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2 4 OBSERVABLES
3.1 A-model The B-model also comes with D(−1), D1, D3 and
D5-branes, which wrap holomorphic 0, 2, 4 and 6-
The topological A-model comes with a target space which submanifolds respectively. The 6-submanifold is a con-
is a 6 real-dimensional generalized Kähler spacetime. In nected component of the spacetime. The theory on a
the case in which the spacetime is Kähler, the theory de- D5-brane is known as holomorphic Chern–Simons the-
scribes two objects. There are fundamental strings, which ory. The Lagrangian density is the wedge product of
wrap two real-dimensional holomorphic curves. Ampli- that of ordinary Chern–Simons theory with the holomor-
tudes for the scattering of these strings depend only on phic (3,0)-form, which exists in the Calabi-Yau case.
the Kähler form of the spacetime, and not on the com- The Lagrangian densities of the theories on the lower-
plex structure. Classically these correlation functions are dimensional branes may be obtained from holomorphic
determined by the cohomology ring. There are quan- Chern–Simons theory by dimensional reductions.
tum mechanical instanton effects which correct these
and yield Gromov–Witten invariants, which measure the
cup product in a deformed cohomology ring called the 3.3 Topological M-theory
quantum cohomology. The string field theory of the A-
model closed strings is known as Kähler gravity, and was Topological M-theory, which enjoys a seven-dimensional
introduced by Michael Bershadsky and Vladimir Sadov spacetime, is not a topological string theory, as it contains
in Theory of Kähler Gravity. no topological strings. However topological M-theory on
In addition, there are D2-branes which wrap Lagrangian a circle bundle over a 6-manifold has been conjectured
submanifolds of spacetime. These are submanifolds to be equivalent to the topological A-model on that 6-
whose dimensions are one half that of space time, and manifold.
such that the pullback of the Kähler form to the subman- In particular, the D2-branes of the A-model lift to points
ifold vanishes. The worldvolume theory on a stack of N at which the circle bundle degenerates, or more precisely
D2-branes is the string field theory of the open strings of Kaluza–Klein monopoles. The fundamental strings of the
the A-model, which is a U(N) Chern–Simons theory. A-model lift to membranes named M2-branes in topolog-
The fundamental topological strings may end on the D2- ical M-theory.
branes. While the embedding of a string depends only on One special case that has attracted much interest is topo-
the Kähler form, the embeddings of the branes depends logical M-theory on a space with G2 holonomy and the
entirely on the complex structure. In particular, when a A-model on a Calabi-Yau. In this case, the M2-branes
string ends on a brane the intersection will always be or- wrap associative 3-cycles. Strictly speaking, the topolog-
thogonal, as the wedge product of the Kähler form and the ical M-theory conjecture has only been made in this con-
holomorphic 3-form is zero. In the physical string this is text, as in this case functions introduced by Nigel Hitchin
necessary for the stability of the configuration, but here it in The Geometry of Three-Forms in Six and Seven Di-
is a property of Lagrangian and holomorphic cycles on a mensions and Stable Forms and Special Metrics provide
Kahler manifold. a candidate low energy effective action.
There may also be coisotropic branes in various dimen- These functions are called "Hitchin functional" and
sions other than half dimensions of Lagrangian submani- Topological string is closely related to Hitchin’s ideas
folds. These were first introduced by Anton Kapustin and on generalized complex structure, Hitchin system, and
Dmitri Orlov in Remarks on A-Branes, Mirror Symme- ADHM construction etc..
try, and the Fukaya Category
3.2 B-model
4 Observables
The B-model also contains fundamental strings, but their 4.1 The topological twist
scattering amplitudes depend entirely upon the complex
structure and are independent of the Kähler structure. In The 2-dimensional worldsheet theory is an N = (2,2)
particular, they are insensitive to worldsheet instanton ef- supersymmetric sigma model, the (2,2) supersym-
fects and so can often be calculated exactly. Mirror sym- metry means that the fermionic generators of the
metry then relates them to A model amplitudes, allowing supersymmetry algebra, called supercharges, may be as-
one to compute Gromov–Witten invariants. The string sembled into a single Dirac spinor, which consists of
field theory of the closed strings of the B-model is known two Majorana–Weyl spinors of each chirality. This
as the Kodaira–Spencer theory of gravity and was de- sigma model is topologically twisted, which means that
veloped by Michael Bershadsky, Sergio Cecotti, Hirosi the Lorentz symmetry generators that appear in the su-
Ooguri and Cumrun Vafa in Kodaira–Spencer Theory of persymmetry algebra simultaneously rotate the physical
Gravity and Exact Results for Quantum String Ampli- spacetime and also rotate the fermionic directions via the
tudes. action of one of the R-symmetries. The R-symmetry
5.2 Geometric transitions 3
group of a 2-dimensional N = (2,2) field theory is U(1) Hitchin’s formalism. This is because the B-model suf-
× U(1), twists by the two different factors lead to the A fers from a holomorphic anomaly, which states that the
and B models respectively. The topological twisted con- dependence on complex quantities, while classically holo-
struction of topological string theories was introduced by morphic, receives nonholomorphic quantum corrections.
Edward Witten in his 1988 paper.[1] In Quantum Background Independence in String The-
ory, Edward Witten argued that this structure is analo-
gous to a structure that one finds geometrically quantiz-
4.2 What do the correlators depend on? ing the space of complex structures. Once this space has
been quantized, only half of the dimensions simultane-
The topological twist leads to a topological theory be- ously commute and so the number of degrees of freedom
cause the stress–energy tensor may be written as an has been halved. This halving depends on an arbitrary
anticommutator of a supercharge and another field. As choice, called a polarization. The conjugate model con-
the stress–energy tensor measures the dependence of tains the missing degrees of freedom, and so by tensor-
the action on the metric tensor, this implies that all ing the B-model and its conjugate one reobtains all of the
correlation functions of Q-invariant operators are inde- missing degrees of freedom and also eliminates the de-
pendent of the metric. In this sense, the theory is topo- pendence on the arbitrary choice of polarization.
logical.
More generally, any D-term in the action, which is any
term which may be expressed as an integral over all of
superspace, is an anticommutator of a supercharge and 5.2 Geometric transitions
so does not affect the topological observables. Yet more
generally, in the B model any term which may be writ-
± There are also a number of dualities that relate configura-
ten as an integral over the fermionic θ coordinates does tions with D-branes, which are described by open strings,
not contribute, whereas in the A-model any term which is to those with branes the branes replaced by flux and with
+
an integral over θ− or over θ does not contribute. This the geometry described by the near-horizon geometry of
implies that A model observables are independent of the the lost branes. The latter are described by closed strings.
superpotential (as it may be written as an integral over
± Perhaps the first such duality is the Gopakumar-Vafa du-
just θ ) but depend holomorphically on the twisted su- ality, which was introduced by Rajesh Gopakumar and
perpotential, and vice versa for the B model. Cumrun Vafa in On the Gauge Theory/Geometry Corre-
spondence.This relates a stack of N D6-branes on a 3-
sphere in the A-model on the deformed conifold to the
5 Dualities closed string theory of the A-model on a resolved coni-
fold with a B field equal to N times the string coupling
constant. The open strings in the A model are described
5.1 Dualities between TSTs
by a U(N) Chern–Simons theory, while the closed string
theory on the A-model is described by the Kähler gravity.
A number of dualities relate the above theories. The
A-model and B-model on two mirror manifolds are re- Although the conifold is said to be resolved, the area of
lated by mirror symmetry, which has been described as the blown up two-sphere is zero, it is only the B-field,
a T-duality on a three-torus. The A-model and B-model which is often considered to be the complex part of the
on the same manifold are conjectured to be related by area, which is nonvanishing. In fact, as the Chern–Simons
S-duality, which implies the existence of several new theory is topological, one may shrink the volume of the
branes, called NS branes by analogy with the NS5-brane, deformed three-sphere to zero and so arrive at the same
which wrap the same cycles as the original branes but in geometry as in the dual theory.
the opposite theory. Also a combination of the A-model The mirror dual of this duality is another duality, which
and a sum of the B-model and its conjugate are related to relates open strings in the B model on a brane wrapping
topological M-theory by a kind of dimensional reduction. the 2-cycle in the resolved conifold to closed strings in
Here the degrees of freedom of the A-model and the B- the B model on the deformed conifold. Open strings in
models appear to not be simultaneously observable, but the B-model are described by dimensional reductions of
rather to have a relation similar to that between position homolomorphic Chern–Simons theory on the branes on
and momentum in quantum mechanics. which they end, while closed strings in the B model are
described by Kodaira–Spencer gravity.
5.1.1 The holomorphic anomaly
5.3.1 Crystal melting, quantum foam and U(1) • Topological Strings and their Physical Applications
gauge theory by Andrew Neitzke and Cumrun Vafa.
In the paper Quantum Calabi-Yau and Classical Crys- • Topological M-theory as Unification of Form Theo-
tals, Andrei Okounkov, Nicolai Reshetikhin and Cumrun ries of Gravity by Robbert Dijkgraaf, Sergei Gukov,
Vafa conjectured that the quantum A-model is dual to a Andrew Neitzke and Cumrun Vafa.
classical melting crystal at a temperature equal to the in- • Topological string theory on arxiv.org
verse of the string coupling constant. This conjecture was
interpreted in Quantum Foam and Topological Strings, • Naqvi, Asad (2006). “Topological Strings” (PDF-
by Amer Iqbal, Nikita Nekrasov, Andrei Okounkov and Microsoft PowerPoint). Asad Naqvi - University of
Cumrun Vafa. They claim that the statistical sum over Wales, Swansea, United Kingdom. National Center
melting crystal configurations is equivalent to a path in- for Physics. Retrieved 2010. Check date values in:
tegral over changes in spacetime topology supported in |access-date= (help)
small regions with area of order the product of the string
coupling constant and α'.
Such configurations, with spacetime full of many small
bubbles, dates back to John Archibald Wheeler in 1964,
but has rarely appeared in string theory as it is notoriously
difficult to make precise. However in this duality the au-
thors are able to cast the dynamics of the quantum foam
in the familiar language of a topologically twisted U(1)
gauge theory, whose field strength is linearly related to
the Kähler form of the A-model. In particular this sug-
gests that the A-model Kähler form should be quantized.
6 Applications
A-model topological string theory amplitudes are used to
compute prepotentials in N=2 supersymmetric gauge the-
ories in four and five dimensions. The amplitudes of the
topological B-model, with fluxes and or branes, are used
to compute superpotentials in N=1 supersymmetric gauge
theories in four dimensions. Perturbative A model calcu-
lations also count BPS states of spinning black holes in
five dimensions.
7 See also
• Quantum topology
• Topological defect
• Topological entropy in physics
• Topological order
• Topological quantum field theory
• Topological quantum number
• Introduction to M-theory
8 References
[1] “Topological Sigma Models”. Commun.Math.Phys.
February 1988.
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