BPS spectra and 3-manifold invariants

Jan 23, 2017
85 pages
Published in:
  • J.Knot Theor.Ramifications 29 (2020) 02, 2040003
  • Published: Mar 17, 2020
e-Print:
Report number:
  • CALT-TH-2016-039

Citations per year

201720192021202320250510152025
Abstract: (WSP)
We provide a physical definition of new homological invariants ℋa(M3) of 3-manifolds (possibly, with knots) labeled by abelian flat connections. The physical system in question involves a 6d fivebrane theory on M3 times a 2-disk, D2, whose Hilbert space of BPS states plays the role of a basic building block in categorification of various partition functions of 3d 𝒩 = 2 theory T[M3]: D2 × S1 half-index, S2 × S1 superconformal index, and S2 × S1 topologically twisted index. The first partition function is labeled by a choice of boundary condition and provides a refinement of Chern–Simons (WRT) invariant. A linear combination of them in the unrefined limit gives the analytically continued WRT invariant of M3. The last two can be factorized into the product of half-indices. We show how this works explicitly for many examples, including Lens spaces, circle fibrations over Riemann surfaces, and plumbed 3-manifolds.
Note:
  • v2: 80 pages, 7 figures, typos corrected, exposition improved with three newly added subsections (2.3, 2.4, 2.10)
  • BPS spectrum
  • 3-manifold
  • invariant
  • knot
  • spectrum: BPS
  • homology
  • partition function
  • topological
  • factorization
  • knot theory