Quiver Diagrams in Tex

Question

How can I draw Quiver diagrams (for a specific gauge theory) in Tex like the followings?

Diagrams have been taken from the following thesis:

A Pedagogical Introduction to the AGT Conjecture

Any comment or guidance will greatly be appreciated!

Thanks in Advance!

Answer 1

Here's a simple solution. It relies on defining the coordinate axes in directions of 30°, 150° and 90°, so that you can easily find coordinates on the honeycomb grid. You then have several parameters influencing the bubble and box shapes. To help with the finding of appropriate coordinates, you can use the \MarkCoordinates macro, which also shows the downside (?) of defining the coordinates this way: the coordinates for a point are not unique. Furthermore, you can define a name for a coordinate that is put in the end of the current line, which will then have the form C-name for easier access when drawing other lines starting here. If no name is specified, the coodinates name will be C-, which will be overwritten by any later object with no name given.

Code

\documentclass[tikz, border=2mm]{standalone}
\usetikzlibrary{calc}

\begin{document}

\newcommand{\QBubble}[6][]%
% [1]: content (optional)
%  2 : start coordinate
%  3 : direction -> relative to start
%  4 : line options
%  5 : node options 
%  6 : end point coordinate name
{ \draw[#4] (#2) -- node[semithick, circle, draw=black, solid, fill=white, inner sep=1pt, minimum size=5mm, #5] {#1} ++ (#3) coordinate (C-#6);
}

\newcommand{\QBox}[6][]%
% [1]: content (optional)
%  2 : start coordinate
%  3 : direction -> relative to start
%  4 : line options
%  5 : node options 
%  6 : end point coordinate name
{ \draw[#4] (#2) -- node[sloped, pos=1, semithick, rectangle, draw=black, solid, fill=white, inner sep=1pt, minimum size=5mm, #5] {#1} ++ ($1/2*(#3)$)  coordinate (C-#6);
}

\newcommand{\MarkCoordinates}[3]%
% 1 : x-range
% 2 : y-range
% 3 : z range
{ \foreach \x in {#1}
    {   \foreach \y in {#2}
        {   \foreach \z in {#3}
            {   \node[gray,font=\tiny,shift={(0,0,\z*0.2)}] at (\x,\y,\z) {(\x,\y,\z)};
            }
        }
    }
}


\begin{tikzpicture}
[   x = {(30:1cm)},
    y = {(150:1cm)},
    z = {(90:1cm)},
    scale=1.25,
]
    \MarkCoordinates{0,...,2}{0,...,2}{0,...,2}
    \QBubble{0,0,0}{1,0,0}{blue, thick}{draw=red}{a}
    \QBubble{C-a}{0,0,1}{densely dotted}{}{x2R}
    \QBubble[$\gamma$]{C-x2R}{0,1,0}{ultra thick}{}{Bla}
    \QBox[4]{C-a}{0,-1,0}{}{}{}
    \QBox[Q]{C-x2R}{1,0,0}{red}{draw=green}{}
    \QBox[$\sum$]{0,0,0}{0,1,0}{gray}{draw=gray}{}

    \draw[-latex] (0,2.5,3.5) -- ++ (1,0,0) node[pos=1.2] {$+x$};
    \draw[-latex] (0,2.5,3.5) -- ++ (-1,0,0) node[pos=1.2] {$-x$};
    \draw[-latex] (0,2.5,3.5) -- ++ (0,1,0) node[pos=1.2] {$+y$};
    \draw[-latex] (0,2.5,3.5) -- ++ (0,-1,0) node[pos=1.2] {$-y$};
    \draw[-latex] (0,2.5,3.5) -- ++ (0,0,1) node[pos=1.2] {$+z$};
    \draw[-latex] (0,2.5,3.5) -- ++ (0,0,-1) node[pos=1.2] {$-z$};
\end{tikzpicture}

\end{document}

Output