Framed sheaves on root stacks and supersymmetric gauge theories on ALE spaces

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel geometric framework using framed sheaves on root stacks to analyze supersymmetric gauge theories on ALE spaces, connecting gauge theory, algebraic geometry, and conformal field theory.

Contribution

It constructs moduli spaces of sheaves on stacky compactifications of ALE spaces, computes their properties, and derives new partition functions relating to Nekrasov functions and Seiberg-Witten theory.

Findings

Constructed smooth moduli spaces of framed sheaves on root stacks.

Derived explicit formulas for gauge theory partition functions on ALE spaces.

Connected partition functions to affine Lie algebra representations and Seiberg-Witten curves.

Abstract

We develop a new approach to the study of supersymmetric gauge theories on ALE spaces using the theory of framed sheaves on root toric stacks, which illuminates relations with gauge theories on $\mathbb{R}^4$ and with two-dimensional conformal field theory. We construct a stacky compactification of the minimal resolution $X_k$ of the $A_{k-1}$ toric singularity $\mathbb{C}^2/\mathbb{Z}_k$, which is a projective toric orbifold $\mathscr{X}_k$ such that $\mathscr{X}_k\setminus X_k$ is a $\mathbb{Z}_k$-gerbe. We construct moduli spaces of torsion free sheaves on $\mathscr{X}_k$ which are framed along the compactification gerbe. We prove that this moduli space is a smooth quasi-projective variety, compute its dimension, and classify its fixed points under the natural induced toric action. We use this construction to compute the partition functions and correlators of chiral BPS operators for $\mathcal{N}=2$ quiver gauge theories on $X_k$ with nontrivial holonomies at infinity. The partition functions are computed with and without couplings to bifundamental matter hypermultiplets and expressed in terms of toric blowup formulas, which relate them to the corresponding Nekrasov partition functions on the affine toric subsets of $X_k$. We compare our new partition functions with previous computations, explore their connections to the representation theory of affine Lie algebras, and find new constraints on fractional instanton charges in the coupling to fundamental matter. We show that the partition functions in the low energy limit are characterised by the Seiberg-Witten curves, and in some cases also by suitable blowup equations involving Riemann theta-functions on the Seiberg-Witten curve with characteristics related to the nontrivial holonomies.