Communications in Number Theory and Physics

Volume 10 (2016)

Number 1

Traces of singular moduli and moonshine for the Thompson group

Pages: 23 – 62

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4310/CNTP.2016.v10.n1.a2

Authors

Jeffrey A. Harvey (Enrico Fermi Institute and Department of Physics, University of Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.)

Brandon C. Rayhaun (University of Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.)

Abstract

We describe a relationship between the representation theory of the Thompson sporadic group and a weakly holomorphic modular form of weight one-half that appears in work of Borcherds and Zagier on Borcherds products and traces of singular moduli. We conjecture the existence of an infinite dimensional graded module for the Thompson group and provide evidence for our conjecture by constructing McKay–Thompson series for each conjugacy class of the Thompson group that coincide with weight one-half modular forms of higher level. We also observe a discriminant property in this moonshine for the Thompson group that is closely related to the discriminant property conjectured to exist in Umbral Moonshine.

Published 20 June 2016