Topological Mathieu Moonshine

Abstract

We explore the Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence for the $tmf^\bullet[\frac12]$-cohomology of the classifying space $BM_{24}$ of the largest Mathieu group $M_{24}$, twisted by a class $\omega \in H^4(BM_{24};Z[\frac12]) \cong Z_3$. Our exploration includes detailed computations of the $Z_3$-cohomology of $M_{24}$ and of the first few differentials in the AHSS. We are specifically interested in the value of $tmf^\bullet_\omega(BM_{24})[\frac12]$ in cohomological degree $-27$. Our main computational result is that $tmf^{-27}_\omega(BM_{24})[\frac12] = 0$ when $\omega \neq 0$. For comparison, the restriction map $tmf^{-3}_\omega(BM_{24})[\frac12]\to tmf^{-3}(pt)[\frac12] \cong Z_3$ is surjective for one of the two nonzero values of $\omega$. Our motivation comes from Mathieu Moonshine. Assuming a well-studied conjectural relationship between $TMF$ and supersymmetric quantum field theory, there is a canonically-defined $Co_1$-twisted-equivariant lifting $[\bar{V}^{f\natural}]$ of the class $\{24\Delta\} \in TMF^{-24}(pt)$, where $Co_1$ denotes Conway's largest sporadic group. We conjecture that the product $[\bar{V}^{f\natural}] \nu$, where $\nu \in TMF^{-3}(pt)$ is the image of the generator of $tmf^{-3}(pt) \cong Z_{24}$, does not vanish $Co_1$-equivariantly, but that its restriction to $M_{24}$-twisted-equivariant $TMF$ does vanish. This conjecture answers some of the questions in Mathieu Moonshine: it implies the existence of a minimally supersymmetric quantum field theory with $M_{24}$ symmetry, whose twisted-and-twined partition functions have the same mock modularity as in Mathieu Moonshine. Our AHSS calculation establishes this conjecture "perturbatively" at odd primes. An appendix included mostly for entertainment purposes discusses "$\ell$-complexes" and their relation to $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ Verlinde rings. The case $\ell=3$ is used in our AHSS calculations.