Physics and geometry of knots-quivers correspondence (Q2006395)

The recently proposed knots-quivers correspondence relates colored HOMFLY polynomials of a knot \(K\subset S^3\) to the representation theory of the knot quiver \(Q_K\). The evidence so far is computational: knot and quiver data are independently computed and then matched. In this paper the authors give a conjectural layout of matching physical and geometric objects on the two sides of the correspondence. Via the large \(N\) duality colored HOMFLY polynomials are related to open Gromov-Witten invariants of the holomorphic curves bordering a deformation \(L_K\) of the knot conormal bundle in the resolved conifold \(X\). Via \(M\)-theory those invariants can in turn be related to a 3D \(\mathcal{N}=2\) gauge theory \(T[L_K]\) on \(S^1\times\mathbb{R}^2\). The authors introduce a novel dual description of \(T[L_K]\), which is an Abelian Chern-Simons matter theory \(T[Q_K]\) with \(U(1)\) gauge group and a single fundamental chiral field for each node of \(Q_K\). On the other side, \(T[Q_K]\) has a quiver description in terms of BPS vortices, and its BPS vortex spectrum is an \(S^1\times\mathbb{R}^2\) shadow (effective description) of a theory of M2 branes ending on M5 branes. \(Q_K\) itself is its shadow on \(X\), and describes M2 branes stretched near \(L_K\). In geometric terms, the authors conjecture that the spectrum of holomorphic curves in \(X\) bordering \(L_K\) is generated by a finite number of framed basic disks. For simple knots the basic disks correspond to the monomials in the colored HOMFLY polynomial, but in general the picture is more complicated. The authors suggest that the disks can be obtained by degenerating \(L_K\) when the braid representative of \(K\) is degenerated into the unknot. The disks correspond to the nodes of the quiver \(Q_K\), and each sector of \(T[Q_K]\) corresponds to an ordinary \(U(1)\) Chern-Simons theory deformed by holomorphic curves that contain at least one copy of a fixed basic disk. The Chern-Simons couplings encoded in the quiver arrows correspond to linking and self-linking numbers of the disk boundaries as curves in \(L_K\). As a result, the quiver partition function recovers the counts of holomorphic curves constructed from linked configurations of the basic disks. Analytically, an explicit change of variables converts it into the refined Gromov-Witten partition function (the one where the coefficient of \(x^n\) is the Poincaré polynomial of the HOMFLY homology) of holomorphic curves in \(X\) bordering \(L_K\). A precise geometric definition of this refined partition function is the subject of current research. The conjecture is illustrated with the examples of the unknot and the trefoil.