Related papers: Chern-Simons Gauge Theory on Orbifolds: Open Strin…
A new approach to the quantization of Chern-Simons theory has been developed in recent papers of the author. It uses a "simulation" of the moduli space of flat connections modulo the gauge group which reveals to be related to a lattice…
We consider an open string version of the topological twist previously proposed for sigma-models with G2 target spaces. We determine the cohomology of open strings states and relate these to geometric deformations of calibrated submanifolds…
Certain two dimensional topological field theories can be interpreted as string theory backgrounds in which the usual decoupling of ghosts and matter does not hold. Like ordinary string models, these can sometimes be given space-time…
In this paper, we discuss how gauging one-form symmetries in Chern-Simons theories is implemented in an A-twisted topological open string theory. For example, the contribution from a fixed H/Z bundle on a three-manifold M, arising in a BZ…
The relation between open topological strings and Chern-Simons theory was discovered by E. Witten. He proved that A-model on T*M where M is a three-dimensional manifold is equivalent to Chern-Simons theory on M and that A-model on arbitrary…
We review the relation between Chern-Simons gauge theory and topological string theory on noncompact Calabi-Yau spaces. This relation has made possible to give an exact solution of topological string theory on these spaces to all orders in…
We study the three-dimensional theory of two Chern-Simons gauge fields coupled to a scalar field in the bifundamental representation of the $SU(N)_k \times SU(M)_{-k}$ gauge group. At small but fixed $M \ll N$, this system approaches the…
In this paper we discuss decomposition in the context of three-dimensional Chern-Simons theories. Specifically, we argue that a Chern-Simons theory with a gauged noneffectively-acting one-form symmetry is equivalent to a disjoint union of…
The 't Hooft expansion of SU(N) Chern-Simons theory on $S^3$ is proposed to be exactly dual to the topological closed string theory on the $S^2$ blow up of the conifold geometry. The $B$-field on the $S^2$ has magnitude $Ng_s=\lambda$, the…
We study the large N limit of SO(N) and Sp(N) Chern-Simons gauge theory on S^3 and identify its closed string dual as topological strings on an orientifold of the small resolution of the conifold. Applications to large N dualities for N=1…
The Chern-Simons (CS) theory in three dimensions with a compact gauge group G is studied. Starting from the BRST quantization of the theory defined in R^3, the values of gauge invariants observables are computed in any closed and orientable…
We consider the Gopakumar-Ooguri-Vafa correspondence, relating ${\rm U}(N)$ Chern-Simons theory at large $N$ to topological strings, in the context of spherical Seifert 3-manifolds. These are quotients $\mathbb{S}^{\Gamma} =…
Motivated by some previously known facts from mathematical and physics literature, we explore certain relations between 3-dimensional topological gauge theories with continuous and finite gauge groups, commonly known as Chern-Simons (CS)…
A five-dimensional Chern-Simons gravity theory based on the anti-de Sitter group SO(4,2) is argued to be a useful model in which to understand the details of holography and the relationship between generally covariant and dual local quantum…
In this paper, we show how to discretize the abelian Chern-Simons gauge theory on generic planar lattices/graphs (with or without translational symmetries) embedded in arbitrary 2D closed orientable manifolds. We find that, as long as a…
The bulk partition function of pure Chern-Simons theory on a three-manifold is a state in the space of conformal blocks of the dual boundary RCFT, and therefore transforms non-trivially under the boundary modular group. In contrast the bulk…
We present and study a model of 4-dimensional higher Chern-Simons theory, special Chern-Simons (SCS) theory, instances of which have appeared in the string literature, whose symmetry is encoded in a skeletal semistrict Lie 2-algebra…
We give a worldsheet proof of the equivalence between the U(N) Chern-Simons gauge theory on S^3 and the topological closed string theory on the resolved conifold geometry. When the `t Hooft coupling of the gauge theory is small, the dual…
We present a finite-dimensional and smooth formulation of string structures on spin bundles. It uses trivializations of the Chern-Simons 2-gerbe associated to this bundle. Our formulation is particularly suitable to deal with string…
Chern-Simons theories, which are topological quantum field theories, provide a field theoretic framework for the study of knots and links in three dimensions. These are rare examples of quantum field theories which can be exactly and…