Topological Chern-Simons Sigma Model

We consider topological twisting of recently constructed Chern-Simons-matter theories in three dimensions with N=4 or higher supersymmetry. We enumerate physically inequivalent twistings for each N, and find two different twistings for N=4, one for N=5,6, and four for N=8. We construct the two types of N=4 topological theories, which we call A/B-models, in full detail. The A-model has been recently studied by Kapustin and Saulina. The B-model is new and it consists solely of a Chern-Simons term of a complex gauge field up to BRST-exact terms. We also compare the new theories with topological Yang-Mills theories and find some interesting connections. In particular, the A-model seems to offer a new perspective on Casson invariant and its relation to Rozansky-Witten theory.Comment: 31 pages, no figure; v2. references adde

Covariant Quantization of the Brink-Schwarz Superparticle

The quantization of the Brink-Schwarz-Casalbuoni superparticle is performed in an explicitly covariant way using the antibracket formalism. Since an infinite number of ghost fields are required, within a suitable off-shell twistor-like formalism, we are able to fix the gauge of each ghost sector without modifying the physical content of the theory. The computation reveals that the antibracket cohomology contains only the physical degrees of freedom.Comment: 24 page

Electric-Magnetic Duality And The Geometric Langlands Program

The geometric Langlands program can be described in a natural way by compactifying on a Riemann surface C a twisted version of N=4 super Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions. The key ingredients are electric-magnetic duality of gauge theory, mirror symmetry of sigma-models, branes, Wilson and 't Hooft operators, and topological field theory. Seemingly esoteric notions of the geometric Langlands program, such as Hecke eigensheaves and D-modules, arise naturally from the physics.Comment: 225 pp; further clarification

Dynkin Diagrams and Integrable Models Based on Lie Superalgebras

An analysis is given of the structure of a general two-dimensional Toda field theory involving bosons and fermions which is defined in terms of a set of simple roots for a Lie superalgebra. It is shown that a simple root system for a superalgebra has two natural bosonic root systems associated with it which can be found very simply using Dynkin diagrams; the construction is closely related to the question of how to recover the signs of the entries of a Cartan matrix for a superalgebra from its Dynkin diagram. The significance for Toda theories is that the bosonic root systems correspond to the purely bosonic sector of the integrable model, knowledge of which can determine the bosonic part of the extended conformal symmetry in the theory, or its classical mass spectrum, as appropriate. These results are applied to some special kinds of models and their implications are investigated for features such as supersymmetry, positive kinetic energy and generalized reality conditions for the Toda fields. As a result, some new families of integrable theories with positive kinetic energy are constructed, some containing a mixture of massless and massive degrees of freedom, others being purely massive and supersymmetric, involving a number of coupled sine/sinh-Gordon theories.Comment: 31 pages; plain TeX, macros included; 5 main Figs., more in tables; v2: minor but confusing inaccuracy corrected in statement of one proposition (already corrected in published version

Membrane Quantum Mechanics

We consider the multiple M2-branes wrapped on a compact Riemann surface and study the arising quantum mechanics by taking the limit where the size of the Riemann surface goes to zero. The IR quantum mechanical models resulting from the BLG-model and the ABJM-model compactified on a torus are N = 16 and N = 12 superconformal gauged quantum mechanics. After integrating out the auxiliary gauge fields we find OSp(16|2) and SU(1,1|6) quantum mechanics from the reduced systems. The curved Riemann surface is taken as a holomorphic curve in a Calabi-Yau space to preserve supersymmetry and we present a prescription of the topological twisting. We find the N = 8 superconformal gauged quantum mechanics that may describe the motion of two wrapped M2-branes in a K3 surface.Comment: 54 pages, v2: errors corrected and notations improve

Lectures on Mirror Symmetry, Derived Categories, and D-branes

This paper is an introduction to Homological Mirror Symmetry, derived categories, and topological D-branes aimed mainly at a mathematical audience. In the paper we explain the physicists' viewpoint of the Mirror Phenomenon, its relation to derived categories, and the reason why it is necessary to enlarge the Fukaya category with coisotropic A-branes; we discuss how to extend the definition of Floer homology to such objects and describe mirror symmetry for flat tori. The paper consists of four lectures which were given at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (Los Angeles), March 2003, as part of a program on Symplectic Geometry and Physics.Comment: 30 page