Stable pairs, flat connections and Gopakumar-Vafa invariants

Abstract

Using the interpretation of certain generalised Donaldson-Thomas invariants, including stable pairs curve counts, as the monodromy of a flat connection on a formal principal bundle, we show that the conjectural Gopakumar-Vafa contributions of all genera to the Gromov-Witten partition function appear in the asymptotics of the corresponding flat sections. The Fourier-Laplace integrals used to produce flat sections lead naturally to the GW/DT change of variable -q = e^{i u}.