English

$q$-nonabelianization for line defects

High Energy Physics - Theory 2020-10-28 v1 Geometric Topology Quantum Algebra Representation Theory

Abstract

We consider the qq-nonabelianization map, which maps links LL in a 3-manifold MM to links L~\widetilde{L} in a branched NN-fold cover M~\widetilde{M}. In quantum field theory terms, qq-nonabelianization is the UV-IR map relating two different sorts of defect: in the UV we have the six-dimensional (2,0)(2,0) superconformal field theory of type gl(N)\mathfrak{gl}(N) on M×R2,1M \times \mathbb{R}^{2,1}, and we consider surface defects placed on L×{x4=x5=0}L \times \{x^4 = x^5 = 0\}; in the IR we have the (2,0)(2,0) theory of type gl(1)\mathfrak{gl}(1) on M~×R2,1\widetilde{M} \times \mathbb{R}^{2,1}, and put the defects on L~×{x4=x5=0}\widetilde{L} \times \{x^4 = x^5 = 0\}. In the case M=R3M = \mathbb{R}^3, qq-nonabelianization computes the Jones polynomial of a link, or its analogue associated to the group U(N)U(N). In the case M=C×RM = C \times \mathbb{R}, when the projection of LL to CC is a simple non-contractible loop, qq-nonabelianization computes the protected spin character for framed BPS states in 4d N=2\mathcal{N}=2 theories of class SS. In the case N=2N=2 and M=C×RM = C \times \mathbb{R}, we give a concrete construction of the qq-nonabelianization map. The construction uses the data of the WKB foliations associated to a holomorphic covering C~C\widetilde{C} \to C.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2002.08382,
  title  = {$q$-nonabelianization for line defects},
  author = {Andrew Neitzke and Fei Yan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2002.08382},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

71 pages, 77 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-23T13:47:15.866Z