The existence of instanton solutions to the $\mathbb{R}$-invariant Kapustin-Witten equations on $(0,\infty)\times \mathbb{R}^2\times \mathbb{R}$

Abstract

A non-negative integer labeled set of model solutions to the $\mathbb{R}$-invariant Kapustin-Witten equations on $(0,\infty)\times \mathbb{R}^2\times \mathbb{R}$ plays a central role in Edward Witten's program to interpret the colored Jones polynomial or a knot in the context of SU(2) gauge theory. This paper explains why there are $\mathbb{R}$-invariant solutions to these equations on $(0,\infty)\times \mathbb{R}^2\times \mathbb{R}$ that interpolate between two model solutions as the $(0,\infty)$ parameter increases from 0 to $\infty$ while respecting the $\mathbb{R}^2$ factor asymptotics. The only constraint on the limiting pair of model solutions is this: Letting $m_0$ and $m_\infty$ denote their non-negative integer labels, then $m_0 - m_\infty$ must be a positive, even integer. (As explained in the paper, there is a $\mathbb{C}^{(m_0 -m_\infty - 2)/2}\times \mathbb{C}^*$ moduli space of these interpolation solutions.)