Refined Painlevé/gauge theory correspondence and quantum tau functions

Abstract

In this paper we study strong coupling asymptotic expansions of $\mathcal{N}=2$ four-dimensional $SU(2)$ gauge theory partition functions in general $\Omega$-background. This is done by refining the Painlevé/gauge theory correspondence in terms of quantum Painlevé equations, obtained from ${\mathbb{C}}^2/{\mathbb{Z}}_2$ blowup relations. We present a general ansatz and a systematic analysis of the expansions of the gauge theory partition functions by solving the above equations around the strong coupling singularities, including Argyres-Douglas points. We check our results via refined holomorphic anomaly equations and compare with irregular Virasoro conformal blocks.

78 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables. v2 is the journal version