Saebyeok Jeong (Rutgers)

Title: Opers, isomonodromic deformations, and surface defects.

Abstract: One of interesting discoveries on the four-dimensional N=2 gauge theories is their role in the quantum/classical duality, in which a problem in quantum regime translates to a classical one in the other. In particular, the problem of quantizing the Hitchin integrable system is related to the problem of holomorphic symplectic geometry of the moduli space of flat connections on Riemann surfaces and its Lagrangian subvarieties. In this talk, I will present how the N=2 gauge theories with half-BPS surface defects provide a physical understanding of such a duality. Also if time permits, I will discuss another version of quantum/classical duality related to isomonodromic deformations of Fuchsian systems, which could be understood in a similar field theoretical setting.