Open String Invariants and Mirror Curve of the Resolved Conifold

For the resolved conifold with one outer D-brane in arbitrary framing, we present some results for the open string partition functions obtained by some operator manipulations. We prove some conjectures by Aganagic-Vafa and Aganagic-Klemm-Vafa that relates such invariants to the mirror curve of the resolved conifold. This establishes local mirror symmetry for the resolved confolds for holomorphic disc invariants. We also verify an integrality conjecture of such invariants by Ooguri-Vafa in this case and present closed formulas for some Ooguri-Vafa type invariants in genus 0 and arbitrary genera

Chern-Simons Theory and Topological Strings

We review the relation between Chern-Simons gauge theory and topological string theory on noncompact Calabi-Yau spaces. This relation has made possible to give an exact solution of topological string theory on these spaces to all orders in the string coupling constant. We focus on the construction of this solution, which is encoded in the topological vertex, and we emphasize the implications of the physics of string/gauge theory duality for knot theory and for the geometry of Calabi-Yau manifolds.Comment: 46 pages, RMP style, 25 figures, minor corrections, references adde

The SYZ mirror symmetry and the BKMP remodeling conjecture

The Remodeling Conjecture proposed by Bouchard-Klemm-Mari\~{n}o-Pasquetti (BKMP) relates the A-model open and closed topological string amplitudes (open and closed Gromov-Witten invariants) of a symplectic toric Calabi-Yau 3-fold to Eynard-Orantin invariants of its mirror curve. The Remodeling Conjecture can be viewed as a version of all genus open-closed mirror symmetry. The SYZ conjecture explains mirror symmetry as $T$-duality. After a brief review on SYZ mirror symmetry and mirrors of symplectic toric Calabi-Yau 3-orbifolds, we give a non-technical exposition of our results on the Remodeling Conjecture for symplectic toric Calabi-Yau 3-orbifolds. In the end, we apply SYZ mirror symmetry to obtain the descendent version of the all genus mirror symmetry for toric Calabi-Yau 3-orbifolds.Comment: 18 pages. Exposition of arXiv:1604.0712

Seiberg--Witten Duality in Dijkgraaf--Vafa Theory

We show that a suitable rescaling of the matrix model coupling constant makes manifest the duality group of the N=2 SYM theory with gauge group SU(2). This is done by first identifying the possible modifications of the SYM moduli preserving the monodromy group. Then we show that in matrix models there is a simple rescaling of the pair $(S_D,S)$ which makes them dual variables with $\Gamma(2)$ monodromy. We then show that, thanks to a crucial scaling property of the free energy derived perturbatively by Dijkgraaf, Gukov, Kazakov and Vafa, this redefinition corresponds to a rescaling of the free energy which in turn fixes the rescaling of the coupling constant. Next, we show that in terms of the rescaled free energy one obtains a nonperturbative relation which is the matrix model counterpart of the relation between the $u$--modulus and the prepotential of N=2 SYM. This suggests considering a dual formulation of the matrix model in which the expansion of the prepotential in the strong coupling region, whose QFT derivation is still unknown, should follow from perturbation theory. The investigation concerns the SU(2) gauge group and can be generalized to higher rank groups.Comment: 1+14 pages, LaTeX. v2: typos fixed, references added v3: some numerical factor corrected, typos fixed, version to appear in NP

Topological open string amplitudes on local toric del Pezzo surfaces via remodeling the B-model

We study topological strings on local toric del Pezzo surfaces by a method called remodeling the B-model which was recently proposed by Bouchard, Klemm, Marino and Pasquetti. For a large class of local toric del Pezzo surfaces we prove a functional formula of the Bergman kernel which is the basic constituent of the topological string amplitudes by the topological recursion relation of Eynard and Orantin. Because this formula is written as a functional of the period, we can obtain the topological string amplitudes at any point of the moduli space by a simple change of variables of the Picard-Fuchs equations for the period. By this formula and mirror symmetry we compute the A-model amplitudes on K_{F_2}, and predict the open orbifold Gromov-Witten invariants of C^3/Z_4.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figures. v2: an example in Subsection 4.3 added, a footnote in Subsection 4.4 added, minor errors in Appendix E corrected, a reference added. v3: typos correcte