English

A K3 in phi4

Algebraic Geometry 2019-12-19 v5 Mathematical Physics math.MP

Abstract

Inspired by Feynman integral computations in quantum field theory, Kontsevich conjectured in 1997 that the number of points of graph hypersurfaces over a finite field \Fq\F_q is a (quasi-) polynomial in qq. Stembridge verified this for all graphs with 12\leq12 edges, but in 2003 Belkale and Brosnan showed that the counting functions are of general type for large graphs. In this paper we give a sufficient combinatorial criterion for a graph to have polynomial point-counts, and construct some explicit counter-examples to Kontsevich's conjecture which are in ϕ4\phi^4 theory. Their counting functions are given modulo pq2pq^2 (q=pnq=p^n) by a modular form arising from a certain singular K3 surface.

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Cite

@article{arxiv.1006.4064,
  title  = {A K3 in phi4},
  author = {Francis Brown and Oliver Schnetz},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1006.4064},
  year   = {2019}
}

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R2 v1 2026-06-21T15:38:57.135Z