Large $N$ Partition Functions of the ABJM Theory

Abstract

We study the large $N$ limit of some supersymmetric partition functions of the $\mathrm{U}(N{)}_k\times \mathrm{U}(N{)}_{-k}$ ABJM theory computed by supersymmetric localization. We conjecture an explicit expression, valid to all orders in the large $N$ limit, for the partition function on the $\mathrm{U}(1)\times \mathrm{U}(1)$ invariant squashed sphere in the presence of real masses in terms of an Airy function. Several non-trivial tests of this conjecture are presented. In addition, we derive an explicit compact expression for the topologically twisted index of the ABJM theory valid at fixed $k$ to all orders in the $1/N$ expansion. We use these results to derive the topologically twisted index and the sphere partition function in the 't Hooft limit which correspond to genus $\mathtt{g}$ type IIA string theory free energies to all orders in the $\hat{I}{\pm }^{\prime }$ expansion. We discuss the implications of our results for holography and the physics of AdS${}_4$ black holes.

v1: 56 pages, 4 figures; v2: corrected typos in equations (2.5) and (4.69), updated references; v3: added footnote 11, minor revisions in Subsection 4.4; v4: minor typos corrected