Topological string theory

About: Topological string theory is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1206 publications have been published within this topic receiving 54758 citations.

Topological Strings, Two-Dimensional Yang-Mills Theory and Chern-Simons Theory on Torus Bundles

Abstract: We study the relations between two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory on the torus, topological string theory on a Calabi-Yau threefold whose local geometry is the sum of two line bundles over the torus, and Chern-Simons theory on torus bundles. The chiral partition function of the Yang-Mills gauge theory in the large N limit is shown to coincide with the topological string amplitude computed by topological vertex techniques. We use Yang-Mills theory as an efficient tool for the computation of Gromov-Witten invariants and derive explicitly their relation with Hurwitz numbers of the torus. We calculate the Gopakumar-Vafa invariants, whose integrality gives a non-trivial confirmation of the conjectured nonperturbative relation between two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory and topological string theory. We also demonstrate how the gauge theory leads to a simple combinatorial solution for the Donaldson-Thomas theory of the Calabi-Yau background. We match the instanton representation of Yang-Mills theory on the torus with the nonabelian localization of Chern-Simons gauge theory on torus bundles over the circle. We also comment on how these results can be applied to the computation of exact degeneracies of BPS black holes in the local Calabi-Yau background.

On topological approach to local theory of surfaces in Calabi-Yau threefolds

Abstract: We study the web of dualities relating various enumerative invariants, notably Gromov-Witten invariants and invariants that arise in topological gauge theory. In particular, we study Donaldson-Thomas gauge theory and its reductions to D=4 and D=2 which are relevant to the local theory of surfaces in Calabi-Yau threefolds.

The coupling of Poisson sigma models to topological backgrounds

Abstract: We extend the coupling to the topological backgrounds, recently worked out for the 2-dimensional BF-model, to the most general Poisson sigma models. The coupling involves the choice of a Casimir function on the target manifold and modifies the BRST transformations. This in turn induces a change in the BRST cohomology of the resulting theory. The observables of the coupled theory are analyzed and their geometrical interpretation is given. We finally couple the theory to 2-dimensional topological gravity: this is the first step to study a topological string theory in propagation on a Poisson manifold. As an application, we show that the gauge-fixed vectorial supersymmetry of the Poisson sigma models has a natural explanation in terms of the theory coupled to topological gravity.

Simulated random surfaces and effective string models in 3D Z(2) gauge theory

Abstract: All-order strong coupling simulations have been used to derive precise energies of string states in the confined phase of three dimensional Z(2) lattice gauge theory. The behavior of the ground state energy is here compared with predictions of effective string theory. Our new data reported here are consistent with known universal terms of the long string length ($L_0$) expansion known from effective string models in the continuum limit. Our precision is however still not sufficient to disentangle non-univeral terms of order $L_0^{-7}