Recurrence relations for the ${\cal W}_3$ conformal blocks and ${\cal N}=2$ SYM partition functions

Abstract

Recursion relations for the sphere $4$-point and torus $1$-point ${\cal W}_3$ conformal blocks, generalizing Alexei Zamolodchikov's famous relation for the Virasoro conformal blocks are proposed. One of these relations is valid for any 4-point conformal block with two arbitrary and two special primaries with charge parameters proportional to the highest weight of the fundamental irrep of $SU(3)$. The other relation is designed for the torus conformal block with a special (in above mentioned sense) primary field insertion. AGT relation maps the sphere conformal block and the torus block to the instanton partition functions of the ${\cal N}=2$ $SU(3)$ SYM theory with 6 fundamental or an adjoint hypermultiplets respectively. AGT duality played a central role in establishing these recurrence relations, whose gauge theory counterparts are novel relations for the $SU(3)$ partition functions with $N_f=6$ fundamental or an adjoint hypermultiplets. By decoupling some (or all) hypermultiplets, recurrence relations for the asymptotically free theories with $0\le N_f<6$ are found.