Current Developments in Mathematics

Volume 2008

Unearthing the Visions of a Master: Harmonic Maass Forms and Number Theory

Pages: 347 – 454

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4310/CDM.2008.v2008.n1.a5

Author

Ken Ono (Department of Mathematics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisc., U.S.A.)

Abstract

Together with his collaborators, most notably Kathrin Bringmann and Jan Bruinier, the author has been researching harmonic Maass forms. These non-holomorphic modular forms play central roles in many subjects: arithmetic geometry, combinatorics, modular forms, and mathematical physics. Here we outline the general facets of the theory, and we give several applications to number theory: partitions and $q$-series, modular forms, singular moduli, Borcherds products, extensions of theorems of Kohnen-Zagier and Waldspurger on modular $L$-functions, and the work of Bruinier and Yang on Gross-Zagier formulae. What is surprising is that this story has an unlikely beginning: the pursuit of the solution to a great mathematical mystery.

Full Text (PDF format)

Published 1 January 2008