Preprint typeset in JHEP style - HYPER VERSION TCD-MATH 18{12 Donaldson-Witten theory, surface operators and mock modular forms Georgios Korpas School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland Hamilton Mathematical Institute, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland E-mail:
[email protected] Abstract: We revisit the u-plane integral of the topologically twisted = 2 su- N per Yang-Mills theory, the Donaldson-Witten theory, on a closed four-manifold X with embedded surfaces that support supersymmetric surface operators. This integral math- ematically corresponds to the generating function of the ramified Donaldson invariants of X. By including a -exact deformation to the u-plane integral we are able to re- Q express its integrand in terms of a total derivative with respect to an indefinite theta function, a special kind of mock modular form. We show that for specific K¨ahlersur- faces of Kodaira dimension the integral localizes at the cusp at infinity of the −∞ Coulomb branch of the theory. arXiv:1810.07057v1 [hep-th] 16 Oct 2018 Contents 1. Introduction 2 2. Ramified Donaldson invariants 8 3. Review of surface operators in four dimensions 10 4. The u-plane integral 12 4.1 A note about four-manifolds 13 4.2 Remarks on the u-plane integral 14 5. The ramified u-plane integral 16 5.1 The gravitational couplings 17 5.2 The Grassmann and photon path integral 18 5.3 The ramified u-plane integral 23 5.4 Modularity of the ramified u-plane integrand 24 5.5 The ramified u-plane integral as a total derivative 26 5.6 Wall-crossing formula 31 6.