Many recent developments in matrix models and topological string theory have been driven by resurgence methods.
I will introduce basic resurgence concepts in the context of hermitian matrix models (and their double scaling limits) and demonstrate the natural appearance of negative d-branes associated to anti-eigenvalue tunneling (tunneling on the non physical sheet of the spectral curve). Furthermore I will illustrate how such negative d-branes are a feature of the t’Hooft limit and necessary for a full non perturbative resurgent large N description, but at the same time are turned off at finite N.
Furthermore I will introduce the concept of diagonal framing for resurgent transseries that include negative d-branes. This gives rise to an identification of the non perturbative partition functions of hermitian matrix models and certain topological strings, which I will illustrate using the example of (2,3) minimal strings/H_0 Argyres Douglas Theory.