English

Vafa-Witten theory and iterated integrals of modular forms

High Energy Physics - Theory 2019-04-25 v2 Algebraic Geometry Number Theory

Abstract

Vafa-Witten (VW) theory is a topologically twisted version of N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. S-duality suggests that the partition function of VW theory with gauge group SU(N) transforms as a modular form under duality transformations. Interestingly, Vafa and Witten demonstrated the presence of a modular anomaly, when the theory has gauge group SU(2) and is considered on the complex projective plane P2. This modular anomaly could be expressed as an integral of a modular form, and also be traded for a holomorphic anomaly. We demonstrate that the modular anomaly for gauge group SU(3) involves an iterated integral of modular forms. Moreover, the modular anomaly for SU(3) can be traded for a holomorphic anomaly, which is shown to factor into a product of the partition functions for lower rank gauge groups. The SU(3) partition function is mathematically an example of a mock modular form of depth two.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1709.10098,
  title  = {Vafa-Witten theory and iterated integrals of modular forms},
  author = {Jan Manschot},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1709.10098},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

44 pages, comments welcome; v2: minor changes

R2 v1 2026-06-22T21:58:09.314Z