Geometry of Uhlenbeck partial compactification of orthogonal instanton spaces and the \(K\)-theoretic Nekrasov partition functions (Q1644978)

The author studies the geometry of Uhlenbeck partial compactification of orthogonal instanton spaces and the \(K\)-theoretic Nekrasov partition functions. For \(G = \text{Sp}(n)\), a moment map \(\mu: {\mathbf N} \to \text{Lie}(G)\) is constructed where \({\mathbf N}\) is a certain symplectic subspace of the vector space \({\mathbf M}\) consisting of ordinary ADHM quiver representations coming from framed \(\text{SU}(N)\)-instantons with instanton number \(2n\). The main result states that when \(N \geq 4\), the moment map \(\mu\) is flat, and the regular locus \(\mu^{-1}(0)^{\text{reg}}\) is Zariski dense and open in \(\mu^{-1}(0)\). Moreover, if \(N = 4\), then \(\mu^{-1}(0)\) is an irreducible normal variety; if \(N > 4\), then \(\mu^{-1}(0)\) is a reduced variety with \(n +1\) irreducible components. It follows that for \(K = \text{SU}(N, \mathbb R)\) with \(N \geq 5\), the Uhlenbeck partial compactification \(\mathcal U^K_n\) of the moduli space \(\mathcal M^K_n\) of framed \(K\)-instantons over \(S^4\) with instanton number \(n\) is an irreducible normal variety of dimension \(2n(N - 2)\), and its smooth locus is precisely \(\mathcal M^K_n\). Another consequence asserts that the \(K\)-theoretic Nekrasov partition function for any simple classical group other than \(\text{SO}(3, \mathbb R)\) can be interpreted as a generating function of Hilbert series of the instanton moduli spaces. Section~2 is devoted to the moment map \(\mu\), and proves the main result by assuming both the flatness of \(\mu\) for \(N \geq 4\) and the normality of \(\mu^{-1}(0)\) in the instanton number \(n = 2\) case and \(N \geq 5\). The flatness of \(\mu\) and the normality of \(\mu^{-1}(0)\) for \(N \geq 5\) are then verified in Section~3 and Section~4 respectively. In Section~5, the author applies similar ideas to investigate the ordinary ADHM data and Sp-data.