Darboux-Halphen-Ramanujan Vector Field on a Moduli of Calabi-Yau Manifolds

Abstract

In this paper we obtain an ordinary differential equation ${\sf H}$ from a Picard-Fuchs equation associated with a nowhere vanishing holomorphic $n$-form. We work on a moduli space ${\sf T }$ constructed from a Calabi-Yau $n$-fold $W$ together with a basis of the middle complex de Rham cohomology of $W$. We verify the existence of a unique vector field ${\sf H}$ on ${\sf T }$ such that its composition with the Gauss-Manin connection satisfies certain properties. The ordinary differential equation given by ${\sf H}$ is a generalization of differential equations introduced by Darboux, Halphen and Ramanujan.