Four-Dimensional Wall-Crossing via Three-Dimensional Field Theory

Abstract

We give a physical explanation of the Kontsevich-Soibelman wall-crossing formula for the BPS spectrum in Seiberg-Witten theories. In the process we give an exact description of the BPS instanton corrections to the hyperkahler metric of the moduli space of the theory on R^3 x S^1. The wall-crossing formula reduces to the statement that this metric is continuous. Our construction of the metric uses a four-dimensional analogue of the two-dimensional tt* equations.