# 1/8-BPS Couplings and Exceptional Automorphic Functions

### Submission summary

 As Contributors: Boris Pioline Arxiv Link: https://arxiv.org/abs/2001.05562v1 Date submitted: 2020-01-27 Submitted by: Pioline, Boris Submitted to: SciPost Physics Discipline: Physics Subject area: High-Energy Physics - Theory Approach: Theoretical

### Abstract

Unlike the $\mathcal{R}^4$ and $\nabla^4\mathcal{R}^4$ couplings, whose coefficients are Langlands-Eisenstein series of the U-duality group, the coefficient $\mathcal{E}_{(0,1)}^{(d)}$ of the $\nabla^6\mathcal{R}^4$ interaction in the low-energy effective action of type II strings compactified on a torus $T^d$ belongs to a more general class of automorphic functions, which satisfy Poisson rather than Laplace-type equations. In earlier work, it was proposed that the exact coefficient is given by a two-loop integral in exceptional field theory, with the full spectrum of mutually 1/2-BPS states running in the loops, up to the addition of a particular Langlands-Eisenstein series. Here we compute the weak coupling and large radius expansions of these automorphic functions for any $d$. We find perfect agreement with perturbative string theory up to genus three, along with non-perturbative corrections which have the expected form for 1/8-BPS instantons and bound states of 1/2-BPS instantons and anti-instantons. The additional Langlands-Eisenstein series arises from a subtle cancellation between the two-loop amplitude with 1/4-BPS states running in the loops, and the three-loop amplitude with mutually 1/2-BPS states in the loops. For $d=4$, the result is shown to coincide with an alternative proposal in terms of a covariantised genus-two string amplitude, due to interesting identities between the Kawazumi-Zhang invariant of genus-two curves and its tropical limit, and between double lattice sums for the particle and string multiplets, which may be of independent mathematical interest.

###### Current status:
Editor-in-charge assigned

### Submission & Refereeing History

Submission 2001.05562v1 on 27 January 2020