Donaldson-Thomas invariants via microlocal geometry

Abstract

We prove that Donaldson-Thomas type invariants are equal to weighted Euler characteristics of their moduli spaces. In particular, such invariants depend only on the scheme structure of the moduli space, not the symmetric obstruction theory used to define them. We also introduce new invariants generalizing Donaldson-Thomas type invariants to moduli problems with open moduli space. These are useful for computing Donaldson-Thomas type invariants over stratifications.

31 pages. The paper has been rewritten, the results improved