Eisenstein series for higher-rank groups and string theory amplitudes
Michael B. Green, Stephen D. Miller, Jorge G. Russo, Pierre Vanhove
备注：
Latex. 38 pages. 1 figure. v2: minor changes and clarifications. v3: minor corrections, version to appear in Communications in Number Theory and Physics. v4: corrections to tables
Scattering amplitudes of superstring theory are strongly constrained by the requirement that they be invariant under dualities generated by discrete subgroups, E_n(Z), of simply-laced Lie groups in the E_n series (n<= 8). In particular, expanding the four-supergraviton amplitude at low energy gives a series of higher derivative corrections to Einstein's theory, with coefficients that are automorphic functions with a rich dependence on the moduli. Boundary conditions supplied by string and supergravity perturbation theory, together with a chain of relations between successive groups in the E_n series, constrain the constant terms of these coefficients in three distinct parabolic subgroups. Using this information we are able to determine the expressions for the first two higher derivative interactions (which are BPS-protected) in terms of specific Eisenstein series. Further, we determine key features of the coefficient of the third term in the low energy expansion of the four-supergraviton amplitude (which is also BPS-protected) in the E_8 case. This is an automorphic function that satisfies an inhomogeneous Laplace equation and has constant terms in certain parabolic subgroups that contain information about all the preceding terms.
We consider special Lambert series as generating functions of divisor sums and determine their complete transseries expansion near rational roots of unity. Our methods also yield new insights into the Laurent expansions and modularity properties of iterated Eisenstein integrals that have recently attracted attention in the context of certain period integrals and string theory scattering amplitudes.
We study generating series of torus integrals that contain all so-called modular graph forms relevant for massless one-loop closed-string amplitudes. By analysing the differential equation of the generating series we construct a solution for its low-energy expansion to all orders in the inverse string tension $α'$. Our solution is expressed through initial data involving multiple zeta values and certain real-analytic functions of the modular parameter of the torus. These functions are built from real and imaginary parts of holomorphic iterated Eisenstein integrals and should be closely related…
We study generating functions of moduli-space integrals at genus one that are expected to form a basis for massless $n$-point one-loop amplitudes of open superstrings and open bosonic strings. These integrals are shown to satisfy the same type of linear and homogeneous first-order differential equation w.r.t. the modular parameter $τ$ which is known from the A-elliptic Knizhnik--Zamolodchikov--Bernard associator. The expressions for their $τ$-derivatives take a universal form for the integration cycles in planar and non-planar one-loop open-string amplitudes. These differential equations manif…
We discuss a class of Little String Theories (LSTs) whose low energy descriptions are supersymmetric gauge theories on the $Ω$-background with gauge group $U(N)$ and matter in the adjoint representation. We show that the instanton partition function of these theories can be written in terms of Kronecker-Eisenstein series, which in a particular limit of the deformation parameters of the $Ω$-background organise themselves into Greens functions of free scalar fields on a torus. We provide a concrete identification between (differences of) such propagators and Nekrasov subfunctions. The latter are…
Automorphic properties of low energy string amplitudes in various dimensions
本文研究了d-环面上紧化的最大超对称弦论的四引力子振幅的低能展开中出现的高阶导数相互作用的模依赖系数。这些自守函数是通过施加各种相容性条件来确定的，对于D ^6 R ^4阶以下的项和不同的d值。它们满足拉普拉斯本征值方程，有或没有源项，其解决方案给出的爱森斯坦级数，或更一般的自守函数，某些抛物子群的相关U-对偶群。尽管弦论的表达式是有限的，但相应的超引力场论极限的紫外发散被编码在不同的符号中。这个分析包括有趣的SL（d）和SO（d，d）爱森斯坦级数的超环面紧化的单圈和双圈弦和超重力振幅的表示。
Closed string amplitudes at genus $h\leq 3$ are given by integrals of Siegel modular functions on a fundamental domain of the Siegel upper half-plane. When the integrand is of rapid decay near the cusps, the integral can be computed by the Rankin-Selberg method, which consists of inserting an Eisenstein series $E_h(s)$ in the integrand, computing the integral by the orbit method, and finally extracting the residue at a suitable value of $s$. String amplitudes, however, typically involve integrands with polynomial or even exponential growth at the cusps, and a renormalization scheme is required…
Modular graph functions (MGFs) are $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$-invariant functions on the Poincaré upper half-plane associated with Feynman graphs of a conformal scalar field on a torus. The low-energy expansion of genus-one superstring amplitudes involves suitably regularized integrals of MGFs over the fundamental domain for $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$. In earlier work, these integrals were evaluated for all MGFs up to two loops and for higher loops up to weight six. These results led to the conjectured uniform transcendentality of the genus-one four-graviton amplitude in Type II superstring …
Unlike the $\mathcal{R}^4$ and $\nabla^4\mathcal{R}^4$ couplings, whose coefficients are Langlands-Eisenstein series of the U-duality group, the coefficient $\mathcal{E}_{(0,1)}^{(d)}$ of the $\nabla^6\mathcal{R}^4$ interaction in the low-energy effective action of type II strings compactified on a torus $T^d$ belongs to a more general class of automorphic functions, which satisfy Poisson rather than Laplace-type equations. In earlier work, it was proposed that the exact coefficient is given by a two-loop integral in exceptional field theory, with the full spectrum of mutually 1/2-BPS states r…
Kac--Moody groups $G$ over $\mathbb{R}$ have been conjectured to occur as symmetry groups of supergravity theories dimensionally reduced to dimensions less than 3, and their integral forms $G(\mathbb{Z})$ conjecturally encode quantized symmetries. In this review paper, we briefly introduce the conjectural symmetries of Kac--Moody groups in supergravity as well as the known evidence for these conjectures. We describe constructions of Kac--Moody groups over $\R$ and $\Z$ using certain choices of fundamental modules that are considered to have physical relevance. Eisenstein series on certain fini…
Spin-two particles appear in the spectra of both open and closed string theories. We studied a graviton and massive symmetric rank-two tensor in string theory, both of which carry spin two. A graviton is a massless spin-two particle in closed string theory while a symmetric rank-two tensor is a massive particle with spin two in open string theory. Using Polyakov's string path integral formulation of string scattering amplitudes, we calculated cubic interactions of both spin-two particles explicitly, including $\ap$-corrections (string corrections). We observed that the cubic interactions of th…
We continue our study of symmetries of a class of little string theories of A-type, which are engineered by $N$ parallel M5-branes probing a flat transverse space. Extending the analysis of the companion paper, we discuss the part of the free energy that is sensitive to the details of the $\mathfrak{a}_{N-1}$ gauge structure, by computing explicit series expansions for the cases $N=2,3,4$. Based on these examples, we find a class of functions that we conjecture to resum whole sectors in the instanton expansion of the free energy and which combine in a natural manner its modular properties as w…
We show that the elliptic genus of the higher rank E-strings can be computed based solely on the genus 0 Gromov-Witten invariants of the corresponding elliptic geometry. To set up our computation, we study the structure of the topological string free energy on elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau manifolds both in the unrefined and the refined case, determining the maximal amount of the modular structure of the partition function that can be salvaged. In the case of fibrations exhibiting only isolated fibral curves, we show that the principal parts of the topological string partition function at gi…
In the so-called (2,2) theory, which is the U(N)^4 circular quiver superconformal Chern-Simons theory with levels (k,0,-k,0), it was known that the instanton effects are described by the free energy of topological strings whose Gopakumar-Vafa invariants coincide with those of the local D_5 del Pezzo geometry. By considering two types of one-parameter rank deformations U(N) x U(N+M) x U(N+2M) x U(N+M) and U(N+M) x U(N) x U(N+M) x U(N), we classify the known diagonal BPS indices by degrees. Together with other two types of one-parameter deformations, we further propose the topological string exp…
The canonical quantization of a massive symmetric rank-two tensor in string theory, which contains two Stueckelberg fields, was studied. As a preliminary study, we performed a canonical quantization of the Proca model to describe a massive vector particle that shares common properties with the massive symmetric rank-two tensor model. By performing a canonical analysis of the Lagrangian, which describes the symmetric rank-two tensor, obtained by Siegel and Zwiebach (SZ) from string field theory, we deduced that the Lagrangian possesses only first class constraints that generate local gauge tran…
