BPS complexes and Chern--Simons theories from $G$-structures in gauge theory and gravity

Abstract: We consider a variety of physical systems in which one has states that can be thought of as generalised instantons. These include Yang--Mills theories on manifolds with a torsion-free $G$-structure, analogous gravitational instantons and certain supersymmetric solutions of ten-dimensional supergravity, using their formulation as generalised $G$-structures on Courant algebroids. We provide a universal algebraic construction of a complex, which we call the BPS complex, that computes the infinitesimal moduli space of the instanton as one of its cohomologies. We call a class of these spinor type complexes, which are closely connected to supersymmetric systems, and show how their Laplacians have nice properties. In the supergravity context, the BPS complex becomes a double complex, in a way that corresponds to the left- and right-moving sectors of the string, and becomes much like the double complex of $(p,q)$-forms on a K\"ahler manifold. If the BPS complex has a symplectic inner product, one can write down an associated linearised BV Chern--Simons theory, which reproduces several classic examples in gauge theory. We discuss applications to (quasi-)topological string theories and heterotic superpotential functionals, whose quadratic parts can also be constructed naturally from the BPS complex.