Abstract loop equations, topological recursion and new applications (Q2346905)

Topological recursion associates a double family of differential forms \(\omega_{g,n}\) to a `spectral curve' \(\mathcal{C}\). This paper uses as initial data only a \textit{local} spectral curve, whose archetypal example is an open Riemann surface doubled across cuts. This allows topological recursion to be applied to generalized matrix models which have an eigenvalue representation, also known as `repulsive particle systems'. Previous applications to one-Hermitian and to two-Hermitian matrix models are recovered as special cases, as their Schwinger-Dyson equations arise as special cases of the `abstract loop equations' of this paper. Four new examples are studied. First, the \(1/N\) expansions of systems of repulsive particles, when it exists. Second, enumeration problems in a general class of non-intersecting loop models on the random lattice of all topologies. Third, \(\mathrm{SU}(N)\) Chern--Simons invariants of torus knots. And finally, Liouville theory on surfaces of positive genus, at a formal level and without addressing issues such as convergence. Aside from the individual significances of these examples and of others, this paper is a further step towards establishing a general universal framework for the topological recursion. The level of generality considered in this paper must both be decreased in order to recover symplectic invariance (by how much is unclear), and increased in order to cover a larger class of generalized matrix models (the authors speculate that topological recursion may be applicable to all quiver matrix models). In recent years, topological recursion has established itself as an exciting and powerful approach with applications to problems in \(2\)--dimensional enumerative geometry, to the two-Hermitian matrix model, to the chain of Hermitian matrices, to topological string theory and Gromov-Witten invariants, to integrable systems, to intersection numbers on the moduli space of curves, and to quantum invariants of knots and links. The paper under review serves to increase the scope of application of topological recursion while at the same time elucidating its foundations.