Min-xin Huang

Topological String Theory on Compact Calabi–Yau: Modularity and Boundary Conditions

The topological string partition function Z(λ,t,t) =exp(λ2 g-2 Fg(t, t)) is calculated on a compact Calabi–Yau M. The Fg(t, t) fulfil the holomorphic anomaly equations, which imply that ψ=Z transforms as a wave function on the symplectic space H3(M, Z). This defines it everywhere in the moduli space M(M) along with preferred local coordinates. Modular properties of the sections Fg as well as local constraints from the 4d effective action allow us to fix Z to a large extent. Currently with a newly found gap condition at the conifold, regularity at the orbifold and the most naive bounds from Castelnuovo’s theory, we can provide the boundary data, which specify Z, e.g. up to genus 51 for the quintic.

Open strings from N = 4 super Yang-Mills

Exploiting insights on strings moving in pp-wave backgrounds, we show how open strings emerge from N = 4 SU(M) Yang-Mills theory as fluctuations around certain states carrying R-charge of order M. These states are dual to spherical D3-branes of AdS_5 x S^5 and we reproduce the spectrum of small fluctuations of these states from Yang Mills theory. When G such D3-branes coincide, the expected G^2 light degrees of freedom emerge. The open strings running between the branes can be quantized easily in a Penrose limit of the spacetime. Taking the corresponding large charge limit of the Yang-Mills theory, we reproduce the open string worldsheets and their spectra from field theory degrees of freedom.

Holomorphic anomaly in gauge theories and matrix models

We use the holomorphic anomaly equation to solve the gravitational corrections to Seiberg-Witten theory and a two-cut matrix model, which is related by the Dijkgraaf-Vafa conjecture to the topological B-model on a local Calabi-Yau manifold. In both cases we construct propagators that give a recursive solution in the genus modulo a holomorphic ambiguity. In the case of Seiberg-Witten theory the gravitational corrections can be calculated to all genus as quasimodular functions of Γ(2). In the matrix model we fix the holomorphic ambiguity up to genus two. The latter result establishes the Dijkgraaf-Vafa conjecture at that genus and yields a new method for solving the matrix model at fixed genus in closed form in terms of generalized hypergeometric functions.

Refined stable pair invariants for E-, M- and

A bstractWe use mirror symmetry, the refined holomorphic anomaly equation and modularity properties of elliptic singularities to calculate the refined BPS invariants of stable pairs on non-compact Calabi-Yau manifolds, based on del Pezzo surfaces and elliptic surfaces, in particular the half K3. The BPS numbers contribute naturally to the fivedimensional N =1 supersymmetric index of M-theory, but they can be also interpreted in terms of the superconformal index in six dimensions and upon dimensional reduction the generating functions count N = 2 Seiberg-Witten gauge theory instantons in four dimensions. Using the M/F-theory uplift the additional information encoded in the spin content can be used in an essential way to obtain information about BPS states in physical systems associated to small instantons, tensionless strings, gauge symmetry enhancement in F-theory by [p, q]-strings as well as M-strings.

[p, q]

A bstractWe consider certain quantum spectral problems appearing in the study of local Calabi-Yau geometries. The quantum spectrum can be computed by the Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization condition for a period integral. For the case of small Planck constant, the periods are computed perturbatively by deformation of the Ω background parameters in the Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit. We compare the calculations with the results from the standard perturbation theory for the quantum Hamiltonian. There have been proposals in the literature for the non-perturbative contributions based on singularity cancellation with the perturbative contributions. We compute the quantum spectrum numerically with some high precisions for many cases of Planck constant. We find that there are also some higher order non-singular non-perturbative contributions, which are not captured by the singularity cancellation mechanism. We fix the first few orders formulas of such corrections for some well known local Calabi-Yau models.

-strings

A bstractWe use mirror symmetry, quantum geometry and modularity properties of elliptic curves to calculate the refined free energies in the Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit on non-compact toric Calabi-Yau manifolds, based on del Pezzo surfaces. Quantum geometry here is to be understood as a quantum deformed version of rigid special geometry, which has its origin in the quantum mechanical behaviour of branes in the topological string B-model. We will argue that, in the Seiberg-Witten picture, only the Coulomb parameters lead to quantum corrections, while the mass parameters remain uncorrected. In certain cases we will also compute the expansion of the free energies at the orbifold point and the conifold locus. We will compute the quantum corrections order by order on ℏ, by deriving second order differential operators, which act on the classical periods.

Topological strings and quantum spectral problems

We study five-dimensional black holes obtained by compactifying M theory on Calabi-Yau threefolds. Recent progress in solving topological string theory on compact, one-parameter models allows us to test numerically various conjectures about these black holes. We give convincing evidence that a microscopic description based on Gopakumar-Vafa invariants accounts correctly for their macroscopic entropy, and we check that highly nontrivial cancellations--which seem necessary to resolve the so-called entropy enigma in the Ooguri-Strominger-Vafa conjecture--do in fact occur. We also study analytically small 5d black holes obtained by wrapping M2 branes in the fiber of K3 fibrations. By using heterotic/type II duality we obtain exact formulae for the microscopic degeneracies in various geometries, and we compute their asymptotic expansion for large charges.

Quantum geometry of del Pezzo surfaces in the Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit

A bstractWe establish the precise relation between the Nekrasov-Shatashvili (NS) quantization scheme and Grassi-Hatsuda-Mariño conjecture for the mirror curve of arbitrary toric Calabi-Yau threefold. For a mirror curve of genus g, the NS quantization scheme leads to g quantization conditions for the corresponding integrable system. The exact NS quantization conditions enjoy a self S-duality with respect to Planck constant h and can be derived from the Lockhart-Vafa partition function of non-perturbative topological string. Based on a recent observation on the correspondence between spectral theory and topological string, another quantization scheme was proposed by Grassi-Hatsuda-Mariño, in which there is a single quantization condition and the spectra are encoded in the vanishing of a quantum Riemann theta function. We demonstrate that there actually exist at least g nonequivalent quantum Riemann theta functions and the intersections of their theta divisors coincide with the spectra determined by the exact NS quantization conditions. This highly nontrivial coincidence between the two quantization schemes requires infinite constraints among the refined Gopakumar-Vafa invariants. The equivalence for mirror curves of genus one has been verified for some local del Pezzo surfaces. In this paper, we generalize the correspondence to higher genus, and analyze in detail the resolved ℂ3/ℤ5

Exact quantization conditions, toric Calabi-Yau and non-perturbative topological string

{\mathbb{C}}^3/{\mathbb{Z}}_5