Virtual refinements of the Vafa-Witten formula

Topology of surfaces (Donaldson polynomials, Seiberg-Witten invariants) (14J80) Gromov-Witten invariants, quantum cohomology, Gopakumar-Vafa invariants, Donaldson-Thomas invariants (algebro-geometric aspects) (14N35)

Abstract: We conjecture a formula for the generating function of virtual

c h i_{y}

-genera of moduli spaces of rank 2 sheaves on arbitrary surfaces with holomorphic 2-form. Specializing the conjecture to minimal surfaces of general type and to virtual Euler characteristics, we recover (part of) a formula of C. Vafa and E. Witten. These virtual

c h i_{y}

-genera can be written in terms of descendent Donaldson invariants. Using T. Mochizuki's formula, the latter can be expressed in terms of Seiberg-Witten invariants and certain explicit integrals over Hilbert schemes of points. These integrals are governed by seven universal functions, which are determined by their values on

m a t h b b P^{2}

and

m a t h b b P^{1} i m e s m a t h b b P^{1}

. Using localization we calculate these functions up to some order, which allows us to check our conjecture in many cases. In an appendix by H. Nakajima and the first named author, the virtual Euler characteristic specialization of our conjecture is extended to include

m u

-classes, thereby interpolating between Vafa-Witten's formula and Witten's conjecture for Donaldson invariants.

Review text

The paper addresses the problem of finding closed formulae for \(\chi_y\)-genera of moduli spaces of rank \(2\) sheaves on smooth projective surfaces with holomorphic 2-forms. Let \(S\) be a smooth projective surface with \(b_1=0\) and polarization \(H\). Denote by \[ M:=M_S^H(r,c_1,c_2) \] the moduli space of rank \(r\) Gieseker \(H\)-stable torsion-free sheaves on \(S\) with Chern classes \(c_1\in H^2(S, \mathbb{Z})\), \(c_2\in H^4(S, \mathbb{Z})\). The authors assume, throughout the paper, that no rank \(r\) Gieseker \(H\)-semistable torsion-free sheaves on \(S\) with Chern classes \(c_1, c_2\) exist; then \(M_S^H(r,c_1,c_2) \) is a projective scheme. \(M\) is endowed with a perfect obstruction theory in the sense of Behrend-Fantechi, therefore carries a virtual cycle \([M]^{vir}\); invariants are defined by integrating against such class. Consider the generating series of \(\overline{\chi}_y\)-genera (a symmetrization of usual \(\chi_y\)-genera) \[ Z_{S,H,c_1}(x,y):= \sum_{c_2}\overline{\chi}_{-y}(M_S^{H} (2,c_1,c_2))x^{4c_2-c_1^2-3\chi(\mathcal{O}_S)} \] where the power of \(x\) keeps track of the virtual dimension of the moduli space for a given \(c_2\). The authors propose that, if \(S\) is a smooth projective surface with \(b_1(S)=0\), \(p_g(S)> 0\) with only Seiberg-Witten basic classes \(0\) and \(K_S\neq 0\), then \(\overline{\chi}_{-y}(M_S^H (2,c_1,c_2)\) is the coefficient of \(x^{4c_2-c_1^2-3\chi(\mathcal{O}_S)}\) of \[ \psi_S(x,y):=8\left(\frac{1}{2}\prod_{n=1}^{\infty}\frac{1}{(1-x^{2n})^{10}(1-x^{2n}y)(1-x^{2n}y^{-1})} \right)^{\chi(\mathcal{O}_S)}\left( \frac{2\overline{\eta}(x^4)^2}{\theta_3(x,y^{\frac{1}{2}})} \right)^{K_S^2} \] where \(\overline{\eta}\) and \(\theta_3\) are explicit functions. The authors generalize the conjecture also to arbitrary smooth projective surface with \(b_1=0\) and \(p_g(S)>0\), with no restrictions on its Seiberg-Witten classes, providing a more complicated closed formula. This formula has a very deep understanding in the realm of string theory. In fact, the conjectured formula recovers part of a formula proposed by Vafa-Witten, related to \(S\)-duality, and by Dijkgraaf-Park-Schroers present in the physics literature. Amazingly, the missing part of Vafa-Witten formula was recently recovered by Tanaka-Thomas by studying moduli spaces of Higgs bundles on \(S\). The approach to the conjecture is the following. Via Hirzebruch-Riemann-Roch the invariants are related to certain descendent Donaldson invariants. These are expressed via Mochizuki's formula in terms of Seiberg-Witten invariants of \(S\) and certain tautological integrals over \(S^{[n_1]}\times S^{[n_2]}\). Universality of these integrals reduce the computation to seven universal series, which are entirely determined by their values on \(S=\mathbb{P}^2\) and \(\mathbb{P}^1\times \mathbb{P}^1\). At this point, using Atiyah-Bott localization the first terms of these universal series are computed. The authors present also a list of surfaces where the conjecture has been verified, up to some orders.

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