Vertex operator algebras, Higgs branches, and modular differential equations

TL;DR

This paper explores the deep connection between the Higgs branch of 4D ${ m N}=2$ superconformal theories and their associated vertex operator algebras, proposing a link to modular differential equations and the Schur index.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework relating Higgs branches to vertex operator algebras and suggests that the Schur index satisfies finite order modular differential equations.

Findings

Null vectors in the vacuum Verma module imply modular differential equations for the Schur index.

The Weyl anomaly coefficient $a$ can be interpreted through vertex algebra representation theory.

Examples include theories from Deligne-Cvitanović series, Argyres-Douglas, class ${ m S}$, and ${ m N}=4$ SYM.

Abstract

Every four-dimensional ${\cal N}=2$ superconformal field theory comes equipped with an intricate algebraic invariant, the associated vertex operator algebra. The relationships between this invariant and more conventional protected quantities in the same theories have yet to be completely understood. In this work, we aim to characterize the connection between the Higgs branch of the moduli space of vacua (as an algebraic geometric entity) and the associated vertex operator algebra. Ultimately our proposal is simple, but its correctness requires the existence of a number of nontrivial null vectors in the vacuum Verma module of the vertex operator algebra. Of particular interest is one such null vector whose presence suggests that the Schur index of any ${\cal N}=2$ SCFT should obey a finite order modular differential equation. By way of the "high temperature" limit of the superconformal index, this allows the Weyl anomaly coefficient $a$ to be reinterpreted in terms of the representation theory of the associated vertex operator algebra. We illustrate these ideas in a number of examples including a series of rank-one theories associated with the "Deligne-Cvitanovi\'c exceptional series" of simple Lie algebras, several families of Argyres-Douglas theories, an assortment of class ${\cal S}$ theories, and ${\cal N}=4$ super Yang-Mills with $\mathfrak{su}(n)$ gauge group for small-to-moderate values of $n$.