Analysis of gauged Witten equation (Q1651411)

This paper is devoted to the study of the gauged Witten equation, a system of elliptic partial differential equations on a Riemann surface. The gauged Witten equation is related to superstring theory in physics and was introduced by Witten in the construction of the gauged linear \(\sigma\)-model (GLSM). This is the first of a series of papers with the aim of providing a rigorous mathematical construction of the GLSM. The main technical result of this paper is the compacteness of solutions to the perturbed gauged Witten equation. After introducing the basic set-up of the gauged Witten equation the authors introduce the concepts of local and cylindrical models of the perturbed equation, then they consider the asymptotic behavior of the bounded solutions and study the linear Fredholm property of the perturbed equation computing the index of the linearized operator. Moreover the concept of stable solutions is defined, the energy quantization of blowing-up of solutions is established and, finally, a compactness theorem is proved.