Atiyah class and sheaf counting on local Calabi Yau fourfolds (Q2180888)

Let \(Y\) be a smooth quasi-projective variety of dimension \(d-1\), \(d\ge 2\), \(X\) be the total space of the canonical bundle \(K_Y\). Let \(\mathcal M\) be a quasi-projective fine moduli scheme of compactly supported stable sheaves \(F\) on \(X\), and supposed all such sheaves are scheme theoretically supported on \(Y\). There are two natural obstruction theories for \(\mathcal M\): \(a_X : E^\bullet_X\to L^\bullet_{\mathcal M}\) and \(a_Y : E^\bullet_Y\to L^\bullet_{\mathcal M}\) obtained respectively by regarding the sheaves \(F\) parameterized by \(\mathcal M\) as sheaves on \(X\) or on \(Y\). One of the main results of the paper under review finds an explicit relation between these two obstruction theories by showing that \(E^\bullet_X\cong E^\bullet_Y\oplus E^\bullet_Y[1-d]\) and under this \(a_X=(a_Y,0)\). This result is applied to define and study an equivariant reduced Donaldson-Thomas theory for a certain class of Calabi-Yau fourfolds \(X\), which are the total space of \(K_S(D)\oplus \mathcal O_S(-D)\), where \(S\) is a smooth projective surface with torsion free integral cohomology and \(H^1(\mathcal O_S) = 0\), and \(D\) is a nonzero effective divisor on \(S\). The threefold \(Y\) is then the total space of the line bundle \(K_S(D)\) on \(S\), which is canonically embedded in \(X\) as a divisor. The stable sheaves under consideration are compactly supported 2-dimensional and hence are restricted to have their supports vary in \(Y\subset X\). Using the result mentioned above the equivariant reduced DT invariants of \(Y\) are expressed in terms of Vafa-Witten invariants of \(S\). In the case case that \(S\) is an elliptic \(K3\) surface an explicit formula for the generating series of these invariants is conjectured/proven in terms of the discriminant modular form.