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Boris Pioline: Lectures

January 11, 2023
TITLE: Modularity of BPS indices on Calabi-Yau threefolds

ABSTRACT: Unlike in cases with maximal or half-maximal supersymmetry, the spectrum of BPS states in type II string theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefold with generic SU(3) holonomy remains partially understood. Mathematically, the BPS indices coincide with the generalized Donaldson-Thomas invariants associated to the derived category of coherent sheaves, but they are rarely known explicitly. String dualities indicate that suitable generating series of rank 0 Donaldson-Thomas invariants counting D4-D2-D0 bound states should transform as vector-valued mock modular forms, in a precise sense. I will spell out and test these predictions in the case of one-modulus compact Calabi-Yau threefolds such as the quintic hypersurface in P4, where rank 0 DT invariants can (at least in principle) be computed from Gopakumar-Vafa invariants, using recent mathematical results by S. Feyzbakhsh and R. Thomas. Work in progress with S. Alexandrov, S. Feyzbakhsh, A. Klemm and T. Schimannek.

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