arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Suresh Govindarajan.
We show how to compute terms in an expansion of the world-volume superpotential for fairly general D-branes on the quintic Calabi-Yau using linear sigma model techniques, and show in examples that this superpotential captures the geometry and obstruction theory of bundles and sheaves on this Calabi-Yau.
We construct a linear sigma model for open-strings ending on special Lagrangian cycles of a Calabi-Yau manifold. We illustrate the construction for the cases considered by Aganagic and Vafa in hep-th/0012041. This leads naturally to concrete models for the moduli space of open-string instantons. These instanton moduli spaces can be seen to be intimately related to certain auxiliary boundary toric varieties. By considering the relevant Gelfand-Kapranov-Zelevinsky (GKZ) differential equations of the boundary toric variety, we obtain the contributions to the worldvolume superpotential on the A-branes from open-string instantons. By using an ansatz due to Aganagic, Klemm and Vafa in hep-th/0105045, we obtain the relevant change of variables from the linear sigma model to the non-linear sigma model variables - the open-string mirror map. Using this mirror map, we obtain results in agreement with those of AV and AKV for the counting of holomorphic disc instantons.
We review some recent results on D-branes on Calabi-Yau (CY) manifolds. We show the existence of structures (helices and quivers) which enable one to make statements about large families of D-branes in various phases of the Gauged Linear Sigma Model (GLSM) associated with the CY manifold. A comparison of the quivers of two phases leads to the prediction that certain D-brane configurations will decay as one moves across phases. We discuss how boundary fermions can be used to realise various D-brane configurations associated with coherent sheaves in the GLSM with boundary. This is based on the talk presented by S.G. at Strings 2001, Mumbai.
We construct boundary conditions in the gauged linear sigma model for B-type D-branes on Calabi-Yau manifolds that correspond to coherent sheaves given by the cohomology of a monad. This necessarily involves the introduction of boundary fields, and in particular, boundary fermions. The large-volume monodromy for these D-brane configurations is implemented by the introduction of boundary contact terms. We also discuss the construction of D-branes associated to coherent sheaves that are the cohomology of complexes of arbitrary length. We illustrate the construction using examples, specifically those associated with the large-volume analogues of the Recknagel-Schomerus states with no moduli. Using some of these examples we also construct D-brane states that arise as bound states of the above rigid configurations and show how moduli can be counted in these cases.
We present a method based on mutations of helices which leads to the construction (in the large volume limit) of exceptional coherent sheaves associated with the $(\sum_al_a=0)$ orbits in Gepner models. This is explicitly verified for a few examples including some cases where the ambient weighted projective space has singularities not inherited by the Calabi-Yau hypersurface. The method is based on two conjectures which lead to the analog,in the general case, of the Beilinson quiver for $\BP^n$. We discuss how one recovers the McKay quiver using the gauged linear sigma model (GLSM) near the orbifold or Gepner point in Kähler moduli space.
We study both A-type and B-type D-branes in the gauged linear sigma model by considering worldsheets with boundary. The boundary conditions on the matter and vector multiplet fields are first considered in the large-volume phase/non-linear sigma model limit of the corresponding Calabi-Yau manifold, where we also find that we need to add a contact term on the boundary. These considerations enable to us to derive the boundary conditions in the full gauged linear sigma model, including the addition of the appropriate boundary contact terms, such that these boundary conditions have the correct non-linear sigma model limit. Most of the analysis is for the case of Calabi-Yau manifolds with one Kahler modulus (including those corresponding to hypersurfaces in weighted projective space), though we comment on possible generalizations.
We consider Landau-Ginzburg (LG) models with boundary conditions preserving A-type N=2 supersymmetry. We show the equivalence of a linear class of boundary conditions in the LG model to a particular class of boundary states in the corresponding CFT by an explicit computation of the open-string Witten index in the LG model. We extend the linear class of boundary conditions to general non-linear boundary conditions and determine their consistency with A-type N=2 supersymmetry. This enables us to provide a microscopic description of special Lagrangian submanifolds in C^n due to Harvey and Lawson. We generalise this construction to the case of hypersurfaces in P^n. We find that the boundary conditions must necessarily have vanishing Poisson bracket with the combination (W(ϕ)-\bar{W}(\barϕ)), where W(ϕ) is the appropriate superpotential for the hypersurface. An interesting application considered is the T^3 supersymmetric cycle of the quintic in the large complex structure limit.
We consider D-branes wrapped around supersymmetric cycles of Calabi-Yau manifolds from the viewpoint of N=2 Landau-Ginzburg models with boundary as well as by consideration of boundary states in the corresponding Gepner models. The Landau-Ginzburg approach enables us to provide a target space interpretation for the boundary states. The boundary states are obtained by applying Cardy's procedure to combinations of characters in the Gepner models which are invariant under spectral flow. We are able to relate the two descriptions using the common discrete symmetries of the two descriptions. We are thus able to provide an extension to the boundary of the bulk correspondence between Landau-Ginzburg orbifolds and the corresponding Gepner models.
We consider M(atrix) theory compactifications to seven dimensions with eight unbroken supersymmetries. We conjecture that both M(atrix) theory on K3 and Heterotic M(atrix) theory on T^3 are described by the same 5+1 dimensional theory with N=2 supersymmetry which is broken to N=1 by the base space. The emergence of the extra dimension follows from a recent result of Rozali[hep-th/9702136]. We show that the seven dimensional duality between M-theory on K3 and Heterotic string theory on T^3 is realised in M(atrix) theory as the exchange of one of the dimensions with this new dimension.
Type II compactifications with varying string coupling can be described elegantly in F-theory/M-theory as compactifications on U - manifolds. Using a similar approach to describe Super Yang-Mills with a varying coupling constant, we argue that at generic points in Narain moduli space, the $E_8 \times E_8$ Heterotic string compactified on $T^2$ is described in M(atrix) theory by N=4 SYM in 3+1 dimensions with base $S^1 \times CP^1$ and a holomorphically varying coupling constant. The $CP^1$ is best described as the base of an elliptic K3 whose fibre is the complexified coupling constant of the Super Yang-Mills theory leading to manifest U-duality. We also consider the cases of the Heterotic string on $S^1$ and $T^3$. The twisted sector seems to (almost) naturally appear at precisely those points where enhancement of gauge symmetry is expected and need not be postulated. A unifying picture emerges in which the U-manifolds which describe type II orientifolds (dual to the Heterotic string) as M- or F- theory compactifications play a crucial role in Heterotic M(atrix) theory compactifications.
Using the differential equation approach to W-algebras, we discuss the inclusion of punctures in W-string theory. The key result is the existence of different kinds of punctures in W-strings. This is similar to the NS and R punctures occuring in superstring theories. We obtain the moduli associated with these punctures and present evidence in existing W-string theories for these punctures. The $W_3$ case is worked out in detail. It is conjectured that the $(1,3)$ minimal model coupled to two dimensional gravity corresponds to topological $W_3$-gravity.
In this paper we study the relation between parabolic Higgs bundles and irreducible representations of the fundamental group of punctured Riemann surfaces established by Simpson. We generalize a result of Hitchin, identifying those parabolic Higgs bundles that correspond to Fuchsian representations. We also study the Higgs bundles that give representations whose image is contained, after conjugation, in SL($k,\Bbb R$). We compute the real dimension of one of the components of this space of representations, which in the absence of punctures is the generalized Teichmüller space introduced by Hitchin, and which in the case of $k=2$ is the Teichmüller space of the Riemann surface.
Recently, certain higher dimensional complex manifolds were obtained in [hep-th/9412078] by associating a higher dimensional uniformisation to the generalised Teichmüller spaces of Hitchin. The extra dimensions are provided by the ``times'' of the generalised KdV hierarchy. In this paper, we complete the proof that these manifolds provide the analog of superspace for W-gravity and that W-symmetry linearises on these spaces. This is done by explicitly constructing the relationship between the Beltrami differentials which naturally occur in the higher dimensional manifolds and the Beltrami differentials which occur in W-gravity. This also resolves an old puzzle regarding the relationship between KdV flows and W-diffeomorphisms.
We formulate the uniformisation problem underlying the geometry of W_n-gravity using the differential equation approach to W-algebras. We construct W_n-space (analogous to superspace in supersymmetry) as an (n-1) dimensional complex manifold using isomonodromic deformations of linear differential equations. The W_n-manifold is obtained by the quotient of a Fuchsian subgroup of PSL(n,R) which acts properly discontinuously on a simply connected domain in CP^{n-1}. The requirement that a deformation be isomonodromic furnishes relations which enable one to convert non-linear W-diffeomorphisms to (linear) diffeomorphisms on the W_n-manifold. We discuss how the Teichmuller spaces introduced by Hitchin can then be interpreted as the space of complex structures or the space of projective structures with real holonomy on the W_n-manifold. The projective structures are characterised by Halphen invariants which are appropriate generalisations of the Schwarzian. This construction will work for all ``generic'' W-algebras.
We relate the Teichmuller spaces obtained by Hitchin to the Teichmuller spaces of $WA_{n}$-gravity. The relationship of this space to $W$-gravity is obtained by identifying the flat $PSL(n+1,{\BR})$ connections of Hitchin to generalised vielbeins and connections. This is explicitly demonstrated for $WA_2=W_3$ gravity. We show how $W$-diffeomorphisms are obtained in this formulation. We find that particular combinations of the generalised connection play the role of projective connections. We thus obtain $W$-diffeomorphisms in a geometric fashion without invoking the presence of matter fields. This description in terms of vielbeins naturally provides the measure for the gravity sector in the Polyakov path integral for $W$-strings.
We report work done with T. Jayaraman (hep-th/9405146) in this talk. In a recent paper, Hitchin introduced generalisations of the Teichmuller space of Riemann surfaces. We relate these spaces to the Teichmuller spaces of W-gravity. We show how this provides a covariant description of W-gravity and naturally leads to a Polyakov path integral prescription for W-strings. (Talk presented at the International Colloquium on Modern Quantum Field Theory II at the Tata Institute, Bombay during Jan. 5-11, 1994, to appear in the proceedings)
We compute all string tree level correlation functions of vertex operators in $c<1$ string theory. This is done by using the ring structure of the theory. In order to study the multicritical behaviour, we calculate the correlation functions after perturbation by physical vertex operators. We show that the $(2k-1,2)$ models can be obtained from the $(1,2)$ model and the minimal models can be obtained from the $(1,p)$ model by perturbing the action by appropriate physical operators. Our results are consistent with known results from matrix models.