Counting twisted sheaves and S-duality (Q2126010)

In this paper, the author studies the S-duality conjecture of C. Vafa and E. Witten via twisted sheaves and twisted Higgs sheaves. Let \(S\) be a smooth projective complex surface. The S-duality conjecture of Vafa and Witten predicts a modular transformation between the \(\text{SU}(r)\) partition function of the surface \(S\) and the partition function for the Langlands dual group \(\text{SU}(r)/{\mathbb{Z}}_r\). Mathematically, by utilizing the moduli space of Higgs airs on the surface \(S\), Y. Tanaka and R. P. Thomas have defined and investigated the \(\text{SU}(r)\) partition function. The main goals of the present paper are to construct the \(\text{SU}(r)/{\mathbb{Z}}_r\)-Vafa-Witten invariants by generalizing the approach of Tanaka and Thomas, and to partially verify the S-duality conjecture of Vafa and Witten. The key ideas are to use the moduli space of \(\mu_r\)-gerbe twisted sheaves and Higgs sheaves, to investigate the obstruction theory of these moduli spaces, and to define the twisted Vafa-Witten invariants via the virtual fundamental class, virtual localization, the wall crossing formula of Joyce and Song, and the Behrend function. Section 2 reviews the basic material of algebraic stacks, Deligne-Mumford stacks and gerbes. Section 3 contains the definitions of the moduli spaces of gerbe twisted semistable sheaves and semistable Higgs sheaves. Section 4 is devoted to the perfect obstruction theory of these moduli space and to the definition of the twisted Vafa-Witten invariants. In Section 5, the author defines the Joyce-Song twisted stable pairs, the generalized twisted Vafa-Witten invariants, and the \(\text{SU}(r)/{\mathbb{Z}}_r\)-Vafa-Witten invariants. In addition, when the surface \(S\) is the complex projective plane, the S-duality conjecture is verified in the case of rank two. Section 6 proves the S-duality conjecture for \(K3\) surfaces in the case of prime ranks.