New modular invariants in $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 4 Super-Yang-Mills theory

We study modular invariants arising in the four-point functions of the stress tensor multiplet operators of the $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 4 SU(N) super-Yang-Mills theory, in the limit where N is taken to be large while the complexified Yang-Mills coupling τ is held fixed. The specific four-point functions we consider are integrated correlators obtained by taking various combinations of four derivatives of the squashed sphere partition function of the $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 2∗ theory with respect to the squashing parameter b and mass parameter m, evaluated at the values b = 1 and m = 0 that correspond to the $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 4 theory on a round sphere. At each order in the 1/N expansion, these fourth derivatives are modular invariant functions of (τ,$$ \overline{\tau} $$ τ ¯ ). We present evidence that at half-integer orders in 1/N , these modular invariants are linear combinations of non-holomorphic Eisenstein series, while at integer orders in 1/N, they are certain “generalized Eisenstein series” which satisfy inhomogeneous Laplace eigenvalue equations on the hyperbolic plane. These results reproduce known features of the low-energy expansion of the four-graviton amplitude in type IIB superstring theory in ten-dimensional flat space and have interesting implications for the structure of the analogous expansion in AdS5× S5.