Dualities and 5-brane webs for 5d rank 2 SCFTs

2012

We engineer a large new set of four-dimensional N = 1 superconformal field theories by wrapping M5-branes on complex curves. We present new supersymmetric AdS 5 M-theory backgrounds which describe these fixed points at large N , and then directly construct the dual four-dimensional CFTs for a certain subset of these solutions. Additionally, we provide a direct check of the central charges of these theories by using the M5-brane anomaly polynomial. This is a companion paper which elaborates upon results reported in [1].

Journal of High Energy Physics, 1998

We continue to study 5d N = 1 supersymmetric field theories and their compactifications on a circle through brane configurations. We develop a model, which we call (p, q) Webs, which enables simple geometrical computations to reproduce the known results, and facilitates further study. The physical concepts of field theory are transparent in this picture, offering an interpretation for global symmetries, local symmetries, the effective (running) coupling, the Coulomb and Higgs branches, the monopole tensions, and the mass of BPS particles. A rule for the dimension of the Coulomb branch is found by introducing Grid Diagrams. Some known classifications of field theories are reproduced. In addition to the study of the vacuum manifold we develop methods to determine the BPS spectrum. Some states, such as quarks, correspond to instantons inside the 5-brane which we call strips. In general, these may not be identified with (p, q) strings. We describe how a strip can bend out of a 5-brane, becoming a string. A general BPS state corresponds to a Web of strings and strips. For special values of the string coupling a few strips can combine and leave the 5-brane as a string.

2011

We revisit the relation of the six-dimensional (2, 0) M5-brane Conformal Field Theory compactified on S 1 to 5D maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills Gauge Theory. We show that in the broken phase 5D super-Yang-Mills contains a spectrum of soliton states that can be identified with the complete Kaluza-Klein modes of an M2-brane ending on the M5-branes. This provides evidence that the (2, 0) theory on S 1 is equivalent to 5D super-Yang-Mills with no additional UV degrees of freedom, suggesting that the latter is in fact a well-defined quantum theory and possibly finite.

Journal of High Energy Physics, 2019

We discuss Type IIB 5-brane configurations for 5d $$ \mathcal{N}=1 $$ N = 1 gauge theories with hypermultiplets in the rank-3 antisymmetric representation and with various other hypermultiplets, which flow from a UV fixed point at the infinite coupling. We propose 5-brane web diagrams for the theories of SU(6) and Sp(3) gauge groups with rank-3 antisymmetric matter and check our proposed 5-brane webs against several consistency conditions implied from the one-loop corrected prepotential. Using the obtained 5-brane webs for rank-3 antisymmetric matter, we apply the topological vertex method to compute the partition function for one of these SU(6) gauge theories.

Journal of High Energy Physics, 2015

We study a class of four-dimensional N = 1 superconformal field theories obtained by wrapping M5-branes on a Riemann surface with punctures. We identify fourdimensional UV descriptions of the SCFTs corresponding to curves with a class of punctures. The quiver tails appearing in these UV descriptions differ significantly from their N = 2 counterpart. We find a new type of object that we call the 'Fan'. We show how to construct new N = 1 superconformal theories using the Fan. Various dual descriptions for these SCFTs can be identified with different colored pair-of-pants decompositions. For example, we find an N = 1 analog of Argyres-Seiberg duality for the SU(N ) SQCD with 2N flavors. We also compute anomaly coefficients and superconformal indices for these theories and show that they are invariant under dualities.

Journal of High Energy Physics, 2008

We construct three dimensional Chern-Simons-matter theories with gauge groups U (N ) ×U (N ) and SU (N ) ×SU (N ) which have explicit N = 6 superconformal symmetry. Using brane constructions we argue that the U (N ) × U (N ) theory at level k describes the low energy limit of N M2-branes probing a C 4 /Z k singularity. At large N the theory is then dual to M-theory on AdS 4 × S 7 /Z k . The theory also has a 't Hooft limit (of large N with a fixed ratio N/k) which is dual to type IIA string theory on AdS 4 × CP 3 . For k = 1 the theory is conjectured to describe N M2-branes in flat space, although our construction realizes explicitly only six of the eight supersymmetries. We give some evidence for this conjecture, which is similar to the evidence for mirror symmetry in d = 3 gauge theories. When the gauge group is SU (2) × SU (2) our theory has extra symmetries and becomes identical to the Bagger-Lambert theory.

Physical Review D, 2006

We study the dimensional reduction of M5-branes wrapping special Lagrangian 3-cycles of a Calabi-Yau manifold and show explicitly that they result in 2-branes coupled to the hypermultiplets of ungauged N=2 D=5 supergravity theory. In addition to confirming previously known results, the calculation proves the relationship between them and provides further insight on how the topological properties of the compact space affect the lower dimensional fields.

Journal of High Energy Physics, 2001

]. This solution contains purely magnetic non-Abelian and electric Abelian fields. It can be interpreted as a reduction of seven-dimensional gauged supergravity on a torus, which comes from type IIB supergravity on S^3. We also show how to obtain that solution from six-dimensional Romans' theory on a circle. We then up-lift the solution to massless type IIA supergravity. The dual gauge field theory is twisted and is defined on the worldvolume of a NS-fivebrane wrapped on S^3. Two other spatial directions of the NS-fivebrane are on a torus. In the IR limit it corresponds to a three-dimensional gauge field theory with two supercharges.

Physics Letters B, 1998

It is well-known that the low energy string theory admits a non-singular solitonic super five-brane solution which is the magnetic dual to the fundamental string solution. By using the symmetry of the type IIB string theory, we construct an SL(2, Z) multiplet of magnetically charged super five-branes starting from this solitonic solution. These solutions are characterized by two integral three-form charges (q 1 , q 2) and are stable when the integers are coprime. We obtain an expression for the tension of these (q 1 , q 2) five-branes as envisaged by Witten. The SL(2, Z) multiplets of black strings and black fivebranes and the existence of similar magnetic dual solutions of strings in type II string theory in D < 10 have also been discussed.

Journal of High Energy Physics

We study the Higgs branch of 5d superconformal theories engineered from brane webs with orientifold five-planes. We propose a generalization of the rules to derive magnetic quivers from brane webs pioneered in [1], by analyzing theories that can be described with a brane web with and without O5 planes. Our proposed magnetic quivers include novel features, such as hypermultiplets transforming in the fundamental-fundamental representation of two gauge nodes, antisymmetric matter, and ℤ2 gauge nodes. We test our results by computing the Coulomb and Higgs branch Hilbert series of the magnetic quivers obtained from the two distinct constructions and find agreement in all cases.