Crystal Melting, BPS Quivers and Plethystics

We describe wall-crossing for local, toric Calabi-Yau manifolds without compact four-cycles, in terms of free fermions, vertex operators, and crystal melting. Firstly, to each such manifold we associate two states in the free fermion Hilbert space. The overlap of these states reproduces the BPS partition function corresponding to the non-commutative Donaldson-Thomas invariants, given by the modulus square of the topological string partition function. Secondly, we introduce th...

We construct a two-dimensional crystal melting model which reproduces the BPS index of D2-D0 states bound to a non-compact D4-brane on an arbitrary toric Calabi-Yau singularity. The crystalline structure depends on the toric divisor wrapped by the D4-brane. The molten crystals are in one-to-one correspondence with the torus fixed points of the moduli space of the quiver gauge theory on D-branes. The F- and D-term constraints of the gauge theory are regarded as a generalizatio...

We study BPS bound states of D0 and D2 branes on a single D6 brane wrapping a Calabi-Yau 3-fold X. When X has no compact 4-cyles, the BPS bound states are organized into a free field Fock space, whose generators correspond to BPS states of spinning M2 branes in M-theory compactified down to 5 dimensions by a Calabi-Yau 3-fold X. The generating function of the D-brane bound states is expressed as a reduction of the square of the topological string partition function, in all ch...

We develop a systematic and efficient method of counting single-trace and multi-trace BPS operators with two supercharges, for world-volume gauge theories of $N$ D-brane probes for both $N \to \infty$ and finite $N$. The techniques are applicable to generic singularities, orbifold, toric, non-toric, complete intersections, et cetera, even to geometries whose precise field theory duals are not yet known. The so-called ``Plethystic Exponential'' provides a simple bridge between...

We propose a generalization of the topological vertex, which we call the "non-commutative topological vertex". This gives open BPS invariants for a toric Calabi-Yau manifold without compact 4-cycles, where we have D0/D2/D6-branes wrapping holomorphic 0/2/6-cycles, as well as D2-branes wrapping disks whose boundaries are on D4-branes wrapping non-compact Lagrangian 3-cycles. The vertex is defined combinatorially using the crystal melting model proposed recently, and depends on...

Solid partitions are the 4D generalization of the plane partitions in 3D and Young diagrams in 2D, and they can be visualized as stacking of 4D unit-size boxes in the positive corner of a 4D room. Physically, solid partitions arise naturally as 4D molten crystals that count equivariant D-brane BPS states on the simplest toric Calabi-Yau fourfold, $\mathbb{C}^4$, generalizing the 3D statement that plane partitions count equivariant D-brane BPS states on $\mathbb{C}^3$. In the ...

We discuss in detail the problem of counting BPS gauge invariant operators in the chiral ring of quiver gauge theories living on D-branes probing generic toric CY singularities. The computation of generating functions that include counting of baryonic operators is based on a relation between the baryonic charges in field theory and the Kaehler moduli of the CY singularities. A study of the interplay between gauge theory and geometry shows that given geometrical sectors appear...

In this paper we study the relation between pyramid partitions with a general empty room configuration (ERC) and the BPS states of D-branes on the resolved conifold. We find that the generating function for pyramid partitions with a length n ERC is exactly the same as the D6/D2/D0 BPS partition function on the resolved conifold in particular Kaehler chambers. We define a new type of pyramid partition with a finite ERC that counts the BPS degeneracies in certain other chambers...

We construct a free fermion and matrix model representation of refined BPS generating functions of D2 and D0 branes bound to a single D6 brane, in a class of toric manifolds without compact four-cycles. In appropriate limit we obtain a matrix model representation of refined topological string amplitudes. We consider a few explicit examples which include a matrix model for the refined resolved conifold, or equivalently five-dimensional U(1) gauge theory, as well as a matrix re...

We study BPS spectra of D-branes on local Calabi-Yau threefolds $\mathcal{O}(-p)\oplus\mathcal{O}(p-2)\to \mathbb{P}^1$ with $p=0,1$, corresponding to $\mathbb{C}^3/\mathbb{Z}_{2}$ and the resolved conifold. Nonabelianization for exponential networks is applied to compute directly unframed BPS indices counting states with D2 and D0 brane charges. Known results on these BPS spectra are correctly reproduced by computing new types of BPS invariants of 3d-5d BPS states, encoded b...