Cohomological Donaldson-Thomas theory

This review gives an introduction to cohomological Donaldson-Thomas theory: the study of a cohomology theory on moduli spaces of sheaves on Calabi-Yau threefolds, and of complexes in 3-Calabi-Yau categories, categorifying their numerical DT invariant. Local and global aspects of the theory are both covered, including representations of quivers with potential. We will discuss the construction of the DT sheaf, a nontrivial topological coefficient system on such a moduli space, along with some cohomology computations. The Cohomological Hall Algebra, an algebra structure on cohomological DT spaces, will also be introduced. The review closes with some recent appearances, and extensions, of the cohomological DT story in the theory of knot invariants, of cluster algebras, and elsewhere.Comment: 33 pages, some references adde

Pfaffian quartic surfaces and representations of Clifford algebras

Given a nondegenerate ternary form $f=f(x_1,x_2,x_3)$ of degree 4 over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero, we use the geometry of K3 surfaces and van den Bergh's correspondence between representations of the generalized Clifford algebra $C_f$ associated to $f$ and Ulrich bundles on the surface $X_f:=\{w^{4}=f(x_1,x_2,x_3)\} \subseteq \mathbb{P}^3$ to construct a positive-dimensional family of irreducible representations of $C_f.$ The main part of our construction, which is of independent interest, uses recent work of Aprodu-Farkas on Green's Conjecture together with a result of Basili on complete intersection curves in $\mathbb{P}^{3}$ to produce simple Ulrich bundles of rank 2 on a smooth quartic surface $X \subseteq \mathbb{P}^3$ with determinant $\mathcal{O}_X(3).$ This implies that every smooth quartic surface in $\mathbb{P}^3$ is the zerolocus of a linear Pfaffian, strengthening a result of Beauville-Schreyer on general quartic surfaces.Comment: This paper contains a proof of the main result claimed in the erroneous preprint arXiv:1103.0529. We also extend this result to all smooth quartic surface

Logic and operator algebras

The most recent wave of applications of logic to operator algebras is a young and rapidly developing field. This is a snapshot of the current state of the art.Comment: A minor chang

C^2/Z_n Fractional branes and Monodromy

We construct geometric representatives for the C^2/Z_n fractional branes in terms of branes wrapping certain exceptional cycles of the resolution. In the process we use large radius and conifold-type monodromies, and also check some of the orbifold quantum symmetries. We find the explicit Seiberg-duality which connects our fractional branes to the ones given by the McKay correspondence. We also comment on the Harvey-Moore BPS algebras.Comment: 34 pages, v1 identical to v2, v3: typos fixed, discussion of Harvey-Moore BPS algebras update