High-Temperature Expansion of Supersymmetric Partition Functions

Abstract: Di Pietro and Komargodski have recently demonstrated a four-dimensional counterpart of Cardy's formula, which gives the leading high-temperature ($\beta\rightarrow{0}$) behavior of supersymmetric partition functions $Z^{SUSY}(\beta)$. Focusing on superconformal theories, we elaborate on the subleading contributions to their formula when applied to free chiral and U(1) vector multiplets. In particular, we see that the high-temperature expansion of $\ln Z^{SUSY}(\beta)$ terminates at order $\beta^0$. We also demonstrate how their formula must be modified when applied to SU($N$) toric quiver gauge theories in the planar ($N\rightarrow\infty$) limit. Our method for regularizing the one-loop determinants of chiral and vector multiplets helps to clarify the relation between the 4d $\mathcal{N} = 1$ superconformal index and its corresponding supersymmetric partition function obtained by path-integration.