Supereigenvalue Models and Topological Recursion

We show that the Eynard-Orantin topological recursion, in conjunction with simple auxiliary equations, can be used to calculate all correlation functions of supereigenvalue models.Comment: 46 pages. v2: published version (minor changes to the presentation

Reconstructing WKB from topological recursion

We prove that the topological recursion reconstructs the WKB expansion of a quantum curve for all spectral curves whose Newton polygons have no interior point (and that are smooth as affine curves). This includes nearly all previously known cases in the literature, and many more; in particular, it includes many quantum curves of order greater than two. We also explore the connection between the choice of ordering in the quantization of the spectral curve and the choice of integration divisor to reconstruct the WKB expansion.Comment: 68 pages, 9 figures. v2: published version (improved presentation

Topological recursion and mirror curves

We study the constant contributions to the free energies obtained through the topological recursion applied to the complex curves mirror to toric Calabi-Yau threefolds. We show that the recursion reproduces precisely the corresponding Gromov-Witten invariants, which can be encoded in powers of the MacMahon function. As a result, we extend the scope of the "remodeling conjecture" to the full free energies, including the constant contributions. In the process we study how the pair of pants decomposition of the mirror curves plays an important role in the topological recursion. We also show that the free energies are not, strictly speaking, symplectic invariants, and that the recursive construction of the free energies does not commute with certain limits of mirror curves.Comment: 37 pages, 4 figure

On heterotic model constraints

The constraints imposed on heterotic compactifications by global consistency and phenomenology seem to be very finely balanced. We show that weakening these constraints, as was proposed in some recent works, is likely to lead to frivolous results. In particular, we construct an infinite set of such frivolous models having precisely the massless spectrum of the MSSM and other quasi-realistic features. Only one model in this infinite collection (the one constructed in arXiv:hep-th/0512149) is globally consistent and supersymmetric. The others might be interpreted as being anomalous, or as non-supersymmetric models, or as local models that cannot be embedded in a global one. We also show that the strongly coupled model of arXiv:hep-th/0512149 can be modified to a perturbative solution with stable SU(4) or SU(5) bundles in the hidden sector. We finally propose a detailed exploration of heterotic vacua involving bundles on Calabi-Yau threefolds with Z_6 Wilson lines; we obtain many more frivolous solutions, but none that are globally consistent and supersymmetric at the string scale.Comment: 38 page

Think globally, compute locally

We introduce a new formulation of the so-called topological recursion, that is defined globally on a compact Riemann surface. We prove that it is equivalent to the generalized recursion for spectral curves with arbitrary ramification. Using this global formulation, we also prove that the correlation functions constructed from the recursion for curves with arbitrary ramification can be obtained as suitable limits of correlation functions for curves with only simple ramification. It then follows that they both satisfy the properties that were originally proved only for curves with simple ramification.Comment: 37 pages, v2: published versio