4 research outputs found
Affine sl(N) conformal blocks from N=2 SU(N) gauge theories
Recently Alday and Tachikawa proposed a relation between conformal blocks in
a two-dimensional theory with affine sl(2) symmetry and instanton partition
functions in four-dimensional conformal N=2 SU(2) quiver gauge theories in the
presence of a certain surface operator. In this paper we extend this proposal
to a relation between conformal blocks in theories with affine sl(N) symmetry
and instanton partition functions in conformal N=2 SU(N) quiver gauge theories
in the presence of a surface operator. We also discuss the extension to
non-conformal N=2 SU(N) theories.Comment: 40 pages. v2: minor changes and clarification
A quantum isomonodromy equation and its application to N=2 SU(N) gauge theories
We give an explicit differential equation which is expected to determine the
instanton partition function in the presence of the full surface operator in
N=2 SU(N) gauge theory. The differential equation arises as a quantization of a
certain Hamiltonian system of isomonodromy type discovered by Fuji, Suzuki and
Tsuda.Comment: 15 pages, v2: typos corrected and references added, v3: discussion,
appendix and references adde
On "Dotsenko-Fateev" representation of the toric conformal blocks
We demonstrate that the recent ansatz of arXiv:1009.5553, inspired by the
original remark due to R.Dijkgraaf and C.Vafa, reproduces the toric conformal
blocks in the same sense that the spherical blocks are given by the integral
representation of arXiv:1001.0563 with a peculiar choice of open integration
contours for screening insertions. In other words, we provide some evidence
that the toric conformal blocks are reproduced by appropriate beta-ensembles
not only in the large-N limit, but also at finite N. The check is explicitly
performed at the first two levels for the 1-point toric functions.
Generalizations to higher genera are briefly discussed.Comment: 10 page
Affine sl(N) conformal blocks from N=2 SU(N) gauge theories
Recently Alday and Tachikawa proposed a relation between conformal blocks in a two-dimensional theory with affine sl(2) symmetry and instanton partition functions in four-dimensional conformal N=2 SU(2) quiver gauge theories in the presence of a certain surface operator. In this paper we extend this proposal to a relation between conformal blocks in theories with affine sl(N) symmetry and instanton partition functions in conformal N=2 SU(N) quiver gauge theories in the presence of a surface operator. We also discuss the extension to non-conformal N=2 SU(N) theories