McKay correspond…
We study the prepotential of N=2 gauge theories using the instanton counting techniques introduced by Nekrasov. For the SO theories without matter we find a closed expression for the full prepotential and its string theory gravitational corrections. For the more subtle case of Sp theories without matter we discuss general features and compute the prepotential up to instanton number three. We also briefly discuss SU theories with matter in the symmetric and antisymmetric representations. We check all our results against the predictions of the corresponding Seiberg-Witten geometries.
This is the first part of two papers. In this part, we prove the blowup formulae for virtual Hodge polynomials of Gieseker moduli spaces of rank-2 stable sheaves and Uhlenbeck compactification spaces over algebraic surfaces. In particular, we verify the blowup formulae for the S-duality conjecture of Vafa-Witten, i.e. the blowup formulae for the Euler numbers of instanton moduli spaces over algebraic surfaces.
We prove some combinatorial results required for the proof of the following conjecture of Nekrasov: The generating function of closed string invariants in local Calabi-Yau geometries obtained by appropriate fibrations of $A_N$ singularities over $P^1$ reproduce the generating function of equivariant $\hat{A}$-genera of moduli space of instants on $C^2$.
Noncommutative Donaldson-Thomas invariants for abelian orbifold singularities can be studied via the enumeration of instanton solutions in a six-dimensional noncommutative N=2 gauge theory; this construction is based on the generalized McKay correspondence and identifies the instanton counting with the counting of framed representations of a quiver which is naturally associated to the geometry of the singularity. We extend these constructions to compute BPS partition functions for higher-rank refined and motivic noncommutative Donaldson-Thomas invariants in the Coulomb branch in terms of gauge…
Motivated by Nekrasov's instanton counting, we discuss a method for calculating equivariant volumes of non-compact quotients in symplectic and hyper-Kähler geometry by means of the Jeffrey-Kirwan residue-formula of non-abelian localization. In order to overcome the non-compactness, we use varying symplectic cuts to reduce the problem to a compact setting, and study what happens in the limit that recovers the original problem. We implement this method for the ADHM construction of the moduli spaces of framed Yang-Mills instantons on $\R^{4}$ and rederive the formulas for the equivariant volumes …
We perform a study of the moduli space of framed torsion free sheaves on Hirzebruch surfaces by using localization techniques. After discussing general properties of this moduli space, we classify its fixed points under the appropriate toric action and compute its Poincare' polynomial. From the physical viewpoint, our results provide the partition function of N=4 Vafa-Witten theory on Hirzebruch surfaces, which is relevant in black hole entropy counting problems according to a conjecture due to Ooguri, Strominger and Vafa.
We describe a correspondence between the virtual number of torsion free sheaves locally free in codimension 3 on a Calabi-Yau 3-fold and the Gromov-Witten invariants counting rational curves in a family of orbifold blowups of the weighted projective plane $\mathbb{P}(-ch_3, ch_0, 1)$ (with a tangency condition of order $gcd(-ch_3, ch_0)$). This result is a variation of the GW/quiver representations correspondence found by Gross-Pandharipande, when one changes the centres and orders of the blowups. We build on a small part of the theories developed by Joyce-Song and Kontsevich-Soibelman for wal…
We propose an explicit formula connecting Donaldson invariants and Seiberg-Witten invariants of a 4-manifold of simple type via Nekrasov's deformed partition function for the N=2 SUSY gauge theory with a single fundamental matter. This formula is derived from Mochizuki's formula, which makes sense and was proved when the 4-manifold is complex projective. Assuming our formula is true for a 4-manifold of simple type, we prove Witten's conjecture and sum rules for Seiberg-Witten invariants (superconformal simple type condition), conjectured by Mariño, Moore and Peradze.
In this paper we study the holomorphic Euler characteristics of determinant line bundles on moduli spaces of rank 2 semistable sheaves on an algebraic surface X, which can be viewed as $K$-theoretic versions of the Donaldson invariants. In particular, if X is a smooth projective toric surface, we determine these invariants and their wallcrossing in terms of the K-theoretic version of the Nekrasov partition function (called 5-dimensional supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory compactified on a circle in the physics literature). Using the results of math.AG/0606180 we give an explicit generating funct…
In this expository paper we summarize the connection between random partitions and 4-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories discovered in hep-th/0306238. There is also a brief section about how this extends to 3-dimensional partitions which is best read together with math-ph/0412008.
For a smooth projective toric surface we determine the Donaldson invariants and their wallcrossing in terms of the Nekrasov partition function. Using the solution of the Nekrasov conjecture math.AG/0306198, hep-th/0306238, math.AG/0409441 and its refinement math.AG/0311058, we apply this result to give a generating function for the wallcrossing of Donaldson invariants of good walls of simply connected projective surfaces with $b_+=1$ in terms of modular forms. This formula was proved earlier in alg-geom/9506018 more generally for simply connected 4-manifolds with $b_+=1$, assuming the Kotschic…
We review and elaborate on certain aspects of the connections between instanton counting in maximally supersymmetric gauge theories and the computation of enumerative invariants of smooth varieties. We study in detail three instances of gauge theories in six, four and two dimensions which naturally arise in the context of topological string theory on certain non-compact threefolds. We describe how the instanton counting in these gauge theories are related to the computation of the entropy of supersymmetric black holes, and how these results are related to wall-crossing properties of enumerativ…
We introduce the notion of the (instanton part of the) Seiberg-Witten prepotential for general Schrodinger operators with periodic potential. In the case when the operator in question is integrable we show how to compute the prepotential in terms of period integrals; this implies that in the integrable case our definition of the prepotential coincides with the one that has been extensively studied in both mathematical and physical literature. As an application we give a proof of Nekrasov's conjecture connecting certain "instanton counting" partition function for an arbitrary simple group G wit…
We study instanton partition functions for N=2 superconformal Sp(1) and SO(4) gauge theories. We find that they agree with the corresponding U(2) instanton partitions functions only after a non-trivial mapping of the microscopic gauge couplings, since the instanton counting involves different renormalization schemes. Geometrically, this mapping relates the Gaiotto curves of the different realizations as double coverings. We then formulate an AGT-type correspondence between Sp(1)/SO(4) instanton partition functions and chiral blocks with an underlying W(2,2)-algebra symmetry. This form of the c…
These notes have two parts. The first is a study of Nekrasov's deformed partition functions $Z(\ve_1,\ve_2,\vec{a};\q,\vecτ)$ of N=2 SUSY Yang-Mills theories, which are generating functions of the integration in the equivariant cohomology over the moduli spaces of instantons on $\mathbb R^4$. The second is review of geometry of the Seiberg-Witten curves and the geometric engineering of the gauge theory, which are physical backgrounds of Nekrasov's partition functions. The first part is continuation of math.AG/0306198, where we identified the Seiberg-Witten prepotential with $Z(0,0,\vec{a};\q,0…
For a semi-simple simply connected algebraic group G we introduce certain parabolic analogues of the Nekrasov partition function (introduced by Nekrasov and studied recently by Nekrasov-Okounkov and Nakajima-Yoshioka for G=SL(n)). These functions count (roughly speaking) principal G-bundles on the projective plane with a trivialization at infinity and with a parabolic structure at the horizontal line. When the above parabolic subgroup is a Borel subgroup we show that the corresponding partition function is basically equal to the Whittaker matrix coefficient in the universal Verma module over c…
Beijing Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Applications（北京国际数学研究中心）；Yau Mathematical Sciences Center, Tsinghua University（清华大学丘成桐数学科学中心）；Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS/IN2P3, IP2I Lyon, UMR 5822（里昂第一大学，CNRS/IN2P3，IP2I里昂）；Université Bourgogne Europe, CNRS, IMB UMR 5584（勃艮第欧洲大学，CNRS，IMB）
We study a statistical model of random plane partitions. The statistical model has interpretations as five-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric SU(N) Yang-Mills on $\mathbb{R}^4\times S^1$ and as Kähler gravity on local SU(N) geometry. At the thermodynamic limit a typical plane partition called the limit shape dominates in the statistical model. The limit shape is linked with a hyperelliptic curve, which is a five-dimensional version of the SU(N) Seiberg-Witten curve. Amoebas and the Ronkin functions play intermediary roles between the limit shape and the hyperelliptic curve. In particul…
This is an expository paper which has two parts. In the first part, we study quiver varieties of affine $A$-type from a combinatorial point of view. We present a combinatorial method for obtaining a closed formula for the generating function of Poincaré polynomials of quiver varieties in rank 1 cases. Our main tools are cores and quotients of Young diagrams. In the second part, we give a brief survey of instanton counting in physics, where quiver varieties appear as moduli spaces of instantons, focusing on its combinatorial aspects.
We study the relationship between the statistical mechanics of crystal melting and instanton counting in N=4 supersymmetric U(1) gauge theory on toric surfaces. We argue that, in contrast to their six-dimensional cousins, the two problems are related but not identical. We develop a vertex formalism for the crystal partition function, which calculates a generating function for the dimension 0 and 1 subschemes of the toric surface, and describe the modifications required to obtain the corresponding gauge theory partition function.
Recent developments in the understanding of $N=2$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions suggest a new point of view about Donaldson theory of four manifolds: instead of defining four-manifold invariants by counting $SU(2)$ instantons, one can define equivalent four-manifold invariants by counting solutions of a non-linear equation with an abelian gauge group. This is a ``dual'' equation in which the gauge group is the dual of the maximal torus of $SU(2)$. The new viewpoint suggests many new results about the Donaldson invariants.
We develop a new approach to the study of supersymmetric gauge theories on ALE spaces using the theory of framed sheaves on root toric stacks, which illuminates relations with gauge theories on $\mathbb{R}^4$ and with two-dimensional conformal field theory. We construct a stacky compactification of the minimal resolution $X_k$ of the $A_{k-1}$ toric singularity $\mathbb{C}^2/\mathbb{Z}_k$, which is a projective toric orbifold $\mathscr{X}_k$ such that $\mathscr{X}_k\setminus X_k$ is a $\mathbb{Z}_k$-gerbe. We construct moduli spaces of torsion free sheaves on $\mathscr{X}_k$ which are framed a…
We present a statistical mechanical model whose random variables are solid partitions, i.e. Young diagrams built by stacking up four dimensional hypercubes. Equivalently, it can be viewed as the model of random tessellations of ${\bf R}^{3}$ by squashed cubes of four fixed orientations. The model computes the refined index of a system of D0-branes in the presence of $D8$-$\overline{D8}$ system, with a $B$-field strong enough to support the bound states. Mathematically, it is the equivariant K-theoretic version of integration over the Hilbert scheme of points on ${\bf C}^{4}$ and its higher ran…
