Europe/Lisbon
Online

Nathan Benjamin, Princeton University
Harmonic analysis of $2d$ CFT partition functions

We apply the theory of harmonic analysis on the fundamental domain of $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ to partition functions of two-dimensional conformal field theories. We decompose the partition function of $c$ free bosons on a Narain lattice into eigenfunctions of the Laplacian of worldsheet moduli space $H/SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$, and of target space moduli space $O(c, c; \mathbb{Z})\backslash O(c, c; \mathbb{R})/O(c) × O(c)$. This decomposition manifests certain properties of Narain theories and ensemble averages thereof. We extend the application of spectral theory to partition functions of general two-dimensional conformal field theories, and explore its meaning in connection to $AdS_3$ gravity. An implication of harmonic analysis is that the local operator spectrum is fully determined by a certain subset of degeneracies.