Related papers: On flat connections with non-diagonalizable holono…
We study the connectedness of the moduli space of gauge equivalence classes of flat G-connections on a compact orientable surface or a compact nonorientable surface for a class of compact connected Lie groups. This class includes all the…
M-theory on compact eight-manifolds with $\mathrm{Spin}(7)$-holonomy is a framework for geometric engineering of 3d $\mathcal{N}=1$ gauge theories coupled to gravity. We propose a new construction of such $\mathrm{Spin}(7)$-manifolds, based…
We focus on the geometrical reformulation of free higher spin supermultiplets in $4\rm{D},~\mathcal{N}=1$ flat superspace. We find that there is a de Wit-Freedman like hierarchy of superconnections with simple gauge transformations. The…
We consider the moduli space of flat $SO(2n+1)$-connections (up to gauge transformations) on a Riemann surface, with fixed holonomy around a marked point. There are natural line bundles over this moduli space; we construct geometric…
We study the moduli space of a super Chern-Simons theory on a manifold with the topology ${\bf R}\times \S$, where $\S$ is a compact surface. The moduli space is that of flat super connections modulo gauge transformations on $\S$, and we…
A longstanding question in superstring/$M$ theory is does it predict supersymmetry below the string scale? We formulate and discuss a necessary condition for this to be true; this is the mathematical conjecture that all stable, compact…
For any non-degenerate, quasi-homogeneous hypersurface singularity, we describe a family of moduli spaces, a virtual cycle, and a corresponding cohomological field theory associated to the singularity. This theory is analogous to…
There are supersymmetric gauge theories which do not possess any parameters nor flat directions, and hence cannot be studied anywhere in the field space using holomorphy (``non-calculable''). Some of them are believed to break supersymmetry…
The twisted index of 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ gauge theories on $S^1 \times \Sigma$ has an algebro-geometric interpretation as the Witten index of an effective supersymmetric quantum mechanics. In this paper, we consider the contributions to the…
We present a construction of superconformal field theories for manifolds with Spin(7) holonomy. Geometrically these models correspond to the realization of Spin(7) manifolds as anti-holomorphic quotients of Calabi-Yau fourfolds. Describing…
We show that the natural presence of flat directions in supersymmetric theories allows for nonrestoration of global and/or gauge symmetries. This has important cosmological consequences for supersymmetric GUTs and in particular it offers a…
We discuss the higher dimensional generalization of gravitational instantons by using volume-preserving vector fields. We give special attention to the case of 8-dimensions and present a new construction of the Ricci flat metric with…
It is proved that the Lie groups $\E_7^{(5)}$ and $\E^{(7)}_7$ represented in $\R^{56}$ and the Lie group $\E_7^{\C}$ represented in $\R^{112}$ occur as holonomies of torsion-free affine connections. It is also shown that the moduli spaces…
In gauge theories on a spacetime equipped with a circle, the holonomy variables, living in the Cartan torus, play special roles. With their periodic nature properly taken into account, we find that a supersymmetric gauge theory in $d$…
We investigate cohomogeneity-one metrics whose principal orbit is an Aloff-Wallach space SU(3)/U(1). In particular, we are interested in metrics whose holonomy is contained in Spin(7). Complete metrics of this kind which are not product…
In a 1992 paper, Witten gave a formula for the intersection pairings of the moduli space of flat $G$-bundles over an oriented surface, possibly with markings. In this paper, we give a general proof of Witten's formula, for arbitrary…
We derive a map relating the gauge symmetry groups of heterotic strings on $T^4$ to other components of the moduli space with rank reduction. This generalizes the results for $T^2$ and $T^3$ which mirror the singularity freezing mechanism…
Necessary and sufficient conditions to the existence of a hermitian connection with totally skew-symmetric torsion and holonomy contained in SU(3) are given. Non-compact solution to the supergravity-type I equations of motion with non-zero…
The Witten index for certain supersymmetric lattice models treated by de Boer, van Eerten, Fendley, and Schoutens, can be formulated as a topological invariant of simplicial complexes arising as independence complexes of graphs. We prove a…
We use classical obstruction theory \`{a} la Eilenberg-Steenrod to obtain a homotopy classification of $\mathrm{Spin}(7)$-structures on compact $8$-manifolds with abelian fundamental group. As an application, we show that a compact,…