Quiver varieties and cluster algebras

Motivated by a recent conjecture by Hernandez and Leclerc [arXiv:0903.1452], we embed a Fomin-Zelevinsky cluster algebra [arXiv:math/0104151] into the Grothendieck ring R of the category of representations of quantum loop algebras U_q(Lg) of a symmetric Kac-Moody Lie algebra g, studied earlier by the author via perverse sheaves on graded quiver varieties [arXiv:math/9912158]. Graded quiver varieties controlling the image can be identified with varieties which Lusztig used to define the canonical base. The cluster monomials form a subset of the base given by the classes of simple modules in R, or Lusztig's dual canonical base. The positivity and linearly independence (and probably many other) conjectures of cluster monomials [arXiv:math/0104151] follow as consequences, when there is a seed with a bipartite quiver. Simple modules corresponding to cluster monomials factorize into tensor products of `prime' simple ones according to the cluster expansion.Comment: 45 pages, v3: minor corrections, v4: Odd cohomology vanishing of quiver Grassmann for an acyclic quiver is proved in an appendix, v5: minor correction

The spectrum of BPS branes on a noncompact Calabi-Yau

We begin the study of the spectrum of BPS branes and its variation on lines of marginal stability on O_P^2(-3), a Calabi-Yau ALE space asymptotic to C^3/Z_3. We show how to get the complete spectrum near the large volume limit and near the orbifold point, and find a striking similarity between the descriptions of holomorphic bundles and BPS branes in these two limits. We use these results to develop a general picture of the spectrum. We also suggest a generalization of some of the ideas to the quintic Calabi-Yau.Comment: harvmac, 45 pp. (v2: added references

N=2 gauge theories, instanton moduli spaces and geometric representation theory

We survey some of the AGT relations between N=2 gauge theories in four dimensions and geometric representations of symmetry algebras of two-dimensional conformal field theory on the equivariant cohomology of their instanton moduli spaces. We treat the cases of gauge theories on both flat space and ALE spaces in some detail, and with emphasis on the implications arising from embedding them into supersymmetric theories in six dimensions. Along the way we construct new toric noncommutative ALE spaces using the general theory of complex algebraic deformations of toric varieties, and indicate how to generalise the construction of instanton moduli spaces. We also compute the equivariant partition functions of topologically twisted six-dimensional Yang-Mills theory with maximal supersymmetry in a general Omega-background, and use the construction to obtain novel reductions to theories in four dimensions.Comment: 55 pages; v2: typos corrected and reference added; Final version to appear in the Special Issue "Instanton Counting: Moduli Spaces, Representation Theory and Integrable Systems" of the Journal of Geometry and Physics, eds. U. Bruzzo and F. Sal

Report on "Geometry and representation theory of tensors for computer science, statistics and other areas."

This is a technical report on the proceedings of the workshop held July 21 to July 25, 2008 at the American Institute of Mathematics, Palo Alto, California, organized by Joseph Landsberg, Lek-Heng Lim, Jason Morton, and Jerzy Weyman. We include a list of open problems coming from applications in 4 different areas: signal processing, the Mulmuley-Sohoni approach to P vs. NP, matchgates and holographic algorithms, and entanglement and quantum information theory. We emphasize the interactions between geometry and representation theory and these applied areas