Periods of CY $n$-folds and mixed Tate motives, a numerical study

Abstract

In the mirror symmetry of Calabi-Yau threefolds, the instanton expansion of the prepotential has a constant term that is a rational multiple of $\zeta(3)/(2 \pi i)^3$, the motivic origin of which has been carefully studied in the author's paper with M. Kim. The Gamma conjecture claims that higher zeta values in fact appear in the theory of Calabi-Yau $n$-folds for $n \geq 4$. Moreover, a natural question is whether they also have a motivic origin. In this paper, we will study the limit mixed Hodge structure (MHS) of the Fermat pencil of Calabi-Yau $n$-folds at the large complex structure limit, which is actually a mixed Hodge-Tate structure. We will compute the period matrix of this limit MHS for the cases where $n=4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12$ by numerical method, and our computations have shown the occurrence of higher zeta values, which provide evidence to the Gamma conjecture. Furthermore, we will also provide a motivic explanation to our numerical results.