The motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants of (-2) curves

Abstract

In this paper we calculate the motivic Donaldson-Thomas invariants for (-2)-curves arising from 3-fold flopping contractions in the minimal model programme. We translate this geometric situation into the machinery developed by Kontsevich and Soibelman, and using the results and framework developed previously by the authors we describe the monodromy on these invariants. In particular, in contrast to all existing known Donaldson-Thomas invariants for small resolutions of Gorenstein singularities these monodromy actions are nontrivial.