Generalized matrix models and AGT correspondence at all genera

The dependence of the Virasoro-$N$-point function on the moduli of the Riemann surface is investigated. We propose an algebraic geometric approach that applies to any hyperelliptic Riemann surface.

These are introductory lectures for a general audience that give an overview of the subject of matrix models and their application to random surfaces, 2d gravity, and string theory. They are intentionally 1.5 years out of date. 0. Canned Diatribe, Introduction, and Apologies 1. Discretized surfaces, matrix models, and the continuum limit 2. All genus partition functions 3. KdV equations and other models 4. Quick tour of Liouville theory

N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories for all classical gauge groups, that is, for SU(N), SO(N), and Sp(N) is considered. The formal expression for almost all models accepted by the asymptotic freedom are obtained. The equations which define the Seiberg-Witten curve are proposed. In some cases they are solved. It is shown that for all considered the 1-instanton corrections which follows from these equations agree with the direct computations. Also they agree with the computa...

In their recent paper \cite{Alday:2009aq} Alday, Gaiotto and Tachikawa proposed a relation between $\mathcal{N}=2$ four-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories and two-dimensional conformal field theories. As part of their conjecture they gave an explicit combinatorial formula for the expansion of the conformal blocks inspired from the exact form of instanton part of the Nekrasov partition function. In this paper we study the origin of such an expansion from a CFT point of ...

We present an exact description of the metric on the moduli space of vacua and the spectrum of massive states for four dimensional N=2 supersymmetric SU(n) gauge theories. The moduli space of quantum vacua is identified with the moduli space of a special set of genus n-1 hyperelliptic Riemann surfaces.

We continue our study of the semi-classical (large central charge) expansion of the toroidal one-point conformal block in the context of the 2d/4d correspondence. We demonstrate that the Seiberg-Witten curve and (epsilon1-deformed) differential emerge naturally in conformal field theory when computing the block via null vector decoupling equations. This framework permits us to derive epsilon1-deformations of the conventional relations governing the prepotential. These enable ...

This is the first in a series of papers on the search for the 2D CFT description of a large class of 4D $\mathcal{N} = 1$ gauge theories. Here, we identify the 2D CFT symmetry algebra and its representations, namely the conformal blocks of the Virasoro/W-algebra, that underlie the 2D theory and reproduce the Seiberg-Witten curves of the $\mathcal{N} = 1$ gauge theories. We find that the blocks corresponding to the SU(N) $\mathcal{S}_k$ gauge theories involve fields in certain...

Four dimensional N=2 generalized superconformal field theory can be defined by compactifying six dimensional (0,2) theory on a Riemann surface with regular punctures. In previous studies, gauge coupling constant space is identified with the moduli space of punctured Riemann surface M_{g,n}. We show that the weakly coupled gauge group description corresponds to a stable nodal curve, and the coupling space is actually the Deligne-Mumford compactification \bar{M}_{g,n}. We also ...

The AGT conjecture relates \mathcal{N}=2 4d SUSY gauge theories to 2d CFTs. Matrix model techniques can be used to investigate both sides of this relation. The large N limit refers here to the size of Young tableaux in the expression of the gauge theory partition function. It corresponds to the vanishing of Omega-background equivariant deformation parameters, and should not be confused with the t'Hooft expansion at large number of colors. In this paper, a saddle point approac...

We study the correspondence between four-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories and two-dimensional conformal field theories in the case of N=2* gauge theory. We emphasize the genus expansion on the gauge theory side, as obtained via geometric engineering from the topological string. This point of view uncovers modular properties of the one-point conformal block on a torus with complexified intermediate momenta: in the large intermediate weight limit, it is a power series ...