Abstract
We analyze various perspectives on the elliptic genus of non-compact supersymmetric coset conformal field theories with central charge larger than three. We calculate the holomorphic part of the elliptic genus via a free field description of the model, and show that it agrees with algebraic expectations. The holomorphic part of the elliptic genus is directly related to an Appell-Lerch sum and behaves anomalously under modular transformations. We analyze the origin of the anomaly by calculating the elliptic genus through a path integral in a coset conformal field theory. The path integral codes both the holomorphic part of the elliptic genus, and a non-holomorphic remainder that finds its origin in the continuous spectrum of the non-compact model. The remainder term can be shown to agree with a function that mathematicians introduced to parameterize the difference between mock theta functions and Jacobi forms. The holomorphic part of the elliptic genus thus has a path integral completion which renders it non-holomorphic and modular.
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Laboratoire de Physique Théorique: Unité Mixte du CNRS et de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure associée à l’université Pierre et Marie Curie 6, UMR 8549. LPTENS-10/16.
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Troost, J. The non-compact elliptic genus: mock or modular. J. High Energ. Phys. 2010, 104 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2010)104
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2010)104