Stability Conditions and Branes at Singularities

Abstract

I use Bridgeland's definition of a stability condition on a triangulated category to investigate the stability of D-branes on Calabi-Yau cones given by the canonical line bundle over a del Pezzo surface. In this context, I prove the existence of the decay of a D3-brane into a set of fractional branes. This is an important aspect of the derivation of quiver gauge theories from branes at singularities via the technique of equivalences of categories. Some important technical aspects of this equivalence are discussed. I also prove that the representations corresponding to skyscraper sheaves supported off the zero section are simple.