K3 string theory, lattices and moonshine (Q2319764)

Moonshine is one of the most exciting branches of of modern mathematics, now a well-establish field linking geometry to number theory to finite group theory to mathematical physics. The authors have been instrumental in launching a programme of moonshine in string theory in the past decade. The general idea is to relate q-coefficients of certain CFT partition functions arising from string theory on \(K3\) surfaces to dimensions of the representations of the Mathieu sporadic group. There is a history of \(K3\) and sporadic groups. The Torelli theorem allows a full description of the moduli space and hence the discrete groups of the symplectomorphisms in terms of the lattices. A classic result of Mukai relates the latter to M23. Then, Eguchi-Ooguri-Tachikawa showed the elliptic genus of \(K3\) has q-expansion of M24 irrep dimensions. This was then seen as part of umbral moonshine, where 23 moonshine relations were found between mock modular forms and the 23 Niemeier lattices of dimension 24 by Cheng-Duncan-Harvey. In this nice paper, the authors develop these correspondences further by completing the classification of finite symmetries of IIA string theory on \(K3 \times \mathbb{R}^6\) and by studying the their action on the BPS states. In due course, 2 conjectures (Conj 5 and 6, p20).