Higher Airy Structures, 𝒲 Algebras and Topological Recursion

Abstract

We define higher quantum Airy structures as generalizations of the Kontsevich–Soibelman quantum Airy structures by allowing differential operators of arbitrary order (instead of only quadratic). We construct many classes of examples of higher quantum Airy structures as modules of <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="script upper W left-parenthesis German g right-parenthesis"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi class="MJX-tex-caligraphic" mathvariant="script">W</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="fraktur">g</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">\mathcal {W}(\mathfrak {g})</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> algebras at self-dual level, with <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="German g equals German g German l Subscript upper N plus 1"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="fraktur">g</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="fraktur">g</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="fraktur">l</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">\mathfrak {g}= \mathfrak {gl}_{N+1}</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> , <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="German s German o Subscript 2 upper N"> <mml:semantics> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="fraktur">s</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="fraktur">o</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">\mathfrak {so}_{2 N }</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> or <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="German e Subscript upper N"> <mml:semantics> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="fraktur">e</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> </mml:msub> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">\mathfrak {e}_N</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> . We discuss their enumerative geometric meaning in the context of (open and closed) intersection theory of the moduli space of curves and its variants. Some of these <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="script upper W"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi class="MJX-tex-caligraphic" mathvariant="script">W</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">\mathcal {W}</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> constraints have already appeared in the literature, but we find many new ones. For <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="German g German l Subscript upper N plus 1"> <mml:semantics> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="fraktur">g</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="fraktur">l</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi>N</mml:mi> <mml:mo>+</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">\mathfrak {gl}_{N+1}</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> our result hinges on the description of previously unnoticed Lie subalgebras of the algebra of modes. As a consequence, we obtain a simple characterization of the spectral curves (with arbitrary ramification) for which the Bouchard–Eynard topological recursion gives symmetric <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="omega Subscript g comma n"> <mml:semantics> <mml:msub> <mml:mi> ω </mml:mi> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi>g</mml:mi> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mi>n</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:msub> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">\omega _{g,n}</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> s and is thus well defined. For all such cases, we show that the topological recursion is equivalent to <inline-formula content-type="math/mathml"> <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="script upper W left-parenthesis German g German l right-parenthesis"> <mml:semantics> <mml:mrow> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi class="MJX-tex-caligraphic" mathvariant="script">W</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="fraktur">g</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="fraktur">l</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:annotation encoding="application/x-tex">\mathcal {W}(\mathfrak {gl})</mml:annotation> </mml:semantics> </mml:math> </inline-formula> constraints realized as higher quantum Airy structures, and obtain a Givental-like decomposition for the corresponding partition functions.

Topics & Concepts