Globally nilpotent differential operators and the square Ising model

We recall various multiple integrals with one parameter, related to the isotropic square Ising model, and corresponding, respectively, to the n-particle contributions of the magnetic susceptibility, to the (lattice) form factors, to the two-point correlation functions and to their λ-extensions. The univariate analytic functions defined by these integrals are holonomic and even G-functions: they satisfy Fuchsian linear differential equations with polynomial coefficients and have some arithmetic properties. We recall the explicit forms, found in previous work, of these Fuchsian equations, as well as their Russian-doll and direct sum structures. These differential operators are selected Fuchsian linear differential operators, and their remarkable properties have a deep geometrical origin: they are all globally nilpotent, or, sometimes, even have zero p-curvature. We also display miscellaneous examples of globally nilpotent operators emerging from enumerative combinatorics problems for which no integral representation is yet known. Focusing on the factorized parts of all these operators, we find out that the global nilpotence of the factors (resp. p-curvature nullity) corresponds to a set of selected structures of algebraic geometry: elliptic curves, modular curves, curves of genus five, six,..., and even a remarkable weight-1 modular form emerging in the three-particle contribution χ⁽³⁾ of the magnetic susceptibility of the square Ising model. Noticeably, this associated weight-1 modular form is also seen in the factors of the differential operator for another n-fold integral of the Ising class, Φ⁽³⁾_H, for the staircase polygons counting, and in Apéry's study of ζ(3). G-functions naturally occur as solutions of globally nilpotent operators. In the case where we do not have G-functions, but Hamburger functions (one irregular singularity at 0 or ∞) that correspond to the confluence of singularities in the scaling limit, the p-curvature is also found to verify new structures associated with simple deformations of the nilpotent property.