Generating series for torsion-free bundles over singular curves: rationality, duality and modularity

Abstract: We consider two motivic generating functions defined on a variety, and reveal their tight connection. They essentially count torsion-free bundles and zero-dimensional sheaves. On a reduced singular curve, we show that the Quot zeta function'' encoding the motives of Quot schemes of 0-dimension quotients of a rank $d$ torsion-free bundle satisfies rationality and a Serre-duality-type functional equation. This is a high-rank generalization of known results on the motivic Hilbert zeta function (the $d=1$ case) due to Bejleri, Ranganathan, and Vakil (rationality) and Yun (functional equation). Moreover, a stronger rationality result holds in the relative Grothendieck ring of varieties. Our methods involve a novel sublattice parametrization, a certain generalization of affine Grassmannians, and harmonic analysis over local fields. On a general variety, we prove that theCohen--Lenstra zeta function" encoding the motives of stacks of zero-dimensional sheaves can be obtained as a ``rank $\to\infty$'' limit of the Quot zeta functions. Combining these techniques, we prove explicit results for the planar singularities associated to the $(2,n)$ torus knots/links, namely, $y^2=x^n$. The resulting formulas involve summations of Hall polynomials over partitions bounded by a box or a vertical strip, which are of independent interest from the perspectives of skew Cauchy identities for Hall--Littlewood polynomials, Rogers--Ramanujan identities, and modular forms.