arXiv subjects

Eleanor McSpirit

Publications and source records attributed to Eleanor McSpirit.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Quantum Modular Forms and Resurgence

In 2010, Zagier described a new phenomenon which he called quantum modularity. This connected various examples coming from disparate fields which exhibit near-modular behavior. In the fifteen years since, Zagier's philosophy has informed new developments in areas such as knot theory, 3-dimensional topology, combinatorics, and physics. More recently, the concept of holomorphic quantum modularity has emerged, pointing to a clearer structure for Zagier's original examples. These new developments suggest connections to perturbative quantum field theory, like the theory of resurgence. In 2024, Fantini and Rella proposed a means of codifying some of these connections under their program of ``modular resurgence." Inspired by their work, we unify all of the examples of quantum modular forms in Zagier's original paper under the umbrella of resurgence. In doing so, we strengthen known quantum modularity results for holomorphic Eichler integrals of half-integer weight modular forms. Our main addition to the literature is a collection of median resummation type results which show that the examples of holomorphic quantum modular forms we consider can be recovered from their asymptotics, or the asymptotics of closely related functions.

math.NT↗

arXiv2023

Infinite Families of Quantum Modular 3-Manifold Invariants

One of the first key examples of a quantum modular form, which unifies the Witten-Reshetikhin-Turaev (WRT) invariants of the Poincaré homology sphere, appears in work of Lawrence and Zagier. We show that the series they construct is one instance in an infinite family of quantum modular invariants of negative definite plumbed 3-manifolds whose radial limits toward roots of unity may be thought of as a deformation of the WRT invariants. We use a recently developed theory of Akhmechet, Johnson, and Krushkal (AJK) which extends lattice cohomology and BPS $q$-series of 3-manifolds. As part of this work, we provide the first calculation of the AJK series for an infinite family of $3$-manifolds. Additionally, we introduce a separate but related infinite family of invariants which also exhibit quantum modularity properties.

math.GT↗

arXiv2023

Hypergeometry and the AGM over Finite Fields

One of the most celebrated applications of Gauss' $_2F_1$ hypergeometric functions is in connection with the rapid convergence of sequences and special values that arise in the theory of arithmetic and geometric means. This theory was the inspiration for a recent paper \cite{jelly1} in which a finite field analogue of AGM$_\mathbb{R}$ was defined and then studied using finite field hypergeometric functions. Instead of convergent sequences, one gets directed graphs that combine to form disjoint unions of graphs that individually resemble "jellyfish". Echoing the connection of hypergeometric functions to periods of elliptic curves, these graphs organize elliptic curves over finite fields. Here we use such "jellyfish swarms" to prove new identities for Gauss' class numbers of positive definite binary quadratic forms. Moreover, we prove that the sizes of jellyfish are in part dictated by the order of the prime above 2 in certain class groups.

math.NT↗

arXiv2022

Zeros in the Character Tables of Symmetric Groups with an $\ell$-Core Index

Let $\mathcal{C}_n =\left [χ_λ(μ)\right]_{λ, μ}$ be the character table for $S_n,$ where the indices $λ$ and $μ$ run over the $p(n)$ many integer partitions of $n.$ In this note we study $Z_{\ell}(n),$ the number of zero entries $χ_λ(μ)$ in $\mathcal{C}_n,$ where $λ$ is an $\ell$-core partition of $n.$ For every prime $\ell\geq 5,$ we prove an asymptotic formula of the form $$ Z_{\ell}(n)\sim α_{\ell}\cdot σ_{\ell}(n+δ_{\ell})p(n)\gg_{\ell} n^{\frac{\ell-5}{2}}e^{π\sqrt{2n/3}},$$ where $σ_{\ell}(n)$ is a twisted Legendre symbol divisor function, $δ_{\ell}:=(\ell^2-1)/24,$ and $1/α_{\ell}>0$ is a normalization of the Dirichlet $L$-value $L\left(\left(\frac{\cdot}{\ell}\right),\frac{\ell-1}{2}\right).$ For primes $\ell$ and $n>\ell^6/24,$ we show that $χ_λ(μ)=0$ whenever $λ$ and $μ$ are both $\ell$-cores. Furthermore, if $Z^*_{\ell}(n)$ is the number of zero entries indexed by two $\ell$-cores, then for $\ell\geq 5$ we obtain the asymptotic $$ Z^*_{\ell}(n)\sim α_{\ell}^2 \cdot σ_{\ell}( n+δ_{\ell})^2 \gg_{\ell} n^{\ell-3}. $$

math.NT↗

arXiv2019

Algebraic Relations Between Partition Functions and the $j$-Function

We obtain identities and relationships between the modular $j$-function, the generating functions for the classical partition function and the Andrews $spt$-function, and two functions related to unimodal sequences and a new partition statistic we call the "signed triangular weight" of a partition. These results follow from the closed formula we obtain for the Hecke action on a distinguished harmonic Maass form $\mathscr{M}(τ)$ defined by Bringmann in her work on the Andrews $spt$-function. This formula involves a sequence of polynomials in $j(τ)$, through which we ultimately arrive at expressions for the coefficients of the $j$-function purely in terms of these combinatorial quantities.

math.NT↗