English

All-order differential equations for one-loop closed-string integrals and modular graph forms

High Energy Physics - Theory 2020-01-22 v2 Number Theory

Abstract

We investigate generating functions for the integrals over world-sheet tori appearing in closed-string one-loop amplitudes of bosonic, heterotic and type-II theories. These closed-string integrals are shown to obey homogeneous and linear differential equations in the modular parameter of the torus. We spell out the first-order Cauchy-Riemann and second-order Laplace equations for the generating functions for any number of external states. The low-energy expansion of such torus integrals introduces infinite families of non-holomorphic modular forms known as modular graph forms. Our results generate homogeneous first- and second-order differential equations for arbitrary such modular graph forms and can be viewed as a step towards all-order low-energy expansions of closed-string integrals.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1911.03476,
  title  = {All-order differential equations for one-loop closed-string integrals and modular graph forms},
  author = {Jan E. Gerken and Axel Kleinschmidt and Oliver Schlotterer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1911.03476},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

54+24 pages, v2: typos corrected, version published in JHEP

R2 v1 2026-06-23T12:09:46.460Z