Dessins d'Enfants, Seiberg-Witten Curves and Conformal Blocks

We apply the instanton counting method to study a class of four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric quiver gauge theories with alternating $\mathrm{SO}$ and $\mathrm{USp}$ gauge groups. We compute the partition function in the $\Omega$-background and express it as functional integrals over density functions. Applying the saddle point method, we derive the limit shape equations which determine the dominant instanton configurations in the flat space limit. The solution t...

In this first of a series of three papers we outline an approach to classifying 4d $\mathcal{N}{=}2$ superconformal field theories at rank 2. The classification of allowed scale invariant $\mathcal{N}=2$ Coulomb branch geometries of dimension (or rank) greater than one is a famous open problem whose solution will greatly constrain the space of $\mathcal{N}{=}2$ superconformal field theories. At rank 2 the problem is equivalent to finding all possible genus 2 Seiberg-Witten cu...

We study the AGT correspondence between four-dimensional supersymmetric gauge field theory and two-dimensional conformal field theories in the context of W_N minimal models. The origin of the AGT correspondence is in a special integrable structure which appears in the properly extended conformal theory. One of the basic manifestations of this integrability is the special orthogonal basis which arises in the extended theory. We propose modification of the AGT representation fo...

The one-instanton contribution to the prepotential for N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories with classical groups exhibits a universality of form. We extrapolate the observed regularity to SU(N) gauge theory with two antisymmetric hypermultiplets and N_f \leq 3 hypermultiplets in the defining representation. Using methods developed for the instanton expansion of non-hyperelliptic curves, we construct an effective quartic Seiberg-Witten curve that generates this one-instanton pre...

We glue four refined topological vertices to obtain the building block of 5D $U(2)$ quiver instanton partition functions. We take the 4D limit of the result to obtain the building block of 4D instanton partition functions which, using the AGT correspondence, are identified with Virasoro conformal blocks. We show that there is a choice of the parameters of the topological vertices that we start with, as well as the parameters and the intermediate states involved in the gluin...

We study N=2 supersymmetric four dimensional gauge theories, in a certain N=2 supergravity background, called Omega-background. The partition function of the theory in the Omega-background can be calculated explicitly. We investigate various representations for this partition function: a statistical sum over random partitions, a partition function of the ensemble of random curves, a free fermion correlator. These representations allow to derive rigorously the Seiberg-Witten g...

This is a survey of the work of Seiberg and Witten on 4-dimensional N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory and of some of its recent extensions, written for mathematicians. The point of view is that of algebraic geometry and integrable systems. An introductory chapter tries to describe some of the relevant physics for a reader with no physics background. This is followed by a review of the relevant properties of integrable systems. The remaining chapters describe the specific i...

A new construction of BPS monodromies for 4d ${\mathcal N}=2$ theories of class S is introduced. A novel feature of this construction is its manifest invariance under Kontsevich-Soibelman wall crossing, in the sense that no information on the 4d BPS spectrum is employed. The BPS monodromy is encoded by topological data of a finite graph, embedded into the UV curve $C$ of the theory. The graph arises from a degenerate limit of spectral networks, constructed at maximal intersec...

We consider N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories in four dimensions with gauge group SU(N) for N larger than two. Using the cubic curve for a matter hypermultiplet transforming in the symmetric representation, obtained from M-theory by Landsteiner and Lopez, we calculate the prepotential up to the one instanton correction. We treat the curve to be approximately hyperelliptic and perform a perturbation expansion for the Seiberg-Witten differential to get the one instanton co...

We give an account of the theory of dessins d'enfants which is both elementary and self-contained. We describe the equivalence of many categories (graphs embedded nicely on surfaces, finite sets with certain permutations, certain field extensions, and some classes of algebraic curves), some of which are naturally endowed with an action of the absolute Galois group of the rational field. We prove that the action is faithful. Eventually we prove that this absolute Galois group ...