Parallel surface defects, Hecke operators, and quantum Hitchin system

Abstract

We examine two types of half-BPS surface defects $-$ regular monodromy surface defect and canonical surface defect $-$ in four-dimensional gauge theory with $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetry and $\Omega_{\varepsilon_1,\varepsilon_2}$-background. Mathematically, we investigate integrals over the moduli spaces of parabolic framed sheaves over $\mathbb{P}^2$. Using analytic methods of $\mathcal{N}=2$ theories, we demonstrate that the former gives a twisted $\mathcal{D}$-module on $\text{Bun}_{G_{\mathbb{C}}}$ while the latter acts as a Hecke operator. In the limit $\varepsilon_2 \to 0$, the cluster decomposition implies the Hecke eigensheaf property for the regular monodromy surface defect. The eigenvalues are given by the opers associated to the canonical surface defect. We derive, in our $\mathcal{N}=2$ gauge theoretical framework, that the twisted $\mathcal{D}$-modules assigned to the opers in the geometric Langlands correspondence represent the spectral equations for quantum Hitchin integrable system. A duality to topologically twisted four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=4$ theory is discussed, in which the two surface defects are mapped to Dirichlet boundary and 't Hooft line defect. This is consistent with earlier works on the $\mathcal{N}=4$ theory approach to the geometric Langlands correspondence.