arXiv subjects

Ben Davison

Publications and source records attributed to Ben Davison.

31 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2020

Deformed dimensional reduction

Since its first use by Behrend, Bryan, and Szendrői in the computation of motivic Donaldson-Thomas (DT) invariants of $\mathbb{A}_{\mathbb{C}}^3$, dimensional reduction has proved to be an important tool in motivic and cohomological DT theory. Inspired by a conjecture of Cazzaniga, Morrison, Pym, and Szendrői on motivic DT invariants, work of Dobrovolska, Ginzburg, and Travkin on exponential sums, and work of Orlov and Hirano on equivalences of categories of singularities, we generalize the dimensional reduction theorem in motivic and cohomological DT theory and use it to prove versions of the Cazzaniga-Morrison-Pym-Szendrői conjecture in these settings.

math.AG↗

arXiv2019

Enumerating coloured partitions in 2 and 3 dimensions

We study generating functions of ordinary and plane partitions coloured by the action of a finite subgroup of the corresponding special linear group. After reviewing known results for the case of ordinary partitions, we formulate a conjecture concerning a factorisation property of the generating function of coloured plane partitions that can be thought of as an orbifold analogue of a conjecture of Maulik et al., now a theorem, in three-dimensional Donaldson-Thomas theory. We study natural quantisations of the generating functions arising from geometry, discuss a quantised version of our conjecture, and prove a positivity result for the quantised coloured plane partition function under a geometric assumption.

math.AG↗

arXiv2017

Positivity for quantum cluster algebras

Building on work by Kontsevich, Soibelman, Nagao and Efimov, we prove the positivity of quantum cluster coefficients for all skew-symmetric quantum cluster algebras, via a proof of a conjecture first suggested by Kontsevich on the purity of mixed Hodge structures arising in the theory of cluster mutation of spherical collections in 3-Calabi-Yau categories. The result implies positivity, as well as the stronger Lefschetz property conjectured by Efimov, and also the classical positivity conjecture of Fomin and Zelevinsky, recently proved by Lee and Schiffler. Closely related to these results is a categorified "no exotics" type theorem for cohomological Donaldson-Thomas invariants, which we discuss and prove in the appendix.

math.RT↗

arXiv2017

Purity of critical cohomology and Kac's conjecture

We provide a new proof of the Kac positivity conjecture for an arbitrary quiver $Q$. The ingredients are the cohomological integrality theorem in Donaldson-Thomas theory, dimensional reduction, and an easy purity result. These facts imply the purity of the cohomological Donaldson-Thomas invariants for a quiver with potential $(\tilde{Q},W)$ associated to $Q$, which in turn implies positivity of the Kac polynomials for $Q$.

math.RT↗

arXiv2016

The motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants of (-2) curves

In this paper we calculate the motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants for (-2)-curves arising from 3-fold flopping contractions in the minimal model programme. We translate this geometric situation into the machinery developed by Kontsevich and Soibelman, and using the results and framework developed previously by the authors we describe the monodromy on these invariants. In particular, in contrast to all existing known Donaldson-Thomas invariants for small resolutions of Gorenstein singularities these monodromy actions are nontrivial.

math.AG↗

arXiv2016

The critical CoHA of a quiver with potential

Pursuing the similarity between the Kontsevich--Soibelman construction of the cohomological Hall algebra of BPS states and Lusztig's construction of canonical bases for quantum enveloping algebras, and the similarity between the inetgrality conjecture for motivic Donaldson--Thomas invariants and the PBW theorem for quantum enveloping algebras, we build a coproduct on the cohomological Hall algebra associated to a quiver with potential. We also prove a cohomological dimensional reduction theorem, further linking a special class of cohomological Hall algebras with Yangians, and explaining how to connect the study of character varieties with the study of cohomological Hall algebras.

math.AG↗

arXiv2016

Cohomological Hall algebras and character varieties

In this paper we investigate the relationship between twisted and untwisted character varieties via a specific instance of the Cohomological Hall algebra for moduli of objects in 3-Calabi-Yau categories introduced by Kontsevich and Soibelman. In terms of Donaldson--Thomas theory, this relationship is completely understood via the calculations of Hausel and Villegas of the E polynomials of twisted character varieties and untwisted character stacks. We present a conjectural lift of this relationship to the cohomological Hall algebra setting.

math.AG↗

arXiv2015

Donaldson-Thomas theory for categories of homological dimension one with potential

The aim of the paper is twofold. Firstly, we give an axiomatic presentation of Donaldson-Thomas theory for categories of homological dimension at most one with potential. In particular, we provide rigorous proofs of all standard results concerning the integration map, wall-crossing, PT-DT correspondence, etc. following Kontsevich and Soibelman. We also show the equivalence of their approach and the one given by Joyce and Song. Secondly, we relate Donaldson-Thomas functions for such a category with arbitrary potential to those with zero potential under some mild conditions. As a result of this, we obtain a geometric interpretation of Donaldson-Thomas functions in all known realizations, i.e. mixed Hodge modules, perverse sheaves and constructible functions.

math.AG↗

arXiv2014

Purity for graded potentials and quantum cluster positivity

Consider a smooth quasiprojective variety X equipped with a C*-action, and a regular function f: X -> C which is C*-equivariant with respect to a positive weight action on the base. We prove the purity of the mixed Hodge structure and the hard Lefschetz theorem on the cohomology of the vanishing cycle complex of f on proper components of the critical locus of f, generalizing a result of Steenbrink for isolated quasi-homogeneous singularities. Building on work of Kontsevich-Soibelman, Nagao and Efimov, we use this result to prove the quantum positivity conjecture for cluster mutations for all quivers admitting a positively graded nondegenerate potential. We deduce quantum positivity for all quivers of rank at most 4; quivers with nondegenerate potential admitting a cut; and quivers with potential associated to triangulations of surfaces with marked points and nonempty boundary.

math.AG↗

arXiv2012

Superpotential algebras and manifolds

In this paper we study a special class of Calabi-Yau algebras (in the sense of Ginzburg): those arising as the fundamental group algebras of acyclic manifolds. Motivated partly by the usefulness of `superpotential descriptions' in motivic Donaldson-Thomas theory, we investigate the question of whether these algebras admit superpotential presentations. We establish that the fundamental group algebras of a wide class of acyclic manifolds, including all hyperbolic manifolds, do not admit such descriptions, disproving Ginzburg's conjecture regarding them. We also describe a class of manifolds that do admit such descriptions, and discuss a little their motivic Donaldson-Thomas theory. Finally, some links with topological field theory are described.

math.KT↗

arXiv2011

Invariance of orientation data for ind-constructible Calabi-Yau $A_{\infty}$ categories under derived equivalence

We study orientation data, as introduced by Kontsevich and Soibelman in order to define well-behaved integration maps from the motivic Hall algebra of 3-dimensional Calabi-Yau categories to rings of motives. We start with an example that demonstrates the role of orientation data in this story, before working through the technical details. We give an account of orientation data in the case of categories of compactly supported sheaves on noncompact Calabi-Yau three-folds. We finally study how this structure behaves under pullbacks along quasi-equivalences of categories, prove Kontsevich and Soibelman's conjecture regarding this behaviour, and also some stronger theorems regarding flops and more general tilts.

math.AG↗

arXiv2011

Motivic DT-invariants for the one loop quiver with potential

In this paper we compute the motivic Donaldson--Thomas invariants for the quiver with one loop and any potential. As the presence of arbitrary potentials requires the full machinery of \hat(μ)-equivariant motives, we give a detailed account of them. In particular, we will prove two results for the motivic vanishing cycle which might be of importance not only in Donaldson--Thomas theory.

math.AG↗

arXiv2011

Consistency conditions for brane tilings

Given a brane tiling on a torus, we provide a new way to prove and generalise the recent results of Szendroi, Mozgovoy and Reineke regarding the Donaldson-Thomas theory of the moduli space of framed cyclic representations of the associated algebra. Using only a natural cancellation-type consistency condition, we show that the algebras are 3-Calabi-Yau, and calculate Donaldson-Thomas type invariants of the moduli spaces. Two new ingredients to our proofs are a grading of the algebra by the path category of the associated quiver modulo relations, and a way of assigning winding numbers to pairs of paths in the lift of the brane tiling to R^2. These ideas allow us to generalise the above results to all consistent brane tilings on K(pi,1) surfaces. We also prove a converse: no consistent brane tiling on a sphere gives rise to a 3-Calabi-Yau algebra.

math.AG↗