Crystals and intersecting branes

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 survey geometrical and especially combinatorial aspects of generalized Donaldson-Thomas invariants (also called BPS invariants) for toric Calabi-Yau manifolds, emphasizing the role of plane partitions and their generalizations in the recently proposed crystal melting model. We also comment on equivalence with a vicious walker model and the matrix model representation of the partition function.

In this paper, we use an M-theory model to conjecture the refined reminiscence of the OSV formula connecting the refined topological string partition function with the refined BPS states partition function for the toric Calabi-Yau threefolds without any compact four cycles. Further, we show how to use the vertex operators in 2d free fermions to reproduce the refined BPS states partition function for the $\mathbb{C}^3$ case and the wall-crossing formulas of the refined BPS sta...

We study the quantum geometry of the class of Calabi-Yau threefolds, which are elliptic fibrations over a two-dimensional toric base. A holomorphic anomaly equation for the topological string free energy is proposed, which is iterative in the genus expansion as well as in the curve classes in the base. T-duality on the fibre implies that the topological string free energy also captures the BPS-invariants of D4-branes wrapping the elliptic fibre and a class in the base. We ver...

We study the spectrum of BPS D-branes on a Calabi-Yau manifold using the 0+1 dimensional quiver gauge theory that describes the dynamics of the branes at low energies. The results of Kontsevich and Soibelman predict how the degeneracies change. We argue that Seiberg dualities of the quiver gauge theories, which change the basis of BPS states, correspond to crossing the "walls of the second kind." There is a large class of examples, including local del Pezzo surfaces, where th...

We study the recently proposed crystal model for three dimensional superconformal field theories arising from M2-branes probing toric Calabi-Yau four-fold singularities. We explain the algorithms mapping a toric Calabi-Yau to a crystal and vice versa, and show how the spectrum of BPS meson states fits into the crystal model.

In the presence of a D-brane a string theory develops a new subsector. We show that for curved D-branes the corresponding sector is a (partially twisted) topological field theory. We use this result to compute the degeneracy of 2-branes wrapped around $K3$ cycles as well as 3-branes wrapped around CY threefold vanishing 3-cycles. In both cases we find the degeneracy is in accord with expectation. The counting of BPS states of a gas of 0-branes in the presence of a 4-brane in ...

We propose a novel and simple method of computing the volume of the moduli space of BPS solitons in supersymmetric gauge theory. We use a D-brane realization of vortices and T-duality relation to domain walls. We there use a special limit where domain walls reduce to gas of hard (soft) one-dimensional rods for the Abelian (non-Abelian) cases. In the simpler cases of the Abelian-Higgs model on a torus, our results agree with exact results which are geometrically derived by an ...

An infinite class of $4d$ $\mathcal{N}=1$ gauge theories can be engineered on the worldvolume of D3-branes probing toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds. This kind of setup has multiple applications, ranging from the gauge/gravity correspondence to local model building in string phenomenology. Brane tilings fully encode the gauge theories on the D3-branes and have substantially simplified their connection to the probed geometries. The purpose of this paper is to push the boundaries of com...

We study generalized gauge theories engineered by taking the low energy limit of the $Dp$ branes wrapping $X \times T^{p-3}$, with $X$ a possibly singular surface in a Calabi-Yau fourfold $Z$. For toric $Z$ and $X$ the partition function can be computed by localization, making it a statistical mechanical model, called the gauge origami. The random variables are the ensembles of Young diagrams. The building block of the gauge origami is associated with a tetrahedron, whose edg...