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  SUSY Indices in N=2 Gauge Theories

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Just to be very general, let Mk(r,n) be the moduli space of U(r) instantons with instanton number n on the ALE resolved space Xk.  Feel free to only comment on specific cases!  

Let d=dimMk(r,n) and let T be the tangent bundle of the moduli space.  We define the formal bundle 

Em(T)=md+md1c1(T)=+cd(T).

Now I'm a mathematician, but I've heard the following slogan from physics:

"Given N=2 SYM in 4d with m the mass of the adjoint hypermultiplet, if m0 we recover N=4 SYM in 4d while if m we recover pure N=2 SYM in 4d"

In (https://arxiv.org/pdf/0808.0884.pdf, Section 4.4) they define the N=2 instanton partition function on the ALE space Xk:

ZXk=n0Λ2rnMk(r,n)(Em)(T)

where the integral is to be done equivariantly with respect to a natural torus action.  Now clearly from the above definition of the formal bundle Em, if we let m0 we get:

limm0ZXk=n0Λ2rnMk(r,n)cd(T)=n0Λ2rne(Mk(r,n))

where e() denotes the topological Euler characteristic.  Now, Vafa and Witten famously showed that the instanton partition function of N=4 SYM on an ALE space corresponded to the generating function of the Euler characteristics of the moduli space.  Therefore, this seems to agree with the physics I stated above.  Moreover, we actually know that the dimension d of the moduli space is 2rn.  Therefore, we can factor md out of each term in the formal bundle Em.  We seem to be able to define a new finite parameter q=(mΛ)2r and then we can freely let m:

limmZXk=n0qnMk(r,n)1

and this is simply Nekrasov's instanton partition function for pure N=2 SYM, so this also seems consistent.  

First question: Is all of this correct so far?  I feel very suspicious about my formula q=(mΛ)2r but I can't think of any other way to make this work out the way the above physics slogan claims it should.  

Since this has already been long, I'll make the second part succinct.  Essentially, I think I understand what I've done above, modulo some details.  What's been bugging me for some time, is that there are these other SUSY indices like the arithmetic genus, the χy genus, and the elliptic genus.  How do these fit into this picture!?  I think I can show that starting with χy as the index, we get a picture very similar to that above.  I'll spare everyone the full formulas, but the χy genus is defined to be

χy(Mk(r,n))=Mk(r,n)di=1xi1yexi1exi

where xi are the Chern roots.  Imagine I make the analogous partition function to the one above with this index.  Then we define the parameter y by y=em.  Notice that when m0, then y1 and the integrand turns into just a product over the Chern roots which will give the Euler characteristic!  This seems consistent with the Vafa-Witten story.  However, when m we have y0 which gives as an index the arithmetic genus, i.e. χ0.  Now, clearly this is not merely an integrand of 1 as in Nekrasov's partition function, but there are sources (https://arxiv.org/pdf/math/0412089.pdf, Page 24) where the χ0 is apparently the correct index for a pure 4D N=2 SYM theory.  

So what's going on here?  This seems painfully similar, yet different, from what I did above with the formal bundle Em.  How are all these indices related in the physics literature?  Specifically, in the "geometric engineering" business, you actually get that Gromov-Witten theory on a related Calabi-Yau threefold engineers a gauge theory in four dimensions whose instanton partition function uses as indices the arithmetic genus, the χy genus, and the elliptic genus.  See for example, the link immediately above, or the beautiful Vafa, Hollowood, Iqbal paper (https://arxiv.org/pdf/hep-th/0310272.pdf) ;

asked Apr 6, 2017 in Theoretical Physics by Benighted (360 points) [ no revision ]

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