We construct a cohomological field theory for a gauged linear sigma model space in geometric phase, using the method of gauge theory and differential geometry. The cohomological field theory is expected to match the Gromov-Witten theory of the classical vacuum up to a change of variable, and is expected to match various other algebraic geometric constructions.
We study quantum aspects of the target space of the non-linear sigma model which is a low-energy effective theory of the gauged linear sigma model (GLSM). As such, we especially compute the exact sphere partition function of GLSM for KK$5$-branes whose background geometry is a Taub-NUT space, using the supersymmetric localization technique on the Coulomb branch. From the sphere partition function, we distill the world-sheet instanton effects. In particular, we show that concerning the single-centered Taub-NUT space, the instanton contributions exist only if the asymptotic radius of the $S^1$ fiber in the Taub-NUT space is zero.
We unveil the existence of a non-trivial Berry phase associated to the dynamics of a quantum particle in a one dimensional box with moving walls. It is shown that a suitable choice of boundary conditions has to be made in order to preserve unitarity. For these boundary conditions we compute explicitly the geometric phase two-form on the parameter space. The unboundedness of the Hamiltonian describing the system leads to a natural prescription of renormalization for divergent contributions arising from the boundary.
In this paper, we construct the first analytic examples of (3+1)-dimensional self-gravitating regular cosmic tube solutions which are superconducting, free of curvature singularities and with non-trivial topological charge in the Einstein-SU(2) non-linear sigma-model. These gravitating topological solitons at a large distance from the axis look like a (boosted) cosmic string with an angular defect given by the parameters of the theory, and near the axis, the parameters of the solutions can be chosen so that the metric is singularity free and without angular defect. The curvature is concentrated on a tube around the axis. These solutions are similar to the Cohen-Kaplan global string but regular everywhere, and the non-linear sigma-model regularizes the gravitating global string in a similar way as a non-Abelian field regularizes the Dirac monopole. Also, these solutions can be promoted to those of the fully coupled Einstein-Maxwell non-linear sigma-model in which the non-linear sigma-model is minimally coupled both to the U(1) gauge field and to General Relativity. The analysis shows that these solutions behave as superconductors as they carry a persistent current even when the U(1) field vanishes. Such persistent current cannot be continuously deformed to zero as it is tied to the topological charge of the solutions themselves. The peculiar features of the gravitational lensing of these gravitating solitons are shortly discussed.
A globalized version of a trace formula for the Poisson Sigma Model on the disk is presented by using its formal global picture in the setting of the Batalin-Vilkovisky formalism. This global construction includes the concept of zero modes. Moreover, for the symplectic case of the Poisson Sigma Model with cotangent target, the globalized trace reduces to a symplectic construction which was presented by Grady, Li and Li for 1-dimensional Chern-Simons theory (topological quantum mechanics). In addition, the connection between this formula and the Nest-Tsygan theorem and the Tamarkin-Tsygan theorem is explained.
We describe supersymmetric A-branes and B-branes in open N=(2,2) dynamically gauged nonlinear sigma models (GNLSM), placing emphasis on toric manifold target spaces. For a subset of toric manifolds, these equivariant branes have a mirror description as branes in gauged Landau-Ginzburg models with neutral matter. We then study correlation functions in the topological A-twisted version of the GNLSM, and identify their values with open Hamiltonian Gromov-Witten invariants. Supersymmetry breaking can occur in the A-twisted GNLSM due to nonperturbative open symplectic vortices, and we canonically BRST quantize the mirror theory to analyze this phenomenon.