2026/07/08 by Pietro Benetti Genolini, Florian Gaar, Jerome P. Gauntlett +2
#hep-th
We show that Airy function partition functions for M2-brane theories may be derived from relative equivariant localization of quantum M-theory. The eleven-dimensional Chern--Simons coupling gives the cubic term in the grand potential, while the X8 correction gives the charge shift. Fixing the M2-brane charge turns the localized M-theory path integral into an Airy integral. In this way we derive the ABJM result, its toric Calabi--Yau generalizations, and gravitational blocks for black holes and other spacetimes, up to the prefactor and non-perturbative corrections.