Stable pairs, flat connections and Gopakumar-Vafa invariants (Q2024159)

\textit{R. P. Thomas} [J. Differ. Geom. 54, No. 2, 367--438 (2000; Zbl 1034.14015)] has introduced an enumerative invariant ``counting'' stable coherent sheaves on a complex projective Calabi-Yau or Fano threefold \(X\), with respect to some Kähler class and in the absence of strictly semistables. His work is based on previous gauge-theoretic intuition, developed with \textit{S. K. Donaldson} [in: The geometric universe: science, geometry, and the work of Roger Penrose. Proceedings of the symposium on geometric issues in the foundations of science, Oxford, UK, June 1996 in honour of Roger Penrose in his 65th year. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 31--47 (1998; Zbl 0926.58003)]. The author focuses on an application of the Donaldson-Thomas (DT) theory, namely the correspondence between sheaf-theoretic curve counts and the enumerative theory of holomorphic maps from stable curves to \(X\), i.e. Gromov-Witten (GW) invariants. This GW/DT correspondence is governed by a famous conjecture of \textit{D. Maulik} et al. [Compos. Math. 142, No. 5, 1263--1285 (2006; Zbl 1108.14046)]. After an introduction to this circle of ideas the author presents a new computation which recasts the GW/DT correspondence in the language of flat connections, their monodromy, and their flat sections.