I will give an introduction to 4d N=2 class-S theories. I will describe the construction of such theories, the roles played by extended defects such as line defects and surface defects, as well as connections to Hitchin systems.
In the first part of my talk I'll briefly review some aspects of the relations between N=4, d=4 SYM and vertex operator algebras (VOAs) discussed in recent work of Gaiotto and collaborators. The resulting picture predicts conjectural generalisations of the geometric Langlands correspondence. We will focus on a class of examples figuring prominently in recent work of...
I will continue the discussions on line defects and surface defects in class S theories, making connections to the construction of the quantum trace map, as well as to the exact WKB method for higher order ODEs.
I will review the embedding of the analytic Geometric Langlands program in four-dimensional gauge theory.
3d mirror symmetry predicts an equivalence between A- and B-twists of a pair of dual 3d N=4 theories. Essentially the strongest invariants one can produce of the resulting 3-dimensional topological field theories are their 2-categories of boundary conditions. The B-side 2-category was first described by Kapustin-Rozansky-Saulinas, but the 2-categorical structure on A-side boundary conditions...
In this lecture I'll discuss various aspects of 4d N=2 and 5d N=1 supersymmetric QFT's in the 1/2 Omega-background (and along the way try to emphasize some relations to the 3d N=2 theories discussed in this workshop). Central to this story is the Nekrasov instanton partition function (or topological string partition function) in this background, which we will obtain through abelianization as...
I will summarize recent work with K. Costello, in which a local holomorphic theory on twistor space furnishes an isomorphism between 1. correlators of a 2d chiral algebra and 2. form factors (scattering amplitudes in the presence of a local operator insertion) of a 4d non-unitary CFT, with physics applications.
I will discuss a close parallel between Gaiotto and Witten's S-duality for supersymmetric boundary conditions in 4d N=4 SYM and the relative Langlands program, an enhancement of the Langlands program that was developed to provide a framework for the theory of integral representations of L-functions. A special and conjecturally self-dual class of boundary conditions is provided by quantizations...
We present a series of (partly proven) conjectures describing geometric realizations of categories of (finite-dimensional) representations of quantum super-groups U_q(g) corresponding to Lie super-algebras g with reductive even part and a non-degenerate invariant form.
We shall also discuss the meaning of these conjectures from the point of view of local geometric Langlands correspondence as...
