On tt*-structures from $ADE$-type Stokes data

TL;DR

This paper rigorously classifies tt*-structures associated with ADE-type Stokes data, linking isomonodromic deformations, Stokes matrices, and the ADE classification through analytic and algebraic methods.

Contribution

It provides a rigorous analytic framework for the ADE classification of tt*-structures using Stokes matrices and group actions, clarifying their interplay.

Findings

Classification reduces to admissible Stokes matrices modulo group action.

Stokes matrices determine tt*-structures over ^*.

ADE-type Cartan matrices correspond to specific tt*-structures.

Abstract

Cecotti and Vafa introduced the topological anti-topological fusion (tt*)-equation, whose solutions describe massive deformations of supersymmetric conformal field theories. We provide a rigorous analytic formulation of the $ADE$ classification of tt*-structures. Under natural structural assumptions, a tt*-structure over $\mathbb{C}^*$ can be described via isomonodromic deformations with upper unitriangular real Stokes matrices. Two fundamental issues arise: the ambiguities of Stokes matrices, governed by an action of a group $\tilde{Br}_n$, which is generated by reordering operations, and the solvability of the associated Riemann-Hilbert problem. Our first main result shows that the classification reduces to admissible Stokes matrices modulo $\tilde{Br}_n$-action, and that the $\tilde{Br}_n$-orbit of a Stokes matrix determines a tt*-structure over $\mathbb{C}^*$. Our second main result establishes that upper unitriangular matrices whose symmetrizations coincide with Cartan matrices of type $A_n, D_n, E_6, E_7,$ or $E_8$ give rise to tt*-structures over $\mathbb{C}^*$. This provides a direct analytic realization of the $ADE$ classification and clarifies the interplay between Stokes phenomena, $\tilde{Br}_n$-symmetry, and positivity of Cartan-type matrices.