Three Applications of Instanton Numbers

We use instanton numbers to: (i) stratify moduli of vector bundles, (ii) calculate relative homology of moduli spaces and (iii) distinguish curve singularities.Comment: To appear in Communications in Mathematical Physic

Uhlenbeck-Donaldson compactification for framed sheaves on projective surfaces

We construct a compactification $M^{\mu ss}$ of the Uhlenbeck-Donaldson type for the moduli space of slope stable framed bundles. This is a kind of a moduli space of slope semistable framed sheaves. We show that there exists a projective morphism $\gamma \colon M^{ss} \to M^{\mu ss}$, where $M^{ss}$ is the moduli space of S-equivalence classes of Gieseker-semistable framed sheaves. The space $M^{\mu ss}$ has a natural set-theoretic stratification which allows one, via a Hitchin-Kobayashi correspondence, to compare it with the moduli spaces of framed ideal instantons.Comment: 18 pages. v2: a few very minor changes. v3: 27 pages. Several proofs have been considerably expanded, and more explanations have been added. v4: 28 pages. A few minor changes. Final version accepted for publication in Math.

Moduli Stacks of Bundles on Local Surfaces

We give an explicit groupoid presentation of certain stacks of vector bundles on formal neighborhoods of rational curves inside algebraic surfaces. The presentation involves a M\"obius type action of an automorphism group on a space of extensions.Comment: submitted upon invitation to the 2011 Mirror Symmetry and Tropical Geometry Conference (Cetraro, Italy) volume of the Springer Lecture Notes in Mathematic

The Nekrasov Conjecture for Toric Surfaces

The Nekrasov conjecture predicts a relation between the partition function for N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory and the Seiberg-Witten prepotential. For instantons on R^4, the conjecture was proved, independently and using different methods, by Nekrasov-Okounkov, Nakajima-Yoshioka, and Braverman-Etingof. We prove a generalized version of the conjecture for instantons on noncompact toric surfaces.Comment: 38 pages; typos corrected, references added, minor changes (e.g. minor change of convention in Definition 5.13, 5.19, 6.5

Symplectic structures on moduli spaces of framed sheaves on surfaces

We provide generalizations of the notions of Atiyah class and Kodaira-Spencer map to the case of framed sheaves. Moreover, we construct closed two-forms on the moduli spaces of framed sheaves on surfaces. As an application, we define a symplectic structure on the moduli spaces of framed sheaves on some birationally ruled surfaces.Comment: v2: final version to appear in Centr. Eur. J. Math, section "Examples" improved: we obtain new examples of non-compact holomorphic symplectic varietie

Poincare polynomial of moduli spaces of framed sheaves on (stacky) Hirzebruch surfaces

We perform a study of the moduli space of framed torsion-free sheaves on Hirzebruch surfaces by using localization techniques. We discuss some general properties of this moduli space by studying it in the framework of Huybrechts-Lehn theory of framed modules. We classify the fixed points under a toric action on the moduli space, and use this to compute the Poincare polynomial of the latter. This will imply that the moduli spaces we are considering are irreducible. We also consider fractional first Chern classes, which means that we are extending our computation to a stacky deformation of a Hirzebruch surface. From the physical viewpoint, our results provide the partition function of N=4 Vafa-Witten theory on total spaces of line bundles on P1, which is relevant in black hole entropy counting problems according to a conjecture due to Ooguri, Strominger and Vafa.Comment: 17 pages. This submission supersedes arXiv:0809.0155 [math.AG