Topological Quantum Field Theory and the Geometric Langlands Correspondence

Citation

Setter, Kevin Luke (2013) Topological Quantum Field Theory and the Geometric Langlands Correspondence. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/RK2P-2H81. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:09192012-150137728

Abstract

In the pioneering work of A. Kapustin and E. Witten, the geometric Langlands program of number theory was shown to be intimately related to duality of GL-twisted N=4 super Yang-Mills theory compactified on a Riemann surface. In this thesis, we generalize Kapustin-Witten by investigating compactification of the GL-twisted theory to three dimensions on a circle (for various values of the twisting parameter t). By considering boundary conditions in the three-dimensional description, we classify codimension-two surface operators of the GL-twisted theory, generalizing those surface operators studied by S. Gukov and E. Witten. For t=i, we propose a complete description of the 2-category of surface operators in terms of module categories, and, in addition, we determine the monoidal category of line operators which includes Wilson lines as special objects. For t=1 and t=0, we discuss surface and line operators in the abelian case.

We generalize Kapustin-Witten also by analyzing a separate twisted version of N=4, the Vafa-Witten theory. After introducing a new four-dimensional topological gauge theory, the gauged 4d A-model, we locate the Vafa-Witten theory as a special case. Compactification of the Vafa-Witten theory on a circle and on a Riemann surface is discussed. Several novel two- and three-dimensional topological gauge theories are studied throughout the thesis and in the appendices.

In work unrelated to the main thread of the thesis, we conclude by classifying codimension-one topological defects in two-dimensional sigma models with various amounts of supersymmetry.

Thesis Files