Resurgent Transseries and the Holomorphic Anomaly: Nonperturbative Closed Strings in Local CP2

The holomorphic anomaly equations describe B-model closed topological strings in Calabi-Yau geometries. Having been used to construct perturbative expansions, it was recently shown that they can also be extended past perturbation theory by making use of resurgent transseries. These yield formal nonperturbative solutions, showing integrability of the holomorphic anomaly equations at the nonperturbative level. This paper takes such constructions one step further by working out in great detail the specific example of topological strings in the mirror of the local CP2 toric Calabi-Yau background, and by addressing the associated (resurgent) large-order analysis of both perturbative and multi-instanton sectors. In particular, analyzing the asymptotic growth of the perturbative free energies, one finds contributions from three different instanton actions related by Z_3 symmetry, alongside another action related to the Kahler parameter. Resurgent transseries methods then compute, from the extended holomorphic anomaly equations, higher instanton sectors and it is shown that these precisely control the asymptotic behavior of the perturbative free energies, as dictated by resurgence. The asymptotic large-order growth of the one-instanton sector unveils the presence of resonance, i.e., each instanton action is necessarily joined by its symmetric contribution. The structure of different resurgence relations is extensively checked at the numerical level, both in the holomorphic limit and in the general nonholomorphic case, always showing excellent agreement with transseries data computed out of the nonperturbative holomorphic anomaly equations. The resurgence relations further imply that the string free energy displays an intricate multi-branched Borel structure, and that resonance must be properly taken into account in order to describe the full transseries solution.Comment: 63 pages, 54 images in 24 figures, jheppub-nosort.sty; v2: corrected figure, minor changes, final version for CM

Resurgent Transseries and the Holomorphic Anomaly

The gauge theoretic large N expansion yields an asymptotic series which requires a nonperturbative completion in order to be well defined. Recently, within the context of random matrix models, it was shown how to build resurgent transseries solutions encoding the full nonperturbative information beyond the 't Hooft genus expansion. On the other hand, via large N duality, random matrix models may be holographically described by B-model closed topological strings in local Calabi-Yau geometries. This raises the question of constructing the corresponding holographically dual resurgent transseries, tantamount to nonperturbative topological string theory. This paper addresses this point by showing how to construct resurgent transseries solutions to the holomorphic anomaly equations. These solutions are built upon (generalized) multi-instanton sectors, where the instanton actions are holomorphic. The asymptotic expansions around the multi-instanton sectors have both holomorphic and anti-holomorphic dependence, may allow for resonance, and their structure is completely fixed by the holomorphic anomaly equations in terms of specific polynomials multiplied by exponential factors and up to the holomorphic ambiguities -- which generalizes the known perturbative structure to the full transseries. In particular, the anti-holomorphic dependence has a somewhat universal character. Furthermore, in the nonperturbative sectors, holomorphic ambiguities may be fixed at conifold points. This construction shows the nonperturbative integrability of the holomorphic anomaly equations, and sets the ground to start addressing large-order analysis and resurgent nonperturbative completions within closed topological string theory.Comment: 59 pages, jheppub-nosort.sty; v2: small additions, minor changes, refs updated; v3: more minor corrections, final version for AH

The Topology of Dislocations in Smectic Liquid Crystals

The order parameter of the smectic liquid crystal phase is the same as that of a superfluid or superconductor, namely a complex scalar field. We show that the essential difference in boundary conditions between these systems leads to a markedly different topological structure of the defects. Screw and edge defects can be distinguished topologically. This implies an invariant on an edge dislocation loop so that smectic defects can be topologically linked not unlike defects in ordered systems with non-Abelian fundamental groups.Comment: 11 pages, many figures, the full catastrophe. Supplementary data with two movies can be found at http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/18/5/05301

Topological changes of two-dimensional magnetic textures

We investigate the interaction of magnetic vortices and skyrmions with a spin-polarized current. In a square lattice, fixed classical spins and quantum itinerant electrons, evolve according to the coupled Landau-Lifshitz and Schr\"odinger equations. Changes in the topology occur at microscopic time and length scales, and are shown to be triggered by the nucleation of a nontrivial electron-spin structure at the vortex core.Comment: See supplementary material (high resolution figures and movies) https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0By4j_RJ9SKLpQ2R5UklXLURvbEE&usp=sharing --- v2: Extended versio

Tropical polar cones, hypergraph transversals, and mean payoff games

We discuss the tropical analogues of several basic questions of convex duality. In particular, the polar of a tropical polyhedral cone represents the set of linear inequalities that its elements satisfy. We characterize the extreme rays of the polar in terms of certain minimal set covers which may be thought of as weighted generalizations of minimal transversals in hypergraphs. We also give a tropical analogue of Farkas lemma, which allows one to check whether a linear inequality is implied by a finite family of linear inequalities. Here, the certificate is a strategy of a mean payoff game. We discuss examples, showing that the number of extreme rays of the polar of the tropical cyclic polyhedral cone is polynomially bounded, and that there is no unique minimal system of inequalities defining a given tropical polyhedral cone.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures, revised versio

Experimental Evidence on English Auctions: Oral Outcry vs. Clock

This paper tests experimentally, in a common value setting, the equivalence between the Japanese English auction (or clock auction) and an open outcry auction, where bidders are allowed to call their own bids. We find that (i) bidding behaviour is different in each type of auction, but also that (ii) this difference in bidding behaviour does not affect significantly the auction prices. This lends some support to the equivalence between these two types of auction. The winner's curse is present: overbidding led to higher than expected prices (under Nash bidding strategies) in both types of auction.English auctions, discrete bidding, winner's curse

Black holes and the double copy

Recently, a perturbative duality between gauge and gravity theories (the double copy) has been discovered, that is believed to hold to all loop orders. In this paper, we examine the relationship between classical solutions of non-Abelian gauge theory and gravity. We propose a general class of gauge theory solutions that double copy to gravity, namely those involving stationary Kerr-Schild metrics. The Schwarzschild and Kerr black holes (plus their higher-dimensional equivalents) emerge as special cases. We also discuss plane wave solutions. Furthermore, a recently examined double copy between the self-dual sectors of Yang-Mills theory and gravity can be reinterpreted using a momentum-space generalisation of the Kerr-Schild framework.Comment: 22 pages; typos corrected and references adde