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The authors describe the relationships between categories of B-branes in different phases of the non-Abelian gauged linear sigma model. The relationship is described explicitly for the model proposed by Hori and Tong with non-Abelian gauge group that connects two non-birational Calabi-Yau varieties studied by Rødland. A grade restriction rule for this model is derived using the hemisphere partition function and it is used to map B-type D-branes between the two Calabi-Yau varieties.

We develop geometric techniques for counting BPS states in five-dimensional gauge theories engineered by M theory on a toric Calabi–Yau threefold. The problem is approached by studying framed 3d–5d wall-crossing in the presence of a single M5 brane wrapping a special Lagrangian submanifold L. The spectrum of 3d–5d BPS states is encoded by the geometry of the manifold of vacua of the 3d–5d system, which further coincides with the mirror curve describing moduli of the Lagrangian brane. The information about the BPS spectrum is extracted from the geometry of the mirror curve by construction of a nonabelianization map for the exponential networks. For the simplest Calabi–Yau, C^3 we reproduce the count of 5d BPS states and match predictions of 3d tt∗ geometry for the count of 3d–5d BPS states. We comment on applications of our construction to the study of enumerative invariants of toric Calabi–Yau threefolds.

We study B-branes in two-dimensional N=(2,2) anomalous models, and their behaviour as we vary bulk parameters in the quantum Kähler moduli space. We focus on the case of (2,2) theories defined by abelian gauged linear sigma models (GLSM). We use the hemisphere partition function as a guide to find how B-branes split in the IR into components supported on Higgs, mixed and Coulomb branches: this generalizes the band restriction rule of Herbst-Hori-Page to anomalous models. As a central example, we work out in detail the case of GLSMs for Hirzebruch-Jung resolutions of cyclic surface singularities. In these non-compact models we explain how to compute and regularize the hemisphere partition function for a brane with compact support, and check that its Higgs branch component explicitly matches with the geometric central charge of an object in the derived category.

We study BPS spectra of D-branes on local Calabi-Yau threefolds O(−p)⊕O(p−2)→P^1 with p=0,1, corresponding to C^3/Z_2 and the resolved conifold. Nonabelianization for exponential networks is applied to compute directly unframed BPS indices counting states with D2 and D0 brane charges. Known results on these BPS spectra are correctly reproduced by computing new types of BPS invariants of 3d-5d BPS states, encoded by nonabelianization, through their wall-crossing. We also develop the notion of exponential BPS graphs for the simplest toric examples, and show that they encode both the quiver and the potential associated to the Calabi-Yau via geometric engineering.

In these notes, we provide an introduction to the hemisphere partition function of 2d (2, 2) supersymmetric gauge theories, and discuss its relation to the “D-brane central charge” which were studied in superstring theory, in 2d supersymmetric quantum field theory, and in topological string theory. We also discuss relation to “macroscopic loop” in matrix models. They are mostly reviews of the work by the authors, but contains some new results such as the partition function for a rotated supersymmetry as well as the differential equations.

We propose a formula for the exact central charge of a B-type D-brane that is expected to hold in all regions of the Kähler moduli space of a Calabi–Yau. For Landau–Ginzburg orbifolds we propose explicit expressions for the mathematical objects that enter into the central charge formula. We show that our results are consistent with results in FJRW theory and the hemisphere partition function of the gauged linear sigma model.

We study BPS states of 5d N=1 SU(2) Yang-Mills theory on S^1×R^4. Geometric engineering relates these to enumerative invariants for the local Hirzebruch surface F_0. We illustrate computations of Vafa-Witten invariants via exponential networks, verifying fiber-base symmetry of the spectrum at certain points in moduli space, and matching with mirror descriptions based on quivers and exceptional collections. Albeit infinite, parts of the spectrum organize in families described by simple algebraic equations. Varying the radius of the M-theory circle interpolates smoothly with the spectrum of 4d N=2 Seiberg-Witten theory, recovering spectral networks in the limit.

We study hybrid models arising as homological projective duals (HPD) of certain projective embeddings f:X→P(V) of Fano manifolds X. More precisely, the category of B-branes of such hybrid models corresponds to the HPD category of the embedding f. B-branes on these hybrid models can be seen as global matrix factorizations over some compact space B or, equivalently, as the derived category of the sheaf of A-modules on B, where A is an A_∞ algebra. This latter interpretation corresponds to a noncommutative resolution of B. We compute explicitly the algebra A by several methods, for some specific class of hybrid models, and find that in general it takes the form of a smash product of an A_∞ algebra with a cyclic group. Then we apply our results to the HPD of f corresponding to a Veronese embedding of projective space and the projective embedding of Fano complete intersections in P^n.

This paper studies a notion of enumerative invariants for stable A-branes, and discusses its relation to invariants defined by spectral and exponential networks. A natural definition of stable A-branes and their counts is provided by the string theoretic origin of the topological A-model. This is the Witten index of the supersymmetric quantum mechanics of a single D3 brane supported on a special Lagrangian in a Calabi-Yau threefold. Geometrically, this is closely related to the Euler characteristic of the A-brane moduli space. Using the natural torus action on this moduli space, we reduce the computation of its Euler characteristic to a count of fixed points via equivariant localization. Studying the A-branes that correspond to fixed points, we make contact with definitions of spectral and exponential networks. We find agreement between the counts defined via the Witten index, and the BPS invariants defined by networks. By extension, our definition also matches with Donaldson-Thomas invariants of B-branes related by homological mirror symmetry.

We introduce a quantum trace map for an ideally triangulated hyperbolic knot complement S^3∖K. The map assigns a quantum operator to each element of Kauffmann Skein module of the 3-manifold. The quantum operator lives in a module generated by products of quantized edge parameters of the ideal triangulation modulo some equivalence relations determined by gluing equations. Combining the quantum map with a state-integral model of SL(2,C) Chern-Simons theory, one can define perturbative invariants of knot K in the knot complement whose leading part is determined by its complex hyperbolic length. We then conjecture that the perturbative invariants determine an asymptotic expansion of the Jones polynomial for a link composed of K and K. We propose the explicit quantum trace map for figure-eight knot complement and confirm the length conjecture up to the second order in the asymptotic expansion both numerically and analytically.