The Hilbert scheme of a plane curve singularity and the HOMFLY polynomial of its link (Q428160)

The authors offer a conjecture on the relation between weighted Euler characteristics of Hilbert schemes of points of integral complex curves with at worst locally planar singularities, and the HOMFLY polynomials of the links of these singularities. The link of a singularity \(C\) is its intersection with a small surrounding \(3\)-sphere. For non-singular curves a formula for the weighted Euler characteristic is well-known, and the authors show that each singularity produces a multiplicative correction to it. Each correction is expressed by an explicit conjectural formula in terms of the singularity's HOMFLY polynomial. Since it is known how to express the weighted Euler characteristic of \(C\) in terms of the Gopakumar-Vafa invariants the conjecture, if true, will provide an indirect evidence in favor of the large \(N\) duality between the Gromov-Witten and the Chern-Simons theories. The latter gives rise to the HOMFLY polynomials along the lines explained by Witten. Most of the paper is dedicated to proving some corollaries of the conjectured formula, and verifying its special cases. In particular, the limit case when the HOMFLY polynomial reduces to the Alexander polynomial is derived from a theorem of Campillo, Delgado and Gusein-Zade. Symmetries implied by the conjecture are verified for the integrals giving the weighted Euler characteristic. Finally, for \(y^k=x^n\) singularities with gcd\((k,n)=1\), whose links are \((k,n)\)-torus knots, and for a singularity, whose link is the \((2,13)\) cable of the right-handed trefoil, the two sides of the formula are matched by direct computations.