We present a trace formula for an index over the spectrum of four dimensional superconformal field theories on S
 3 ×  time. Our index receives contributions from states invariant under at least one supercharge and captures all information – that may be obtained purely from group theory – about protected short representations in 4 dimensional superconformal field theories. In the case of the $${\mathcal N}=4$$
 theory our index is a function of four continuous variables. We compute it at weak coupling using gauge theory and at strong coupling by summing over the spectrum of free massless particles in AdS
 5 × S
 5 and find perfect agreement at large N and small charges. Our index does not reproduce the entropy of supersymmetric black holes in AdS
 5, but this is not a contradiction, as it differs qualitatively from the partition function over supersymmetric states of the $${\mathcal N}=4$$
 theory. We note that entropy for some small supersymmetric AdS
 5 black holes may be reproduced via a D-brane counting involving giant gravitons. For big black holes we find a qualitative (but not exact) agreement with the naive counting of BPS states in the free Yang Mills theory. In this paper we also evaluate and study the partition function over the chiral ring in the $${\mathcal N}=4$$
 Yang Mills theory.

An Index for 4 dimensional super conformal theories

The geometric Langlands program can be described in a natural way by compactifying on a Riemann surface C a twisted version of N=4 super Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions. The key ingredients are electric-magnetic duality of gauge theory, mirror symmetry of sigma-models, branes, Wilson and 't Hooft operators, and topological field theory. Seemingly esoteric notions of the geometric Langlands program, such as Hecke eigensheaves and D-modules, arise naturally from the physics.

https://www.intlpress.com/site/pub/files/_fulltext/journals/cntp/2007/0001/0001/CNTP-2007-0001-0001-a001.pdf

Electric-Magnetic Duality And The Geometric Langlands Program

http://cds.cern.ch/record/994225/files/0610327.pdf

Four-dimensional string compactifications with D-branes, orientifolds and fluxes

We present a uniform treatment of rigid supersymmetric field theories in a curved spacetime $ \mathcal{M} $, focusing on four-dimensional theories with four supercharges. Our discussion is significantly simpler than earlier treatments, because we use classical background values of the auxiliary fields in the supergravity multiplet. We demonstrate our procedure using several examples. For $ \mathcal{M} = Ad{S_4} $ we reproduce the known results in the literature. A supersymmetric Lagrangian for $ \mathcal{M} = {\mathbb{S}^4} $ exists, but unless the field theory is conformal, it is not reflection positive. We derive the Lagrangian for $ \mathcal{M} = {\mathbb{S}^3} \times \mathbb{R} $ and note that the time direction $ \mathbb{R} $ can be rotated to Euclidean signature and be compactified to $ {\mathbb{S}^1} $ only when the theory has a continuous R-symmetry. The partition function on $ \mathcal{M} = {\mathbb{S}^3} \times {\mathbb{S}^1} $ is independent of the parameters of the flat space theory and depends holomorphically on some complex background gauge fields. We also consider R-invariant $ \mathcal{N} = 2 $ theories on $ {\mathbb{S}^3} $ and clarify a few points about them.

Rigid Supersymmetric Theories in Curved Superspace

We discuss systematic approaches to the classification of string/M theory vacua, and physical questions this might help us resolve. To this end, we initiate the study of ensembles of effective Lagrangians, which can be used to precisely study the predictive power of string theory, and in simple examples can lead to universality results. Using these ideas, we outline an approach to estimating the number of vacua of string/M theory which can realize the Standard Model.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1126-6708/2003/05/046/pdf

The statistics of string/M theory vacua

We study D-branes on the quintic CY by combining results from several directions: general results on holomorphic curves and vector bundles, stringy geometry and mirror symmetry, and the boundary states in Gepner models recently constructed by Recknagel and Schomerus, to begin sketching a picture of D-branes in the stringy regime. We also make first steps towards computing superpotentials on the D-brane world-volumes.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1126-6708/2000/08/015/pdf

D-branes on the quintic

We begin the study of the spectrum of BPS branes and its variation on lines of marginal stability on 2(?3), a Calabi-Yau ALE space asymptotic to 3/3. We show how to get the complete spectrum near the large volume limit and near the orbifold point, and find a striking similarity between the descriptions of holomorphic bundles and BPS branes in these two limits. We use these results to develop a general picture of the spectrum. We also suggest a generalization of some of the ideas to the quintic Calabi-Yau.

The Spectrum of $BPS$ Branes on a Noncompact Calabi-Yau

We define the concept of Π-stability, a generalization of μ-stability of vector bundles, and argue that it characterizes = 1 supersymmetric brane configurations and BPS states in very general string theory compactifications with = 2 supersymmetry in four dimensions.

Stability and BPS branes

We develop techniques to calculate an index for four dimensional superconformal field theories. This superconformal index is counting BPS operators which preserve only one supercharge. To calculate the superconformal index we quantize the field theory on S^3 X R and show that the twisted theory has an appropriate mass gap. This allows for the interactions to be switched off continuously without the superconformal index being changed. We test those techniques for theories which go through a non-trivial RG flow and for Seiberg dual theories. This leads to the conjecture of some group/number theoretical identities.

Calculating the Superconformal Index and Seiberg Duality

We define the concept of Pi-stability, a generalization of mu-stability of vector bundles, and argue that it characterizes N=1 supersymmetric brane configurations and BPS states in very general string theory compactifications with N=2 supersymmetry in four dimensions.

Christian Romelsberger

Papers

D-branes on the quintic

The Spectrum of $BPS$ Branes on a Noncompact Calabi-Yau

Stability and BPS branes

Calculating the Superconformal Index and Seiberg Duality

Stability and BPS branes