Genus zero Gopakumar-Vafa invariants from open strings

We propose a new way to compute the genus zero Gopakumar-Vafa invariants for two families of non-toric non-compact Calabi-Yau threefolds that admit simple flops: Reid’s Pagodas, and Laufer’s examples. We exploit the duality between M-theory on these threefolds, and IIA string theory with D6-branes and O6-planes. From this perspective, the GV invariants are detected as five-dimensional open string zero modes. We propose a definition for genus zero GV invariants for threefolds that do not admit small crepant resolutions. We find that in most cases, non-geometric T-brane data is required in order to fully specify the invariants.

On the Abuaf-Ueda Flop via Non-Commutative Crepant Resolutions

The Abuaf-Ueda flop is a 7-dimensional flop related to G₂ homogeneous spaces. The derived equivalence for this flop was first proved by Ueda using mutations of semi-orthogonal decompositions. In this article, we give an alternative proof for the derived equivalence using tilting bundles. Our proof also shows the existence of a non-commutative crepant resolution of the singularity appearing in the flopping contraction. We also give some results on moduli spaces of finite-length modules over this non-commutative crepant resolution.

Coulomb and Higgs branches from canonical singularities. Part 0

Five- and four-dimensional superconformal field theories with eight supercharges arise from canonical threefold singularities in M-theory and Type IIB string theory, respectively. We study their Coulomb and Higgs branches using crepant resolutions and deformations of the singularities. We propose a relation between the resulting moduli spaces, by compactifying the theories to 3d, followed by 3d $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 4 mirror symmetry and an S-type gauging of an abelian flavor symmetry. In particular, we use this correspondence to determine the Higgs branch of some 5d SCFTs and their magnetic quivers from the geometry. As an application of the general framework, we observe that singularities that engineer Argyres-Douglas theories in Type IIB also give rise to rank-0 5d SCFTs in M-theory. We also compute the higher-form symmetries of the 4d and 5d SCFTs, including the one-form symmetries of generalized Argyres-Douglas theories of type (G, G′).

Folding of Hitchin Systems and Crepant Resolutions

Folding of ADE-Dynkin diagrams according to graph automorphisms yields irreducible Dynkin diagrams of $\textrm{ABCDEFG}$-types. This folding procedure allows to trace back the properties of the corresponding simple Lie algebras or groups to those of $\textrm{ADE}$-type. In this article, we implement the techniques of folding by graph automorphisms for Hitchin integrable systems. We show that the fixed point loci of these automorphisms are isomorphic as algebraic integrable systems to the Hitchin systems of the folded groups away from singular fibers. The latter Hitchin systems are isomorphic to the intermediate Jacobian fibrations of Calabi–Yau orbifold stacks constructed by the 1st author. We construct simultaneous crepant resolutions of the associated singular quasi-projective Calabi–Yau three-folds and compare the resulting intermediate Jacobian fibrations to the corresponding Hitchin systems.

On the motive of O’Grady’s ten-dimensional hyper-Kähler varieties

We investigate how the motive of hyper-Kähler varieties is controlled by weight-2 (or surface-like) motives via tensor operations. In the first part, we study the Voevodsky motive of singular moduli spaces of semistable sheaves on K3 and abelian surfaces as well as the Chow motive of their crepant resolutions, when they exist. We show that these motives are in the tensor subcategory generated by the motive of the surface, provided that a crepant resolution exists. This extends a recent result of Bülles to the O’Grady-10 situation. In the non-commutative setting, similar results are proved for the Chow motive of moduli spaces of (semi-)stable objects of the K3 category of a cubic fourfold. As a consequence, we provide abundant examples of hyper-Kähler varieties of O’Grady-10 deformation type satisfying the standard conjectures. In the second part, we study the André motive of projective hyper-Kähler varieties. We attach to any such variety its defect group, an algebraic group which acts on the cohomology and measures the difference between the full motive and its weight-2 part. When the second Betti number is not 3, we show that the defect group is a natural complement of the Mumford–Tate group inside the motivic Galois group, and that it is deformation invariant. We prove the triviality of this group for all known examples of projective hyper-Kähler varieties, so that in each case the full motive is controlled by its weight-2 part. As applications, we show that for any variety motivated by a product of known hyper-Kähler varieties, all Hodge and Tate classes are motivated, the motivated Mumford–Tate conjecture 7.3 holds, and the André motive is abelian. This last point completes a recent work of Soldatenkov and provides a different proof for some of his results.

Non-Commutative Crepant Resolutions for Some Toric Singularities I

We give a criterion for the existence of noncommutative crepant resolutions (NCCRs) for certain toric singularities. In particular, we recover Broomhead’s result that a three-dimensional toric Gorenstein singularity has an NCCR. Our result also yields the existence of an NCCR for a four-dimensional toric Gorenstein singularity, which is known to have no toric NCCR.