SUSY in Silico: numerical D-brane bound state spectroscopy

TL;DR

This paper numerically studies the wavefunctions and energy spectrum of a supersymmetric quantum mechanics model representing D-brane interactions, revealing how states evolve with a key parameter and providing a computational check of theoretical indices.

Contribution

It introduces a numerical approach to analyze BPS and non-BPS states in a D-brane quantum mechanics model, connecting Higgs and Coulomb branch physics.

Findings

Energy gap varies with the parameter $ u$

Numerical results match analytical expressions at large $ u$

Provides a method for spectrum determination across moduli space

Abstract

We numerically construct the BPS and non-BPS wavefunctions of an $\mathcal{N}=4$ quiver quantum mechanics with two Abelian nodes and a single arrow. This model captures the dynamics of a pair of wrapped D-branes interacting via a single light string mode. A dimensionless parameter $\nu$, which is inversely proportional to the Fayet-Iliopoulos parameter, controls whether the bulk of the wavefunctions are supported on the Higgs branch or the Coulomb branch. We demonstrate how the BPS and excited states morph as $\nu$ is tuned. We also numerically compute the energy gap between the ground state and the first excited states as a function of $\nu$. An expression for the gap, computed on the Coulomb branch, matches nicely with our numerics at large $\nu$ but deviates at small $\nu$ where the Higgs branch becomes the relevant description of the physics. In the appendix, we provide the Schr\"{o}dinger equations fully reduced via symmetries which, in principle, allow for the numerical determination of the entire spectrum at any point in moduli space. For the ground states, this numerical determination of the spectrum can be thought of as the first \emph{in silico} check of various Witten index calculations.