Lattice Theta Constants vs Riemann Theta Constants and NSR Superstring Measures

Abstract

We discuss relations between two different representations of hypothetical holomorphic NSR measures, based on two different ways of constructing the semi-modular forms of weight 8. One of these ways is to build forms from the ordinary Riemann theta constants and another -- from the lattice theta constants. We discuss unexpectedly elegant relations between lattice theta constants, corresponding to 16-dimensional self-dual lattices, and Riemann theta constants and present explicit formulae expressing the former ones through the latter. Starting from genus 5 the modular-form approach to construction of NSR measures runs into serious problems and there is a risk that it fails completely already at genus 6.

16 pages