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 function for the wallcrossing of these invariants in terms of elliptic functions and modular forms.
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 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.
We review some recent progress in understanding the relation between a six dimensional topological Yang-Mills theory and the enumerative geometry of Calabi-Yau threefolds. The gauge theory localizes on generalized instanton solutions and is conjecturally equivalent to Donaldson-Thomas theory. We evaluate the partition function of the U(N) theory in its Coulomb branch on flat space by employing equivariant localization techniques on its noncommutative deformation. Geometrically this corresponds to a higher dimensional generalization of the ADHM formalism. This formalism can be extended to a gen…
We construct noncommutative Donaldson-Thomas invariants associated with abelian orbifold singularities by analysing the instanton contributions to a six-dimensional topological gauge theory. The noncommutative deformation of this gauge theory localizes on noncommutative instantons which can be classified in terms of three-dimensional Young diagrams with a colouring of boxes according to the orbifold group. We construct a moduli space for these gauge field configurations which allows us to compute its virtual numbers via the counting of representations of a quiver with relations. The quiver enc…
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 study the relation between Donaldson-Thomas theory of Calabi-Yau threefolds and a six-dimensional topological Yang-Mills theory. Our main example is the topological U(N) gauge theory on flat space in its Coulomb branch. To evaluate its partition function we use equivariant localization techniques on its noncommutative deformation. As a result the gauge theory localizes on noncommutative instantons which can be classified in terms of N-coloured three-dimensional Young diagrams. We give to these noncommutative instantons a geometrical description in terms of certain stable framed coherent she…
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…
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…
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 provide a contour integral formula for the exact partition function of ${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetric $U(N)$ gauge theories on compact toric four-manifolds by means of supersymmetric localisation. We perform the explicit evaluation of the contour integral for $U(2)$ ${\cal N}=2$ theory on $\mathbb{P}^2$ for all instanton numbers. In the zero mass case, corresponding to the ${\cal N}=4$ supersymmetric gauge theory, we obtain the generating function of the Euler characteristics of instanton moduli spaces in terms of mock-modular forms. In the decoupling limit of infinite mass we find that the ge…
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.
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 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 study higher rank Donaldson-Thomas invariants of a Calabi-Yau 3-fold using Joyce-Song's wall-crossing formula. We construct quivers whose counting invariants coincide with the Donaldson-Thomas invariants. As a corollary, we prove the integrality and a certain symmetry for the higher rank invariants.
We prove that any class $VII$ surface with $b_2=1$ has curves. This implies the "Global Spherical Shell conjecture" in the case $b_2=1$: Any minimal class $VII$ surface with $b_2=1$ admits a global spherical shell, hence it is isomorphic to one of the surfaces in the known list. The main idea of the proof is to show that a certain moduli space of PU(2)-instantons on a surface $X$ with no curves (if such a surface existed) would contain a closed Riemann surface $Y$ whose general points correspond to non-filtrable holomorphic bundles on $X$. Then we pass from a family of bundles on $X$ parameter…
The goal of the present paper is to show the transformation formula of Donaldson-Thomas invariants on smooth projective Calabi-Yau 3-folds under birational transformations via categorical method. We also generalize the non-commutative Donaldson-Thomas invariants, introduced by B. Szendr{\H o}i in a local $(-1, -1)$-curve example, to an arbitrary flopping contraction from a smooth projective Calabi-Yau 3-fold. The transformation formula between such invariants and the usual Donaldson-Thomas invariants are also established. These formulas will be deduced from the wall-crossing formula in the spa…
We prove a family of factorization formulas for the combinatorial Donaldson--Thomas invariant for an acyclic quiver. A quantum dilogarithm identity due to Reineke, later interpreted by Rimanyi by counting codimensions of quiver loci, gives two extremal cases of our formulation in the Dynkin case. We establish our interpolating factorizations explicitly with a dimension counting argument by defining certain stratifications of the space of representations for the quiver and calculating Betti numbers in the corresponding equivariant cohomology algebras.
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 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.
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 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 $C^2$.
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…
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 …
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 …
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 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.
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 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…
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 study the reduced Donaldson-Thomas theory of abelian threefolds using Bridgeland stability conditions. The main result is the invariance of the reduced Donaldson-Thomas invariants under all derived autoequivalences, up to explicitly given wall-crossing terms. We also present a numerical criterion for the absence of walls in terms of a discriminant function. For principally polarized abelian threefolds of Picard rank one, the wall-crossing contributions are discussed in detail. The discussion yield evidence for a conjectural formula for curve counting invariants by Bryan, Pandharipande, Yin,…
Motivated by the counting of BPS states in string theory with orientifolds, we study moduli spaces of self-dual representations of a quiver with contravariant involution. We develop Hall module techniques to compute the number of points over finite fields of moduli stacks of semistable self-dual representations. Wall-crossing formulas relating these counts for different choices of stability parameters recover the wall-crossing of orientifold BPS/Donaldson-Thomas invariants predicted in the physics literature. In finite type examples the wall-crossing formulas can be reformulated in terms of id…
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…
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.
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…
For a Calabi-Yau 3-fold $X$, we explicitly compute the Donaldson-Thomas type invariant counting pairs $(F, V)$, where $F$ is a zero-dimensional coherent sheaf on $X$ and $V\subset F$ is a two dimensional linear subspace, which satisfy a certain stability condition. This is a rank two version of the DT-invariant of rank one, studied by Li, Behrend-Fantechi and Levine-Pandharipande. We use the wall-crossing formula of DT-invariants established by Joyce-Song, Kontsevich-Soibelman.
We show that the partition functions which enumerate Donaldson-Thomas invariants of local toric Calabi-Yau threefolds without compact divisors can be expressed in terms of specializations of the Schur measure. We also discuss the relevance of the Hall-Littlewood and Jack measures in the context of BPS state counting and study the partition functions at arbitrary points of the Kaehler moduli space. This rewriting in terms of symmetric functions leads to a unitary one-matrix model representation for Donaldson-Thomas theory. We describe explicitly how this result is related to the unitary matrix …
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 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 show that the moduli stacks of Bridgeland semistable objects on smooth projective 3-folds are proper algebraic stacks of finite type, if they satisfy the Bogomolov-Gieseker (BG for short) inequality conjecture proposed by Bayer, Macrì and the second author. The key ingredients are the equivalent form of the BG inequality conjecture and its generalization to arbitrary very weak stability conditions. This result is applied to define Donaldson-Thomas invariants counting Bridgeland semistable objects on smooth projective Calabi-Yau 3-folds satisfying the BG inequality conjecture, for example on…
Given a brane tiling, that is a bipartite graph on a torus, we can associate with it a quiver potential and a quiver potential algebra. Under certain consistency conditions on a brane tiling, we prove a formula for the Donaldson-Thomas type invariants of the moduli space of framed cyclic modules over the corresponding quiver potential algebra. We relate this formula with the counting of perfect matchings of the periodic plane tiling corresponding to the brane tiling. We prove that the same consistency conditions imply that the quiver potential algebra is a 3-Calabi-Yau algebra. We also formula…
We study a conjectural relationship among Donaldson-Thomas type invariants on Calabi-Yau 3-folds counting torsion sheaves supported on ample divisors, ideal sheaves of curves and Pandharipande-Thomas's stable pairs. The conjecture is a mathematical formulation of Denef-Moore's formula derived in the study of Ooguri-Strominger-Vafa's conjecture relating black hole entropy and topological string. The main result of this paper is to prove our conjecture assuming a conjectural Bogomolov-Gieseker type inequality proposed by Bayer, Macri and the author.
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 rational curves of degree two on a smooth sextic 4-fold and their counting invariant defined using Donaldson-Thomas theory of Calabi-Yau 4-folds. By comparing it with the corresponding Gromov-Witten invariant, we verify a conjectural relation between them proposed by the author, Maulik and Toda.
We perform a refined count of BPS states in the compactification of M-theory on $K3 \times T^2$, keeping track of the information provided by both the $SU(2)_L$ and $SU(2)_R$ angular momenta in the $SO(4)$ little group. Mathematically, this four variable counting function may be expressed via the motivic Donaldson-Thomas counts of $K3 \times T^2$, simultaneously refining Katz, Klemm, and Pandharipande's motivic Donaldson-Thomas counts on $K3$ and Oberdieck-Pandharipande's Gromov-Witten counts on $K3 \times T^2$. This provides the first full answer for motivic curve counts of a compact Calabi-Y…
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…
Oberdieck and Pandharipande conjectured that the curve counting invariants of $S\times E$, the product of a $K3$ surface and an elliptic curve, is given by minus the reciprocal of the Igusa cusp form of weight 10. For a fixed primitive curve class in $S$ of square $2h-2$, their conjecture predicts that the corresponding partition functions are given by meromorphic Jacobi forms of weight $-10$ and index $h-1$. We calculate the partition functions for primitive classes of square -2 and of square 0. Our computation uses reduced Donaldson-Thomas invariants which are defined as the Behrend function…
The Donaldson-Thomas invariant is a curve counting invariant on Calabi-Yau 3-folds via ideal sheaves. Another counting invariant via stable pairs is introduced by Pandharipande and Thomas, which counts pairs of curves and divisors on them. These two theories are conjecturally equivalent via generating functions, called DT/PT correspondence. In this paper, we show the Euler characteristic version of DT/PT correspondence, using the notion of weak stability conditions and the wall-crossing formula.
We perform an exact computation of the gauged linear sigma model associated to a D1-D5 brane system on a resolved A_1 singularity. This is accomplished via supersymmetric localization on the blown-up two-sphere. We show that in the blow-down limit C^2/Z_2 the partition function reduces to the Nekrasov partition function evaluating the equivariant volume of the instanton moduli space. For finite radius we obtain a tower of world-sheet instanton corrections, that we identify with the equivariant Gromov-Witten invariants of the ADHM moduli space. We show that these corrections can be encoded in a…
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first we give a survey on the recent developments of curve counting invariants on Calabi-Yau 3-folds, e.g. Gromov-Witten theory, Donaldson-Thomas theory and Pandharipande-Thomas theory. Next we focus on the proof of the rationality conjecture of the generating series of PT invariants, and discuss its conjectural Gopakumar-Vafa form.
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…
