Generalized Whittaker states for instanton counting with fundamental hypermultiplets

Abstract: M-theoretic construction of N=2 gauge theories implies that the instanton partition function is expressed as the scalar product of coherent states (Whittaker states) in the Verma module of an appropriate two dimensional conformal field theory. We present the characterizing conditions for such states that give the partition function with fundamental hypermultiplets for SU(3) theory and SU(2) theory with a surface operator. We find the states are no longer the coherent states in the strict sense but we can characterize them in terms of a few annihilation operators of lower levels combined with the zero mode (Cartan part) of the Virasoro algebra L_0 or the sl(2) current algebra J_0^0.