We introduce and explore the relation between knot invariants and quiver representation theory, which follows from the identification of quiver quantum mechanics in D-brane systems representing knots. We identify various structural properties of quivers associated to knots, and identify such quivers explicitly in many examples, including some infinite families of knots, all knots up to 6 crossings, and some knots with thick homology. Moreover, based on these properties, we derive previously unknown expressions for colored HOMFLY-PT polynomials and superpolynomials for various knots. For all knots, for which we identify the corresponding quivers, the LMOV conjecture for all symmetric representations (i.e. integrality of relevant BPS numbers) is automatically proved.
We argue how to identify the supersymmetric quiver quantum mechanics description of BPS states, which arise in string theory in brane systems representing knots. This leads to a surprising relation between knots and quivers: to a given knot, we associate a quiver, so that various types of knot invariants are expressed in terms of characteristics of a moduli space of representations of the corresponding quiver. This statement can be regarded as a novel type of categorification of knot invariants, and among its various consequences we find that Labastida-Mariño-Ooguri-Vafa (LMOV) invariants of a knot can be expressed in terms of motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants of the corresponding quiver; this proves integrality of LMOV invariants (once the corresponding quiver is identified), conjectured originally based on string theory and M-theory arguments.
Abstract:We analyze relations between BPS degeneracies related to Labastida-Mariño-Ooguri-Vafa (LMOV) invariants, and algebraic curves associated to knots. We introduce a new class of such curves that we call extremal A-polynomials, discuss their special properties, and determine exact and asymptotic formulas for the corresponding (extremal) BPS degeneracies. These formulas lead to nontrivial integrality statements in number theory, as well as to an improved integrality conjecture stronger than the known M-theory integrality predictions. Furthermore we determine the BPS degeneracies encoded in augmentation polynomials and show their consistency with known colored HOMFLY polynomials. Finally we consider refined BPS degeneracies for knots, determine them from the knowledge of super-A-polynomials, and verify their integrality. We illustrate our results with twist knots, torus knots, and various other knots with up to 10 crossings.
The recently conjectured knots-quivers correspondence [1,2] relates gauge theoretic invariants of a knot K in the 3-sphere to representation theory of a quiver Q K associated to the knot. In this paper we provide geometric and physical contexts for this conjecture within the framework of large N duality of Ooguri and Vafa [3], that relates knot invariants to counts of holomorphic curves with boundary on L K , the conormal Lagrangian of the knot in the resolved conifold, and corresponding M-theory considerations. From the physics side, we show that the quiver encodes a 3d N = 2 theory T [Q K ] whose low energy dynamics arises on the worldvolume of an M5 brane wrapping the knot conormal and we match the (K-theoretic) vortex partition function of this theory with the motivic generating series of Q K . From the geometry side, we argue that the spectrum of (generalized) holomorphic curves on L K is generated by a finite set of basic disks. These disks correspond to the nodes of the quiver Q K and the linking of their boundaries to the quiver arrows. We extend this basic dictionary further and propose a detailed map between quiver data and topological and geometric properties of the basic disks that again leads to matching partition functions. We also study generalizations of A-polynomials associated to Q K and (doubly) refined version of LMOV invariants [3][4][5][6][7].
We discuss relations between quantum BPS invariants defined in terms of a product decomposition of certain series, and difference equations (quantum A-polynomials) that annihilate such series. We construct combinatorial models whose structure is encoded in the form of such difference equations, and whose generating functions (Hilbert-Poincaré series) are solutions to those equations and reproduce generating series that encode BPS invariants. Furthermore, BPS invariants in question are expressed in terms of Lyndon words in an appropriate language, thereby relating counting of BPS states to the branch of mathematics referred to as combinatorics on words. We illustrate these results in the framework of colored extremal knot polynomials: among others we determine dual quantum extremal A-polynomials for various knots, present associated combinatorial models, find corresponding BPS invariants (extremal Labastida-Mariño-Ooguri-Vafa invariants) and discuss their integrality.
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