Quivers, line defects and framed BPS invariants (Q1693287)

In this article the author calculates the spectra of BPS states coupled to line defects in a large class of four dimensional \(N=2\) supersymmetric quantum field theories via representation theoretic and combinatorial methods. Several explicit examples (new and old) are worked out. More precisely, consider a quantum field theory in the class \({\mathcal S}[A_n,C,D]\) containing line defects. Roughly speaking theories of this kind are four dimensional \(N=2\) supersymmetric quantum Yang-Mills theories with gauge group \(G\) arising by compactifying the six dimensional \(N=(0,2)\) superconformal theory to \({\mathbb R}^{1,3}\times C\) where \(C\) is a Riemann surface with \(n\) punctures equipped with some extra data \(D\) at the punctures. By line defects in this theory one means a collection of straight lines in \({\mathbb R}^{1,3}\) carrying certain further \(G\)-data (for example if the theory admits a Lagrangian description then they can be regarded as usual Wilson line observers in some representation of the gauge group). The known relation between BPS states in this theory without line defects and the representation theory of the associated quiver is extended by the author to a relation between BPS states coupled to line defects and the representation theory of \textit{framed} quivers. This allows him to develop a combinatorial formalism to compute BPS spectra with line defects. Several explicit new and old examples are worked out: line defects in various low dimensional representations of \(G=\mathrm{SU}(2)\), \(\mathrm{SU}(3)\) and \(\mathrm{SO}(8)\). The old examples demonstrate that the author's new computational method reproduces previously known cases.