English

Quantum Curves and D-Modules

High Energy Physics - Theory 2009-11-18 v2

Abstract

In this article we continue our study of chiral fermions on a quantum curve. This system is embedded in string theory as an I-brane configuration, which consists of D4 and D6-branes intersecting along a holomorphic curve in a complex surface, together with a B-field. Mathematically, it is described by a holonomic D-module. Here we focus on spectral curves, which play a prominent role in the theory of (quantum) integrable hierarchies. We show how to associate a quantum state to the I-brane system, and subsequently how to compute quantum invariants. As a first example, this yields an insightful formulation of (double scaled as well as general Hermitian) matrix models. Secondly, we formulate c=1 string theory in this language. Finally, our formalism elegantly reconstructs the complete dual Nekrasov-Okounkov partition function from a quantum Seiberg-Witten curve.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0810.4157,
  title  = {Quantum Curves and D-Modules},
  author = {Robbert Dijkgraaf and Lotte Hollands and Piotr Sułkowski},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0810.4157},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

63 pages, 9 figures; revised published version

R2 v1 2026-06-21T11:34:00.483Z