A ring of instantons inducing a monopole loop

We consider the superposition of infinitely many instantons on a circle in . The construction yields a self-dual solution of the Yang-Mills equations with action density concentrated on the ring. We show that this configuration is reducible in which case magnetic charge can be defined in a gauge invariant way. Indeed, we find a unit charge monopole (worldline) on the ring. This is an analytic example of the correlation between monopoles and action/topological density, however with infinite action. We show that both the Maximal Abelian Gauge and the Laplacian Abelian Gauge detect the monopole, while the Polyakov gauge does not. We discuss the implications of this configuration.     

On the symplectic structure of instanton moduli spaces

We study the complex symplectic structure of the quiver varieties corresponding to the moduli spaces of SU(2) instantons on both commutative and non-commutative R⁴. We identify global Darboux coordinates and quadratic Hamiltonians on classical phase spaces for which these quiver varieties are natural completions. We also show that the group of non-commutative symplectomorphisms of the corresponding path algebra acts transitively on the moduli spaces of non-commutative instantons. This paper should be viewed as a step towards extending known results for Calogero–Moser spaces to the instanton moduli spaces.     

Universality and asymptotics of graph counting problems in non-orientable surfaces

Bender-Canfield showed that a plethora of graph counting problems in orientable/non-orientable surfaces involve two constants tg and pg for the orientable and the non-orientable case, respectively. T.T.Q. Le and the authors recently discovered a hidden relation between the sequence tg and a formal power series solution u(z) of the Painlevé I equation which, among other things, allows to give exact asymptotic expansion of tg to all orders in 1/g for large g. The paper introduces a formal power series solution v(z) of a Riccati equation, gives a non-linear recursion for its coefficients and an exact asymptotic expansion to all orders in g for large g, using the theory of Borel transforms. In addition, we conjecture a precise relation between the sequence pg and v(z). Our conjecture is motivated by the enumerative aspects of a quartic matrix model for real symmetric matrices, and the analytic properties of its double scaling limit. In particular, the matrix model provides a computation of the number of rooted quadrangulations in the 2-dimensional projective plane. Our conjecture implies analyticity of the O(N)- and Sp(N)-types of free energy of an arbitrary closed 3-manifold in a neighborhood of zero. Finally, we give a matrix model calculation of the Stokes constants, pose several problems that can be answered by the Riemann-Hilbert approach, and provide ample numerical evidence for our results.     

Gauge fields and D-branes

We prove that self-dual gauge fields in type I superstring theory are equivalent to configurations of Dirichlet 5-branes, by showing that the world-sheet theory of a Dirichlet 1-brane moving in a background of 5-branes includes an “ADHM sigma model”. This provides an explicit construction of the equivalent self-dual gauge field. We also discuss type II.     

On Framed Instanton Bundles and Their Deformations

We consider a compact twistor space P and assume that there is a surface S ⊂ P, which has degree one on twistor fibres and contains a twistor fibre F, e.g. P a LeBrun twistor space ([20], [18]). Similar to [6] and [5] we examine the restriction of an instanton bundle V equipped with a fixed trivialization along F to a framed vector bundle over (S, F). First we develope inspired by [13] a suitable deformation theory for vector bundles over an analytic space framed by a vector bundle over a subspace of arbitrary codimension. In the second section we describe the restriction as a smooth natural transformation into a fine moduli space. By considering framed U(r)‐instanton bundles as a real structure on framed instanton bundles over P, we show that the bijection between isomorphism classes of framed U(r)‐instanton bundles and isomorphism classes of framed vector bundles over (S, F) due to [5] is actually an isomorphism of moduli spaces.     

Higher dimensional knot spaces for manifolds with vector cross products

Vector cross product structures on manifolds include symplectic, volume, G₂- and Spin(7)-structures. We show that the knot spaces of such manifolds have natural symplectic structures, and relate instantons and branes in these manifolds to holomorphic disks and Lagrangian submanifolds in their knot spaces.For the complex case, the holomorphic volume form on a Calabi-Yau manifold defines a complex vector cross product structure. We show that its isotropic knot space admits a natural holomorphic symplectic structure. We also relate the Calabi-Yau geometry of the manifold to the holomorphic symplectic geometry of its isotropic knot space.     

Exact construction of noncommutative instantons

We discuss the Atiyah-Drinfeld-Hitchin-Manin (ADHM) construction of U(N) instantons in noncommutative (NC) space and give some exact instanton solutions for various noncommutative settings. We also present a new formula which is crucial to show an origin of the instanton number for U(1) and to prove the one-to-one correspondence between moduli spaces of the noncommutative instantons and the ADHM data.     

Super Universality of the Quantum Hall Effect and the?“Large N Picture” of the ? Angle

It is shown that the “massless chiral edge excitations” are an integral and universal aspect of the low energy dynamics of the ϑ vacuum that has historically gone unnoticed. Within the SU(M+N)/S(U(M)×U(N)) non-linear sigma model we introduce an effective theory of “edge excitations” that fundamentally explains the quantum Hall effect. In sharp contrast to the common beliefs in the field our results indicate that this macroscopic quantization phenomenon is, in fact, a super universal strong coupling feature of the ϑ angle with the replica limit M=N=0 only playing a role of secondary importance. To demonstrate super universality we revisit the large N expansion of the CP ^N−1 model. We obtain, for the first time, explicit scaling results for the quantum Hall effect including quantum criticality of the quantum Hall plateau transition. Consequently a scaling diagram is obtained describing the cross-over between the weak coupling “instanton phase” and the strong coupling “quantum Hall phase” of the large N theory. Our results are in accordance with the “instanton picture” of the ϑ angle but fundamentally invalidate all the ideas, expectations and conjectures that are based on the historical “large N picture.”