Flops and the S-duality conjecture (Q894210)

The original S-duality conjecture of Vafa-Witten predicts the modularity of the generating series of Euler characterisitcs of moduli spaces of stable torsion free sheaves on algebraic surfaces. One of the evidence for this conjecture is the blow-up formula proven by \textit{K. Yoshioka} [Int. J. Math. 7, No. 3, 411--431 (1996; Zbl 0883.14016)], [\textit{W.-p. Li} and \textit{Z. Qin}, Invent. Math. 136, No. 2, 451--482 (1999; Zbl 0952.14036)], and \textit{L. Göttsche} [Commun. Math. Phys. 206, No. 1, 105--136 (1999; Zbl 0961.14022)], which asserts that the generating series above transforms under a blow up of the surface at a point by multiplication of a certain modular form. The paper under review instead studies the moduli space of semistable pure 2-dimensional sheaves inside a Calabi-Yau 3-fold \(X\), and instead of the Euler characteristic considers the corresponding generalized Donaldson-Thomas invariants in the sense of \textit{D. Joyce} and \textit{Y. Song} [Mem. Am. Math. Soc. 1020, iii-v, 199 p. (2012; Zbl 1259.14054)]. The \(S\)-duality conjecture in this setting asserts that the generating series of these DT invariants satisfies modular transformation properties of Jacobi forms. This conjecture is related to Ooguri-Strominger-Vafa conjecture in string theory. These DT invariants are hard to compute due to the possible singularities of the support of 2-dimensional sheaves on \(X\). The main result of the paper under review proves that the generating series of the DT invariants above transforms under a flop of \(X\) by a multiplication of a certain meromorphic Jacobi form. This gives an analogous evidence for this version of S-Duality. As an application, the paper under review proves a blow up formula for DT type invariants of pure 2-dimensional sheaves in case \(X\) is the total space of the canonical bundle on a surface. For the proof, the moduli spaces of DT invariants involved on \(X\) and its flop are realized as elements of the completion of the stack theoretic Hall algebra of the heart of a certain perverse t-structure. The transformation formula mentioned above is then deduced from several subtle identities inside this Hall algebra.