We use Donaldson invariants of regular surfaces with p_g >0 to make quantitative statements about modulispaces of stable rank 2 sheaves. We give two examples: a quantitative existence theorem for stable bundles, and a computation of the rank of the canonical holomorphic two forms on the moduli space. The results are in some sense dual to the Donaldson and O'Grady non vanishing theorems because they use the Donaldson series of the surface as _input_. Results in purely algebraic geometric terms can be obtained by using the explicit form of the Donaldson series of the surface. The Donaldson series are easy to compute using the Seiberg Witten invariants and the Witten conjecture which has recently been rigorously proved by Feehan and Leness.
This article provides a summary of arXiv:1701.08899 and arXiv:1701.08902 where the authors studied the enumerative geometry of nested Hilbert schemes of points and curves on algebraic surfaces and their connections to threefold theories, and in particular relevant Donaldson-Thomas, Vafa-Witten and Seiberg-Witten theories.
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.
This paper, yet another account of Seiberg-Witten theory and its consequences for algebraic surfaces, is the written version of the author's talk at the Santa Cruz conference.
We study the path integral of a twisted $N=2$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory coupled with hypermultiplet having the bare mass. We explicitly compute the topological correlation functions for the $SU(2)$ theory on a compact oriented simply connected simple type Riemann manifold with $b_2^+ \geq 3$. As the corollaries, we determine the topological correlation functions of the theory without the bare mass and those of the theory without coupling to the hypermultiplet. This includes a concrete field theoretic proof of the relation between the Donaldson and the Seiberg-Witten invariants.
We determine the structure of certain moduli spaces of ideal sheaves by generalizing an earlier result of the first author. As applications, we compute the (virtual) Hodge polynomials of these moduli space, and calculate the Donaldson-Thomas invariants of certain 3-folds with trivial canonical classes.
We show that there is a natural perverse sheaf on the moduli space of semistable sheaves on a smooth projective Calabi-Yau 3-fold which is locally the perverse sheaf of vanishing cycles for a local Chern-Simons functional. This gives us a cohomology theory whose Euler numbers are Donaldson-Thomas invariants.
Let $X$ be a complex four-dimensional compact Calabi-Yau manifold equipped with a Kähler form $ω$ and a holomorphic four-form $Ω$. Under certain assumptions, we define Donaldson-Thomas type deformation invariants by studying the moduli space of the solutions of Donaldson-Thomas equations on the given Calabi-Yau manifold. We also study sheaves counting on local Calabi-Yau four-folds. We relate the sheaves countings over $K_{Y}$ with the Donaldson-Thomas invariants for the associated compact three-fold $Y$. In some very special cases, we prove the DT/GW correspondence for $X$. Finally, we comput…
We show that there is a perverse sheaf on a fine moduli space of stable sheaves on a smooth projective Calabi-Yau 3-fold, which is locally the perverse sheaf of vanishing cycles for a local Chern-Simons functional, possibly after taking an etale Galois cover. This perverse sheaf lifts to a mixed Hodge module and gives us a cohomology theory which enables us to define the Gopakumar-Vafa invariants mathematically.
Let $H$ and $H'$ be two ample line bundles over a nonsingular projective surface $X$, and $M(H)$ (resp. $M(H')$) the coarse moduli scheme of $H$-semistable (resp. $H'$-semistable) sheaves of fixed type $(r=2,c_1,c_2)$. In a moduli-theoretic way that comes from elementary transforms, we connect $M(H)$ and $M(H')$ by a sequence of blowing-ups when walls separating $H$ and $H'$ are not necessarily good. As an application, we also consider the polarization change problem of Donaldson polynomials.
We compute the Donaldson-Thomas invariants for two types of Calabi-Yau 3-folds. These invariants are associated to the moduli spaces of rank-2 Gieseker semistable sheaves. None of the sheaves are locally free, and their double duals are locally free stable sheaves investigated earlier by Donaldson and Thomas, Li and Qin respectively. We show that these Gieseker moduli spaces are isomorphic to some Quot-schemes. We prove a formula for Behrend's functions when torus actions present with positive dimensional fixed point sets, and use it to obtain the generating series of the relevant Donaldson-Th…
Let X be the total space of the canonical bundle of P^2. We study the generalized Donaldson-Thomas invariants, defined in the work of Joyce-Song, of the moduli spaces of the 2-dimensional Gieseker semistable sheaves on X with first Chern class equal to k times the class of the zero section of X. When k=1, 2 or 3, and semistability implies stability, we express the invariants in terms of known modular forms. We prove a combinatorial formula for the invariants when k=2 in the presence of the strictly semistable sheaves, and verify the BPS integrality conjecture of Joyce-Song in some cases.
We survey recent developments on Donaldson-Thomas theory, Bridgeland stability conditions and wall-crossing formula. We emphasize the importance of the counting theory of Bridgeland semistable objects in the derived category of coherent sheaves to find a hidden property of the generating series of Donaldson-Thomas invariants.
Motivated by the S-duality conjecture, we study the Donaldson-Thomas invariants of the 2 dimensional Gieseker stable sheaves on a threefold. These sheaves are supported on the fibers of a nonsingular threefold X fibered over a nonsingular curve. In the case where X is a K3 fibration, we express these invariants in terms of the Euler characteristic of the Hilbert scheme of points on the K3 fiber and the Noether-Lefschetz numbers of the fibration. We prove that a certain generating function of these invariants is a vector modular form of weight -3/2 as predicted in S-duality.
The ADHM construction establishes a one-to-one correspondence between framed torsion free sheaves on the projective plane and stable framed representations of a quiver with relations in the category of complex vector spaces. This paper studies the geometry of moduli spaces of representations of the same quiver with relations in the abelian category of coherent sheaves on a smooth complex projective curve $X$. In particular it is proven that this moduli space is virtually smooth and related byrelative Beilinson spectral sequence to the curve counting construction via stable pairs of Pandharipan…
In this paper, we propose a definition of the moduli stack of stable relative ideal sheaves, and prove that it is a separated and proper Deligne-Mumford stack. It is the first part of the project of relative Donaldson-Thomas theory of ideal sheaves on projective threefolds, which in the end provides a degeneration formula of Donaldson-Thomas invariants of threefolds.
We introduce the notion of almost perfect obstruction theory on a Deligne-Mumford stack and show that stacks with almost perfect obstruction theories have virtual structure sheaves which are deformation invariant. The main components in the construction are an induced embedding of the coarse moduli sheaf of the intrinsic normal cone into the associated obstruction sheaf stack and the construction of a $K$-theoretic Gysin map for sheaf stacks. We show that many stacks of interest admit almost perfect obstruction theories. As a result, we are able to define virtual structure sheaves and $K$-theo…
It is known that the Seiberg-Witten invariants, derived from supersymmetric Yang-Mill theories in four-dimensions, do not distinguish smooth structure of certain non-simply-connected four manifolds. We propose generalizations of Donaldson-Witten and Vafa-Witten theories on a Kähler manifold based on Higgs Bundles. We showed, in particular, that the partition function of our generalized Vafa-Witten theory can be written as the sum of contributions our generalized Donaldson-Witten invariants and generalized Seiberg-Witten invariants. The resulting generalized Seiberg-Witten invariants might have…
We survey the foundations for Donaldson-Thomas invariants for stable sheaves on algebraic threefolds with trivial canonical bundle, with emphasis on the case of abelian threefolds.
K-theoretic Donaldson invariants are holomorphic Euler characteristics of determinant line bundles on moduli spaces of sheaves on surfaces. We compute generating functions of K-theoretic Donaldson invariants on the projective plane and rational ruled surfaces. We apply this result to prove some cases of Le Potier's strange duality.
Using quantum field-theoretic arguments, Witten has established a relation between the Donaldson and Seiberg-Witten invariants of smooth four-manifolds. In this survey article, we describe the program to prove this relation using a moduli space of PU(2) = SO(3) monopoles as a cobordism between the Donaldson moduli space of anti-self-dual SO(3) connections and moduli spaces of U(1) monopoles. We provide an overview of some of our transversality and Uhlenbeck compactness results for PU(2) monopoles, along with some of our calculations of Donaldson invariants in terms of Seiberg-Witten invariants…
We formulate conjectural blowup formulas for Segre and Verlinde numbers on moduli spaces of sheaves on projective surfaces $S$ with $p_g(S)>0$ and $b_1(S)=0$. As applications we give a give a conjectural formula for the Donaldson invariants of $S$ in arbitrary rank, as well as for the $K$-theoretic Donaldson invariants, and some Donaldson invariants with fundamental matters.
Let $X$ be a compact complex Calabi-Yau 4-fold. Under certain assumptions, we define Donaldson-Thomas type deformation invariants ($DT_{4}$ invariants) by studying moduli spaces of solutions to the Donaldson-Thomas equations on $X$. We also study sheaves counting problems on local Calabi-Yau 4-folds. We relate $DT_{4}$ invariants of $K_{Y}$ to the Donaldson-Thomas invariants of the associated Fano 3-fold $Y$. When the Calabi-Yau 4-fold is toric, we adapt the virtual localization formula to define the corresponding equivariant $DT_{4}$ invariants. We also discuss the non-commutative version of …
This paper describes how, in the case of algebraic surfaces, the well-known theorem of Donaldson-Uhlenbeck-Yau can be proved in a framework of generalized 'multiplier ideal sheaves', following the ideas of Siu. The key concept is that the destabilizing sheaf satisfies a differential inclusion relation. This relation is used, together with a complex Frobenius theorem for locally finitely generated subsheaves, to imply coherence of the destabilizing subsheaf.
In this article we complete the proof---for a broad class of four-manifolds---of Witten's conjecture that the Donaldson and Seiberg-Witten series coincide, at least through terms of degree less than or equal to c-2, where c is a linear combination of the Euler characteristic and signature of the four-manifold. This article is a revision of sections 4--7 of an earlier version, while a revision of sections 1--3 of that earlier version now appear in a separate companion article (math.DG/0007190). Here, we use our computations of Chern classes for the virtual normal bundles for the Seiberg-Witten …
Let X be a Calabi-Yau 3-fold over C. The Donaldson-Thomas invariants of X are integers DT^a(t) which count stable sheaves with Chern character a on X, with respect to a Gieseker stability condition t. They are defined only for Chern characters a for which there are no strictly semistable sheaves on X. They have the good property that they are unchanged under deformations of X. Their behaviour under change of stability condition t was not understood until now. This book defines and studies a generalization of Donaldson-Thomas invariants. Our new invariants \bar{DT}^a(t) are rational numbers, de…
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 …
In this paper, we prove a window theorem for categorical Donaldson-Thomas theories on local surfaces as an analogue of window theorem for GIT quotient stacks. We give two applications of our main result. The first one is a proof of wall-crossing equivalences of DT categories for one dimensional stable sheave on local surfaces, under some technical condition on strictly semistable sheaves. The second one is to show the existence of fully-faithful functors from categorical PT theories to categorical MNOP theories, when the curve class is reduced. These results indicate categorifications of wall-…
This is a survey of the book arXiv:0810.5645 with Yinan Song. Let X be a Calabi-Yau 3-fold over C. The Donaldson-Thomas invariants of X are integers DT^a(t) which count stable sheaves with Chern character a on X, with respect to a Gieseker stability condition t. They are defined only for Chern characters a for which there are no strictly semistable sheaves on X. They have the good property that they are unchanged under deformations of X. Their behaviour under change of stability condition t was not understood until now. We discuss "generalized Donaldson-Thomas invariants" \bar{DT}^a(t). These …
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.
We provide stacky generalizations of classical gauge-theoretic results inspired by Donaldson, the Uhlenbeck-Yau theorem and variants due to Bando and his collaborators. Moreover, we show an application of this machinery in the study of ALE spaces.
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.
In this paper, we first prove a Donaldson-Uhlenbeck-Yau theorem over projective normal varieties smooth in codimension two. As a consequence we deduce the polystability of (dual) tensor products of stable reflexive sheaves, and we give a new proof of the Bogomolov-Gieseker inequality, along with a precise characterization of the case of equality. This also improves several previously known algebro-geometric results on normalized tautological classes. We study the limiting behavior of semistable bundles over a degenerating family of projective normal varieties. In the case of a family of stable…
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…
Kontsevich and Soibelman introduced a notion of orientation data on Calabi-Yau category. It can be viewed as a consistent choice of spin structure on moduli space of objects in the given category. The orientation data plays an important role in Donaldson-Thomas theory. Let X be a projective, simply connected and torsion free CY 3-fold. We prove the existence of orientation data for the moduli space of coherent sheaves on X.
We study certain DT invariants arising from stable coherent sheaves in a nonsingular projective threefold supported on the members of a linear system of a fixed line bundle. When the canonical bundle of the threefold satisfies certain positivity conditions, we relate the DT invariants to Carlsson-Okounkov formulas for the "twisted Euler's number" of the punctual Hilbert schemes of nonsingular surfaces, and conclude they have a modular property.
Recently Oh-Thomas constructed a virtual cycle $[X]^{\mathrm{vir}}\in A_*(X)$ for a quasi-projective moduli space $X$ of stable sheaves or complexes over a Calabi-Yau 4-fold against which DT4 invariants may be defined as integrals of cohomology classes. In this paper, we prove that the virtual cycle localizes to the zero locus $X(σ)$ of an isotropic cosection $σ$ of the obstruction sheaf $Ob_X$ of $X$ and construct a localized virtual cycle $[X]^{\mathrm{vir}}_{\mathrm{loc}}\in A_*(X(σ))$. This is achieved by further localizing the Oh-Thomas class which localizes Edidin-Graham's square root Eu…
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 introduce the concept of Spin^G-structure in a SO-bundle, where $G\subset U(V)$ is a compact Lie group containing $-id_V$. We study and classify $Spin^G(4)$-structures on 4-manifolds, we introduce the G-Monopole equations associated with a $Spin^G$-structure. On Kaehler surfaces a Kobayashi-Hitchin correspondence can be proved for the corresponding moduli spaces. Using this complex geometric interpretation, we determine explicitely a moduli space of "PU(2)-Monopoles" on $¶^2$, we describe its Uhlenbeck compactification, as well as the Donaldson- and the abelian locus.
Donaldson-Thomas theory on a Calabi-Yau can be described in terms of a certain six-dimensional cohomological gauge theory. We introduce a certain class of defects in this gauge theory which generalize surface defects in four dimensions. These defects are associated with divisors and are defined by prescribing certain boundary conditions for the gauge fields. We discuss generalized instanton moduli spaces when the theory is defined with a defect and propose a generalization of Donaldson-Thomas invariants. These invariants arise by studying torsion free coherent sheaves on Calabi-Yau varieties w…
We develope $\mathbb{C}^{\ast}$-equivariant categorical Donaldson-Thomas theory for local surfaces, i.e. the total spaces of canonical line bundles on smooth projective surfaces. We introduce $\mathbb{C}^{\ast}$-equivariant DT categories for local surfaces as Verdier quotients of derived categories of coherent sheaves on derived moduli stacks of coherent sheaves on surfaces, by subcategories of objects whose singular supports are contained in unstable loci. Via Koszul duality, our construction may be regarded as certain gluing of $\mathbb{C}^{\ast}$-equivariant derived categories of factorizat…
This paper studies the action of the Fourier-Mukai transform on moduli spaces of vertical torsion sheaves on elliptic Calabi-Yau threefolds in Weierstrass form. Moduli stacks of semistable one dimensional sheaves on such threefolds are identified with open and closed substacksof moduli stacks of vertical semistable two dimensional sheaves on their Fourier-Mukai duals. In particular, this yields explicit conjectural results for Donaldson-Thomas invariants of vertical two dimensional sheaves on K3-fibered elliptic Calabi-Yau threefolds.
We study intersection cohomology of moduli spaces of semistable vector bundles on a complex algebraic surface. Our main result relates intersection Poincare polynomials of the moduli spaces to Donaldson-Thomas invariants of the surface. In support of this result, we compute explicitly intersection Poincare polynomials for sheaves with rank two and three on ruled surfaces.
In order to study wall crossing formula of Donaldson type invariants on the blown-up plane, Nakajima-Yoshioka constructed a sequence of blow-up/blow-down diagrams connecting the moduli space of torsion free framed sheaves on projective plane, and that on its blow-up. In this paper, we prove that Nakajima-Yoshioka's diagram realizes the minimal model program. Furthermore, we obtain a fully-faithful embedding between the derived categories of these moduli spaces.
This review gives an introduction to cohomological Donaldson-Thomas theory: the study of a cohomology theory on moduli spaces of sheaves on Calabi-Yau threefolds, and of complexes in 3-Calabi-Yau categories, categorifying their numerical DT invariant. Local and global aspects of the theory are both covered, including representations of quivers with potential. We will discuss the construction of the DT sheaf, a nontrivial topological coefficient system on such a moduli space, along with some cohomology computations. The Cohomological Hall Algebra, an algebra structure on cohomological DT spaces…
We develop a virtual cycle approach towards generalized Donaldson-Thomas theory of Calabi-Yau threefolds. Let $\mathcal{M}$ be the moduli stack of Gieseker semistable sheaves of fixed topological type on a Calabi-Yau threefold $W$. We construct an associated Deligne-Mumford stack $\widetilde{\mathcal{M}}$ with an induced semi-perfect obstruction theory of virtual dimension zero and define the generalized Donaldson-Thomas invariant of $W$ via Kirwan blowups to be the degree of the virtual cycle $[\widetilde{\mathcal{M}}]^{\mathrm{vir}}$. We show that it is invariant under deformations of the co…
The paper determines the change of moduli spaces of rank $2$ sheaves on surfaces with $p_g=0$ under change of polarization and the corresponding change of the Donaldson invariants. In this revised version we have made some minor stylistic changes in the previous text. In addition we have added a final chapter of about 20 pages (announced in the previous version), in which the six lowest order terms (three of them non-zero) of the change are computed explicitely using computations in the cohomology of Hilbert schemes of points.
We study the change of moduli spaces of Gieseker-semistable torsion free rank-$2$ sheaves on algebraic surfaces as we vary the polarizations. When the surfaces are rational with an effective anti-canonical divisor, the moduli spaces are linked by a series of flips (blowups and blowdowns). Using these results, we compute the transition formulas for Donaldson polynomial invariants of rational surfaces. Part of the work is also obtained independently by Matsuki-Wentworth and Ellingsrud-G{\" o}ttsche.
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.
Let $S$ be a projective simply connected complex surface and $\mathcal{L}$ be a line bundle on $S$. We study the moduli space of stable compactly supported 2-dimensional sheaves on the total spaces of $\mathcal{L}$. The moduli space admits a $\mathbb{C}^*$-action induced by scaling the fibers of $\mathcal{L}$. We identify certain components of the fixed locus of the moduli space with the moduli space of torsion free sheaves and the nested Hilbert schemes on $S$. We define the localized Donaldson-Thomas invariants of $\mathcal{L}$ by virtual localization in the case that $\mathcal{L}$ twisted b…
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…
K-theoretic Donaldson invariants are holomorphic Euler characteristics of determinant line bundles on moduli spaces of rank 2 sheaves on surfaces. We develop an algorithm which determines the generating functions of K-theoretic Donaldson invariants on the projective plane and more generally rational surfaces, and apply it in many cases to get explicit formulas. We relate the results to Le Potier's strange duality conjecture.
Motivated by S-duality modularity conjectures in string theory, we study the Donaldson-Thomas type invariants of pure 2-dimensional sheaves inside a nonsingular threefold X in three different situations: (1). X is a K3 fibration over a curve. We study the Donaldson-Thomas invariants of the 2 dimensional Gieseker stable sheaves in X supported on the fibers. Analogous to the Gromov-Witten theory formula established in the work of Maulik-Pandharipande, we express these invariants in terms of the Euler characteristic of the Hilbert scheme of points on the K3 surface and the Noether-Lefschetz numbe…
