The Witten equation, mirror symmetry, and quantum singularity theory (Q355132)

The first result of the manuscript, as it is announced by the authors, is the proof of the so-called \textit{Big Witten's conjecture}. This is the generalization of two other conjectures of Witten proved by \textit{M. Kontsevich} in [Commun. Math. Phys. 147, No. 1, 1--23 (1992; Zbl 0756.35081)] and \textit{C. Faber} et al. [Ann. Sci. Éc. Norm. Supér. (4) 43, No. 4, 621--658 (2010; Zbl 1203.53090)], respectively. As for the latter two conjectures the first part of the Big Witten's conjecture was the existence of a certain moduli space. The authors construct such an appropriate moduli space \(\mathcal{W}_{g,k}\), what allows one to formulate rigorously the Big Witten's conjecture. The initial data for the moduli space \(\mathcal{W}_{g,k}\) is taken to be a quasi-homogeneous polynomial \(W: \mathbb{C}^N \to \mathbb{C}\) defining an isolated singularity, and a symmetry group \(G\) of \(W\). As the space \(\mathcal{W}_{g,k}\) consists of the genus \(g\) curves with an additional structure at the \(k\) marked points defined by \((W,G)\). A subtle question, resolved by the authors in an other paper, is the existence of a fundamental cycle of the constructed moduli space. The authors construct axiomatically a cohomological field theory on \(\mathcal{W}_{g,k}\) and show that for \(W\) defining an ADE-singularity the partition function of this cohomological field theory is a \(\tau\)-function of a Kac-Wakimoto hierarchy. This finalizes the Big Witten's conjecture. However equally important is the construction itself of the cohomological field theory on \(\mathcal{W}_{g,k}\). After the first appearance online as a preprint in 2007 such cohomological field theories are now known as Fan-Jarvis-Ruan-Witten theories. These theories were heavily investigated since that time and appeared to be an important part of mirror symmetry, known now as the Landau-Ginzburg mirror symmetry.