Conference

The talk will focus on tensor categories associated with 3d N=2 theories and chiral algebras associated with 2d N=(0,2) theories, as well as their combinations that involve 3d N=2 theories "sandwiched" by half-BPS boundary conditions and interfaces. Such situations, originally studied in a joint work with A.Gadde and P.Putrov, have a variety of applications, including applications to topology of 3-manifolds and 4-manifolds where Kirby moves translate into novel dualities of 3d N=2 and 2d N=(0,2) theories and where the corresponding algebraic structures can be related to COHAs. After reviewing some elements of that story going back to 2013, I will focus on the latest developments in the area of "3d Modularity" where mock Jacobi forms, SL(2,Z) Weil representations, quantum modular forms, non-semisimple modular tensor categories, and chiral algebras of logarithmic CFTs make a surprising appearance (based on recent and ongoing work with M.Cheng, S.Chun, F.Ferrari, S.Harrison and B.Feigin).

I will explain various features of the preprojective CoHA, a kind of universal algebra of correspondences generalising the algebras of endomorphisms of cohomology of quiver varieties considered by Nakajima. In particular I will focus on features of this algebra that become visible after viewing it as a dimensional reduction of the Kontsevich-Soibelman) critical CoHA associated to a related 3-dimensional Calabi-Yau category. Many nice features emerge from this view, e.g. an embedding in a related shuffle algebra, a formula for the graded dimension of the algebra, a flat non cocommutative deformation, a cocommutative coproduct, a geometric doubling procedure, the PBW theorem, an isomorphism with the Yangian considered by Maulik and Okounkov... I will focus on the perverse filtration, which is the key feature of my joint work with Sven Meinhardt, and gives rise to most of the above

This is a report on joint work with E. Vasserot. For a smooth quasiprojective surface S we consider the stack Coh(S) of coherent sheaves on S with compact support and make the Borel-Moore homology of Coh(S) into an associative algebra using a derived version of the Hall multiplication diagram. Subcategories in Coh(S) given by various conditions on dimension of support give rise to various types of Hecke operators. In particular, we consider the COHA R(S) of sheaves with 0-dimensional support and show that its chain level lift is a factorization coalgebra on S with values in homotopy associative algebras. This allows us to find the size (graded dimension) of R(S).

Refined topological vertex formalism allows one to conveniently compute partition functions of topological strings on toric CY backgrounds. These partition functions reproduce instanton partition functions of 5d N=1 gauge theories, obtained from the CY by the geometric engineering procedure. In the algebraic language the vertices can be described as intertwiners of Fock representations of a quantum toroidal algebra. I will present a «Higgsed» version of refined topological vertex formalism which computes vortex partition functions of certain N=2* 3d theories, and show how it naturally arises in the algebraic approach. The new formalism gives a streamlined way to write down the screening charges of a general class of q-deformed W-algebras, including those associated with superalgebras. The obtained partition functions are automatically eigenfunctions of Ruijsenaars-Schneider Hamiltonians or their supersymmetric generalizations.

I am going to review for non-experts the notion of Cohomological Hall algebra (COHA) introduced in my joint paper with Maxim Kontsevich in 2010 (see arXiv:1006.2706).Restricting considerations to the case of COHA of quivers with potential I will recallsome structural results, like e.g. dimensional reduction of COHA from 3d to 2d. Then I plan to discuss a class of representations of COHA in the cohomology of the modulispaces of framed stable objects of a 3d Calabi-Yau category endowed with a stability structure, following my paper arXiv:1404.1606. Finally, if time permits, I will discuss some examples of representations of COHA and its double, including my recent joint work with Miroslav Rapcak, Yaping Yang and Gufang Zhao on the relation of COHA with affine Yangians and moduli spaces of Nekrasov spiked instantons (see arXiv:1810.10402). As will be explained in other talks at this conference this relation gives rise to a class of representations of the ``vertex algebra at the corner" (see Gaiotto and Rapcak, arXiv:1703.00982). Other classes of representations of the VOA at the corner are conjecturally related to the action of the double of spherical COHA on the cohomology of Hilbert schemes of non-reduced divisors in toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds.

The Euler characteristic of a compact complex manifold M is a classical cohomological invariant. Depending on the viewpoint, it is most natural to interpret it as an index of an elliptic differential operator on M, or as a supersymmetric index in superconformal field theories “on M”. Refining the Euler characteristic but keeping with both index theoretic interpretations, one arrives at the notion of complex elliptic genera. We argue that superconformal field theory motivates further refinements of these elliptic genera which result in a choice of several new invariants, all of which have lost their interpretation in terms of index theory. However, at least if M is a K3 surface, then superconformal field theory and higher algebra select the same new invariant as a natural refinement of the complex elliptic genus.

Topological field theories in the sense of Atiyah–Segal are symmetric monoidal functors from a bordism category to the category of complex (super) vector spaces. A field theory E of dimension d associates vector spaces to closed (d-1)-manifolds and linear maps to manifolds of dimension d. It turns out that if E is invertible, i.e., if the vector spaces associated to (d-1)-manifolds have dimension one, then the complex number E(M) that E associates to a closed d-manifold M, is an SKK manifold invariant. Here these letters stand for schneiden=cut, kleben=glue and kontrolliert=controlled, meaning that E(M) does not change when modifying the manifold by cutting and gluing along hypersurfaces in a controlled way. The main result of this joint work with Matthias Kreck and Peter Teichner is that the map described above gives a bijection between topological field theories and SKK manifold invariants.

We describe joint work with L. Hollands on the geometry of the moduli space of flat connections over a Riemann surface. On the one hand, we generalize and compute certain "complexified Fenchel-Nielsen" coordinates for SL(2)-connections to higher rank using the spectral network "abelianization" approach of Gaiotto-Moore-Neitzke. We then use these coordinates to compute superpotentials, following a conjecture of Nekrasov-Rosly-Shatashvili which roughly states the following: a certain low energy effective twisted superpotential arising from compactifying a theory of class S is equal to the generating function (in the sense of symplectic geometry), in some special coordinates, of the Lagrangian submanifold of opers in the associated moduli space of flat connections.

In this talk I would like to briefly sketch how one can use the tools of derived symplectic geometry and holomorphically twisted gauge theories to derive a relationship between symplectic duality and local Langlands. Our starting point will be an observation due to Gaiotto-Witten that a 3d N=4 theory with a G-flavor symmetry is a boundary condition for 4d N=4 SYM with gauge group G. By examining the relationship between boundary observables and bulk lines we will be able to derive constructions originally due to Braverman, Finkelberg, Nakajima. By examine the relationship between boundary lines and bulk surface operators one can derive new connections to local geometric Langlands. This is based on joint work with Philsang Yoo, Tudor Dimofte, and Davide Gaiotto

According to the principle of locality in physics, events taking place at different locations should behave independently of each other, a feature expected to be reflected in the measurements. We propose an algebraic locality framework to keep track of the independence, where sets are equipped with a binary symmetric relation we call a locality relation on the set, this giving rise to a locality set category. In this algebraic locality setup, we implement a multivariate regularisation, which gives rise to multivariate meromorphic functions. In this case, independence of events is reflected in the fact that the multivariate meromorphic functions involve independent sets of variables. A minimal subtraction scheme defined in terms of a projection map onto the holomorphic part then yields renormalised values. This multivariate approach can be implemented to renormalise at poles, various higher multizeta functions such as conical zeta functions (discrete sums on convex cones) and branched zeta functions (discrete sums associated with rooted trees). This renormalisation scheme strongly relies on the fact that the maps we are renormalizing can be viewed as locality algebra morphisms. This talk is based on joint work with Pierre Clavier, Li Guo and Bin Zhang.

I will describe joint work with Sachin Gautam where we give a definition of the category of finite-dimensional representations of an elliptic quantum group which is intrinsic, uniform for all Lie types, and valid for numerical values of the deformation and elliptic parameters. We also classify simple objects in this category in terms of elliptic Drinfeld polynomials. This classification is new even for sl(2), as is our definition outside of type A.