Related papers: Duality in the Context of Topological Quantum Fiel…
We present a summary of the applications of duality to Donaldson-Witten theory and its generalizations. Special emphasis is made on the computation of Donaldson invariants in terms of Seiberg-Witten invariants using recent results in N=2…
In these lectures we present a general introduction to topological quantum field theories. These theories are discussed in the framework of the Mathai-Quillen formalism and in the context of twisted N=2 supersymmetric theories. We discuss…
This thesis discusses various aspects of duality in quantum field theory and string theory. In the first part we consider duality in topological quantum field theories, concentrating on the Donaldson and Seiberg-Witten theories as (dual)…
I review some recent results on four-manifold invariants which have been obtained in the context of topological quantum field theory. I focus on three different aspects: (a) the computation of correlation functions, which give explicit…
This thesis presents a thorough analysis of the links between the N=4 supersymmetric gauge theory in four dimensions and its three topological twisted counterparts. Special emphasis is put in deriving explicit results in terms of the vacuum…
A topological quantum field theory is introduced which reproduces the Seiberg-Witten invariants of four-manifolds. Dimensional reduction of this topological field theory leads to a new one in three dimensions. Its partition function yields…
We consider a twisted version of the four-dimensional N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with gauge groups SU(2) and SO(3), and bare masses for two of its chiral multiplets, thereby breaking N=4 down to N=2. Using the wall-crossing…
We discuss what topological data must be provided to define topologically twisted partition functions of four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric field theories. The original example of Donaldson-Witten theory depends only on the…
A brief introduction to Topological Quantum Field Theory as well as a description of recent progress made in the field is presented. I concentrate mainly on the connection between Chern-Simons gauge theory and Vassiliev invariants, and…
((1+1)-dimensional ${\cal N}=1$ super-symmetric field theory and (3+1)-dimensional ${\cal N}=2$ super-symmetric gauge theory are discussed in a, more or less, unified way, designed to identify the quantum BPS states in both systems.…
We construct a mathematical framework for twisted N=2 supersymmetric topological quantum field theory on a 4-manifold. Supersymmetry in flat space is defined and the twist homomorphism is constructed, giving us a supermanifold that is the…
We describe the reduction from four to two dimensions of the SU(2) Donaldson-Witten theory and the dual twisted Seiberg-Witten theory, i.e. the Abelian topological field theory corresponding to the Seiberg--Witten monopole equations.
Topological models involving matter couplings to Donaldson-Witten theory are presented. The construction is carried using both, the topological algebra and its central extension, which arise from the twisting of $N=2$ supersymmetry in four…
In 1983, Donaldson shocked the topology world by using instantons from physics to prove new theorems about four-dimensional manifolds, and he developed new topological invariants. In 1988, Witten showed how these invariants could be…
We construct a new off-shell twisted hypermultiplet with a scalar and an anti-self-dual tensor superfields. Using the N=2 twisted superspace formalism, we construct a Donaldson-Witten theory coupled to the hypermultiplet. We show that this…
These are the lecture notes of a set of lectures delivered at the 1995 Trieste summer school in June. I review some recent work on duality in four dimensional Maxwell theory on arbitrary four manifolds, as well as a new set of topological…
Supersymmetric gauge theories have played a central role in applications of quantum field theory to mathematics. Topologically twisted supersymmetric gauge theories often admit a rigorous mathematical description: for example, the Donaldson…
These lectures give an introduction to duality in Quantum Field Theory. We discuss the phases of gauge theories and the implications of the electric-magnetic duality transformation to describe the mechanism of confinement. We review the…
Topologically non trivial effects appearing in the discussion of duality transformations in higher genus manifolds are discussed in a simple example, and their relation with the properties of Topological Field Theories is established.
We present an explicit expression for the topological invariants associated to $SU(2)$ monopoles in the fundamental representation on spin four-manifolds. The computation of these invariants is based on the analysis of their corresponding…