Exact Instanton Expansion of Superconformal Chern-Simons Theories from Topological Strings

Abstract

It was known that the ABJM matrix model is dual to the topological string theory on a Calabi-Yau manifold. Using this relation it was possible to write down the exact instanton expansion of the partition function of the ABJM matrix model. The expression consists of a universal function constructed from the free energy of the refined topological string theory with an overall topological invariant characterizing the Calabi-Yau manifold. In this paper we explore two other superconformal Chern-Simons theories of the circular quiver type. We find that the partition function of one theory enjoys the same expression from the refined topological string theory as the ABJM matrix model with different topological invariants while that of the other is more general. We also observe an unexpected relation between these two theories.