Holographic thermal propagator from modularity

Abstract

It is known that the holographic thermal propagator in 4 spacetime dimensions can be related to the Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit of the $\Omega$-deformed ${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetric $SU(2)$ Yang-Mills theory with $N_f=4$ hypermultiplets. There are two expansions involved: one is the expansion in small temperature which in the Seiberg-Witten language is equivalent to the semiclassical expansion in inverse powers of the large adjoint vev and the second is the expansion in instanton numbers. Working in the simplified case of zero energy, we find that the latter expansion gives rise to quasi-modular forms which can be resummed as functions of Eisenstein series. The so obtained series in positive powers of small temperature shows clear signs of being asymptotic.