Rozansky–Witten Theory, Localised Then Tilted

The paper has two parts, in the first part, we apply the localisation technique to the Rozansky–Witten theory on compact hyperkähler targets. We do so via first reformulating the theory as some supersymmetric sigma-model. We obtain the exact formula for the partition function with Wilson loops on $$S^1\times \Sigma _g$$ S 1 × Σ g and the lens spaces, the results match with earlier computations using Feynman diagrams on K3. The second part is motivated by a very curious paper (Gukov in J Geom Phys 168, 104311, 2021), where the equivariant index formula for the dimension of the Hilbert space of the Rozansky–Witten theory is interpreted as a kind of Verlinde formula. In this interpretation, the fixed points of the target hyperkähler geometry correspond to certain ‘states’. We extend the formalism of part one to incorporate equivariance on the target geometry. For certain non-compact hyperkähler geometry, we can apply the tilting theory to the derived category of coherent sheaves, whose objects label the Wilson loops, allowing us to pick a basis for the latter. We can then compute the fusion products in this basis and we show that the objects that have diagonal fusion rules are intimately related to the fixed points of the geometry. Using these objects as basis to compute the dimension of the Hilbert space leads back to the Verlinde formula, thus answering the question that motivated the paper.

Black Hole Quasinormal Modes and Seiberg–Witten Theory

We present new analytic results on black hole perturbation theory. Our results are based on a novel relation to four-dimensional $${\mathcal {N}}=2$$ N = 2 supersymmetric gauge theories. We propose an exact version of Bohr-Sommerfeld quantization conditions on quasinormal mode frequencies in terms of the Nekrasov partition function in a particular phase of the $$\Omega $$ Ω -background. Our quantization conditions also enable us to find exact expressions of eigenvalues of spin-weighted spheroidal harmonics. We test the validity of our conjecture by comparing against known numerical results for Kerr black holes as well as for Schwarzschild black holes. Some extensions are also discussed.

2d TQFTs and baby universes

In this work, we extend the 2d topological gravity model of [1] to have as its bulk action any open/closed TQFT obeying Atiyah’s axioms. The holographic duals of these topological gravity models are ensembles of 1d topological theories with random dimension. Specifically, we find that the TQFT Hilbert space splits into sectors, between which correlators of boundary observables factorize, and that the corresponding sectors of the boundary theory have dimensions independently chosen from different Poisson distributions. As a special case, we study in detail the gravity model built from the bulk action of 2d Dijkgraaf-Witten theory, with or without end-of-the-world branes, and for arbitrary finite group G. The dual of this Dijkgraaf-Witten gravity model can be interpreted as a 1d topological theory whose Hilbert space is a random representation of G and whose aforementioned sectors are labeled by the irreducible representations of G.These holographic interpretations of our gravity models require projecting out negative-norm states from the baby universe Hilbert space, which in [1] was achieved by the (only seemingly) ad hoc solution of adding a nonlocal boundary term to the bulk action. In order to place their solution in the completely local framework of a TQFT with defects, we couple the boundaries of the gravity model to an auxiliary 2d TQFT in a non-gravitational (i.e. fixed topology) region. In this framework, the difficulty of negative-norm states can be remedied in a local way by the introduction of a defect line between the gravitational and non-gravitational regions. The gravity model is then holographically dual to an ensemble of boundary conditions in an open/closed TQFT without gravity.

Gapped boundaries and string-like excitations in (3+1)d gauge models of topological phases

We study lattice Hamiltonian realisations of (3+1)d Dijkgraaf-Witten theory with gapped boundaries. In addition to the bulk loop-like excitations, the Hamiltonian yields bulk dyonic string-like excitations that terminate at gapped boundaries. Using a tube algebra approach, we classify such excitations and derive the corresponding representation theory. Via a dimensional reduction argument, we relate this tube algebra to that describing (2+1)d boundary point-like excitations at interfaces between two gapped boundaries. Such point-like excitations are well known to be encoded into a bicategory of module categories over the input fusion category. Exploiting this correspondence, we define a bicategory that encodes the string-like excitations ending at gapped boundaries, showing that it is a sub-bicategory of the centre of the input bicategory of group-graded 2-vector spaces. In the process, we explain how gapped boundaries in (3+1)d can be labelled by so-called pseudo-algebra objects over this input bicategory.

Wall-crossing in genus-zero hybrid theory

The hybrid model is the Landau–Ginzburg-type theory that is expected, via the Landau–Ginzburg/ Calabi–Yau correspondence, to match the Gromov–Witten theory of a complete intersection in weighted projective space. We prove a wall-crossing formula exhibiting the dependence of the genus-zero hybrid model on its stability parameter, generalizing the work of [21] for quantum singularity theory and paralleling the work of Ciocan-Fontanine–Kim [7] for quasimaps. This completes the proof of the genus-zero Landau– Ginzburg/Calabi–Yau correspondence for complete intersections of hypersurfaces of the same degree, as well as the proof of the all-genus hybrid wall-crossing [11].