Quasi-lisse Vertex Algebras and Modular Linear Differential Equations

Abstract

We introduce the notion of quasi-lisse vertex algebras, which generalizes admissible affine vertex algebras. We show that the normalized character of an ordinary module over a quasi-lisse vertex operator algebra has a modular invariance property, in the sense that it satisfies amodular linear differential equation. As an application we obtain the explicit character formulas of simple affine vertex algebras associated with the Deligne exceptional series at level −h−/6−1, which express the homogeneous Schur indices of 4d SCFTs studied by Beem, Lemos, Liendo, Peelaers, Rastelli and van Rees, as quasimodular forms.