Weyl invariant $E_8$ Jacobi forms and $E$-strings

Abstract

In 1992 Wirthmüller showed that for any irreducible root system not of type $E_8$ the ring of weak Jacobi forms invariant under Weyl group is a polynomial algebra. However, it has recently been proved that for $E_8$ the ring is not a polynomial algebra. Weyl invariant $E_8$ Jacobi forms have many applications in string theory and it is an open problem to describe such forms. The scaled refined free energies of $E$-strings with certain $\eta$-function factors are conjectured to be Weyl invariant $E_8$ quasi-holomorphic Jacobi forms. It is further observed that the scaled refined free energies up to some powers of $E_4$ can be written as polynomials in nine Sakai’s $E_8$ Jacobi forms and Eisenstein series $E_2, E_4, E_6$. Motivated by the physical conjectures, we prove that for any Weyl invariant $E_8$ Jacobi form $\phi_t$ of index $t$ the function $E^{[t/5]}_4 \Delta^{[5t/6]} \phi_t$ can be expressed uniquely as a polynomial in $E_4$, $E_6$ and Sakai’s forms, where $[x]$ is the integer part of $x$. This means that a Weyl invariant $E_8$ Jacobi form is completely determined by a solution of some linear equations. By solving the linear systems, we determine the generators of the free module of Weyl invariant $E_8$ weak (resp. holomorphic) Jacobi forms of given index $t$ when $t \leq 13$ (resp. $t \leq 11$).