Xin Wang: Wilson Loops and Topological Strings
Abstract: It was known for decades that the topological strings on
non-compact Calabi-Yau threefolds capture the BPS states of 5d N=1
supersymmetric quantum field theories on R^4\times S^1. However, for the Wilson loop
observables in the 5d N=1 SQFTs, the refined topological string
correspondence was not known until quite recently. In this talk, I
will give the M-theory perspective of the half-BPS Wilson loop observables and
I will then describe the refined topological vertex method and the
refined holomorphic anomaly equation method in topological string
theory, from which we have exact computations on the 5d Wilson loops
partition functions in both A- and B-models.
