Giant gravitons, fermionic forms and vertex algebras
Abstract
A bstract We investigate the mathematical and physical content of the giant graviton expansion of three-dimensional 𝒩 = 4 superconformal field theories in a simplifying limit. We uncover an interesting relation between the coefficients in this expansion, the Hilbert series of certain quiver varieties and the representation theory of vertex algebras. In particular, for the worldvolume theory of N M2-branes at the tip of a toric hyper-Kähler four-fold cone: X 4 = ℂ 2 /ℤ L × ℂ 2 /ℤ K , we derive an explicit expression for the coefficients in terms of affine fermionic forms and show that they coincide with characters of a direct sum of parafermionic W-algebras.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Black Holes and Theoretical Physics
Algebraic structures and combinatorial models
Homotopy and Cohomology in Algebraic Topology
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Journal of High Energy Physics
- Publisher
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC
- Volume
- 2026
- Issue
- 9
- Publication date
- 14 September 2026
- Language
- EN