The Standard Model quiver in de Sitter string compactifications

We argue that the Standard Model quiver can be embedded into compact Calabi-Yau geometries through orientifolded D3-branes at del Pezzo singularities dPn with n ≥ 5 in a framework including moduli stabilisation. To illustrate our approach, we explicitly construct a local dP5 model via a combination of Higgsing and orientifolding. This procedure reduces the original dP5 quiver gauge theory to the Left-Right symmetric model with three families of quarks and leptons as well as a Higgs sector to further break the symmetries to the Standard Model gauge group. We embed this local model in a globally consistent Calabi-Yau flux compactification with tadpole and Freed-Witten anomaly cancellations. The model features closed string moduli stabilisation with a de Sitter minimum from T-branes, supersymmetry broken by the Kähler moduli, and the MSSM as the low energy spectrum. We further discuss phenomenological and cosmological implications of this construction.

The ABCDEFG of little strings

Starting from type IIB string theory on an ADE singularity, the (2, 0) little string arises when one takes the string coupling gs to 0. In this setup, we give a unified description of the codimension-two defects of the little string, labeled by a simple Lie algebra $$ \mathfrak{g} $$ g . Geometrically, these are D5 branes wrapping 2-cycles of the singularity, subject to a certain folding operation when the algebra is non simply-laced. Equivalently, the defects are specified by a certain set of weights of $$ {}^L\mathfrak{g} $$ L g , the Langlands dual of $$ \mathfrak{g} $$ g . As a first application, we show that the instanton partition function of the $$ \mathfrak{g} $$ g -type quiver gauge theory on the defect is equal to a 3-point conformal block of the $$ \mathfrak{g} $$ g -type deformed Toda theory in the Coulomb gas formalism. As a second application, we argue that in the (2, 0) CFT limit, the Coulomb branch of the defects flows to a nilpotent orbit of $$ \mathfrak{g} $$ g .

Factorised 3d $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 4 orthosymplectic quivers

We study the moduli space of 3d $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 4 quiver gauge theories with unitary, orthogonal and symplectic gauge nodes, that fall into exceptional sequences. We find that both the Higgs and Coulomb branches of the moduli space factorise into decoupled sectors. Each decoupled sector is described by a single quiver gauge theory with only unitary gauge nodes. The orthosymplectic quivers serve as magnetic quivers for 5d $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 1 superconformal field theories which can be engineered in type IIB string theories both with and without an O5 plane. We use this point of view to postulate the dual pairs of unitary and orthosymplectic quivers by deriving them as magnetic quivers of the 5d theory. We use this correspondence to conjecture exact highest weight generating functions for the Coulomb branch Hilbert series of the orthosymplectic quivers, and provide tests of these results by directly computing the Hilbert series for the orthosymplectic quivers in a series expansion.

Defects, nested instantons and comet-shaped quivers

We introduce and study a surface defect in four-dimensional gauge theories supporting nested instantons with respect to the parabolic reduction of the gauge group at the defect. This is engineered from a $$\mathrm{{D3/D7}}$$ D 3 / D 7 -branes system on a non-compact Calabi–Yau threefold X. For $$X=T^2\times T^*{{\mathcal {C}}}_{g,k}$$ X = T 2 × T ∗ C g , k , the product of a two torus $$T^2$$ T 2 times the cotangent bundle over a Riemann surface $${{\mathcal {C}}}_{g,k}$$ C g , k with marked points, we propose an effective theory in the limit of small volume of $${\mathcal C}_{g,k}$$ C g , k given as a comet-shaped quiver gauge theory on $$T^2$$ T 2 , the tail of the comet being made of a flag quiver for each marked point and the head describing the degrees of freedom due to the genus g. Mathematically, we obtain for a single $$\mathrm{{D7}}$$ D 7 -brane conjectural explicit formulae for the virtual equivariant elliptic genus of a certain bundle over the moduli space of the nested Hilbert scheme of points on the affine plane. A connection with elliptic cohomology of character varieties and an elliptic version of modified Macdonald polynomials naturally arises.

Blocks and vortices in the 3d ADHM quiver gauge theory

We study the hemisphere partition function of a three-dimensional $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 4 supersymmetric U(N) gauge theory with one adjoint and one fundamental hypermultiplet — the ADHM quiver theory. In particular, we propose a distinguished set of UV boundary conditions which yield Verma modules of the quantised chiral rings of the Higgs and Coulomb branches. In line with a recent proposal by two of the authors in collaboration with M. Bullimore, we show explicitly that the hemisphere partition functions recover the characters of these modules in two limits, and realise blocks gluing exactly to the partition functions of the theory on closed three-manifolds. We study the geometry of the vortex moduli space and investigate the interpretation of the vortex partition functions as equivariant indices of quasimaps to the Hilbert scheme of points in ℂ2. We also investigate half indices of the ADHM quiver gauge theory in the presence of a line operator and discuss their geometric interpretation. Along the way we find interesting relations between our hemisphere blocks and related quantities in topological string theory and equivariant quantum K-theory.

The Volume of the Quiver Vortex Moduli Space

We study the moduli space volume of BPS vortices in quiver gauge theories on compact Riemann surfaces. The existence of BPS vortices imposes constraints on the quiver gauge theories. We show that the moduli space volume is given by a vev of a suitable cohomological operator (volume operator) in a supersymmetric quiver gauge theory, where BPS equations of the vortices are embedded. In the supersymmetric gauge theory, the moduli space volume is exactly evaluated as a contour integral by using the localization. Graph theory is useful to construct the supersymmetric quiver gauge theory and to derive the volume formula. The contour integral formula of the volume (generalization of the Jeffrey-Kirwan residue formula) leads to the Bradlow bounds (upper bounds on the vorticity by the area of the Riemann surface divided by the intrinsic size of the vortex). We give some examples of various quiver gauge theories and discuss properties of the moduli space volume in these theories. Our formula are applied to the volume of the vortex moduli space in the gauged non-linear sigma model with CPN target space, which is obtained by a strong coupling limit of a parent quiver gauge theory. We also discuss a non-Abelian generalization of the quiver gauge theory and “Abelianization” of the volume formula.

Instantons and Bows for the Classical Groups

The construction of Atiyah, Drinfeld, Hitchin and Manin provided complete description of all instantons on Euclidean four-space. It was extended by Kronheimer and Nakajima to instantons on ALE spaces, resolutions of orbifolds $\mathbb{R}^4/\Gamma$ by a finite subgroup Γ⊂SU(2). We consider a similar classification, in the holomorphic context, of instantons on some of the next spaces in the hierarchy, the ALF multi-Taub-NUT manifolds, showing how they tie in to the bow solutions to Nahm’s equations via the Nahm correspondence. Recently Nakajima and Takayama constructed the Coulomb branch of the moduli space of vacua of a quiver gauge theory, tying them to the same space of bow solutions. One can view our construction as describing the same manifold as the Higgs branch of the mirror gauge theory as described by Cherkis, O’Hara and Saemann. Our construction also yields the monad construction of holomorphic instanton bundles on the multi-Taub-NUT space for any classical compact Lie structure group.