Instanton effects and quantum spectral curves (Q281238)

Topological string theory, as with all models of string theory, is perturbatively defined and a full non-perturbative description is still an open challenge. In a parallel vein, the partition function of ABJM theory on \(S^3\), obtained via localization techniques, has its 't Hooft expansion analyzed by matrix integral methods while non-perturbative effects have been conjectured to be captured by certain quantum spectral curves. Motivated by these two directions, the purpose of this nice paper is to study the non-perurbative structure of refined topological strings in the Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit by investigating the spectral problem of the quantization of the curve corresponding to the local Calabi-Yau mirror to \(\mathbb{P}^1 \times \mathbb{P}^1\). The spectral problem is common to both aforementioned directions and can be cast into a formidable integral equation (cf. Equation (2.3)) which does not seem exactly soluble. The authors perform WKB analysis and show that the quantum periods, as a perturbative series in string coupling \(\hbar\), are insufficient to solve the spectral problem: there being an infinite series of instanton corrections. They conjecture the precise form of these corrections which involve the standard topological string free energy and test this numerically to convincing satisfaction. This conjecture suggests a novel realization of the Gopakumar-Vafa invariants in terms of a spectral problem, and more generally, that one could define non-perturbative topological strings on local Calabi-Yaus through a well-defined spectral problem of quantizing the mirror curve. As an application, they explain some recent observations relating membrane instanton corrections in ABJM to the refined topological string.