1,720,999 research outputs found
Higher Form Symmetries TFT in 6d
Full text linkSymmetries and anomalies of a -dimensional quantum field theory are often
encoded in a -dimensional topological action, called symmetry
topological field theory (TFT). We derive the symmetry TFT for the 2-form and
1-form symmetries of 6d field theories, focusing on theories with a
single tensor multiplet (rank 1). We implement this by coupling the low-energy
tensor branch action to the background fields for the higher-form symmetries
and by looking at the symmetry transformation rules on dynamical and background
fields. These transformation rules also imply a mixing of the higher-form
symmetries in a 3-group structure. For some specific and related higher rank
cases, we also derive the symmetry TFT from the holographic dual IIA
supergravity solutions. The symmetry TFT action contains a coupling between the
2-form symmetry and the 1-form symmetry backgrounds, which leads to a mixed
anomaly between the 1-form symmetries of the 5d KK-theory obtained by circle
compactification. We confirm this by a pure 5d analysis provided by the 5d
effective low-energy Coulomb branch Lagrangian coupled to background fields. We
also derive the symmetry TFT for 5d supersymmetric gauge theories with
Chern-Simons level and for 5d theories without non-abelian gauge theory
description at low-energy. Finally, we discuss the fate of the 2-form and
1-form symmetry of rank 1 6d field theories when coupled to gravity.Comment: 18 pages + references, v2 typos corrected and references adde
Non-Invertible Symmetries from Holography and Branes
Full text linkWe propose a systematic approach to deriving symmetry generators of Quantum
Field Theories in holography. Central to this are the Gauss law constraints in
the Hamiltonian quantization of Symmetry Topological Field Theories (SymTFTs),
which are obtained from supergravity. In turn we realize the symmetry
generators from world-volume theories of D-branes in holography. Our main focus
is on non-invertible symmetries, which have emerged in the past year as a new
type of symmetry in QFTs. We exemplify our proposal in the
holographic confinement setup, dual to 4d Super-Yang Mills. In
the brane-picture, the fusion of non-invertible symmetries naturally arises
from the Myers effect on D-branes. In turn, their action on line defects is
modeled by the Hanany-Witten effect.Comment: 10 pages; published versio
The fate of discrete 1-form symmetries in 6d
Full text linkRecently introduced generalized global symmetries have been useful in order to understand non-perturbative aspects of quantum field theories in four and lower dimensions. In this paper we focus on 1-form symmetries of weakly coupled 6d supersymmetric gauge theories coupled to dynamical tensor multiplets. We study the consistency of global 1-form symmetries corresponding to the center of the gauge groups, or subgroups thereof, by activating their background fields, which makes the instanton density fractional. In 6d, an instanton background for a given gauge theory sources BPS strings via tadpole cancelation. The non-trivial 1-form symmetry background configurations contribute to the charge of the BPS strings. However, Dirac quantization imposes restrictions on the consistent 1-form backgrounds, since they can in general lead to and induce fractional charges, thus making (part of) the putative higher-form symmetry inconsistent. This gives explicit criteria to determine whether the discrete 1-form symmetries are realized. We implement these criteria in concrete examples originating from string compactifications. We also corroborate this by finding that a non-trivial fractional contribution is related to states which explicitly break the global 1-form symmetry appearing as massive excitations of the 6d BPS strings. For 6d theories consistently coupled to gravity, this hints at a symmetry breaking tower of states. When the fractional contributions are absent, the F-theory realization of the theories points to the gauging of the 1-form symmetry via the presence of non-trivial Mordell-Weil torsion
The global form of flavor symmetries and 2-group symmetries in 5d SCFTs
Full text link2-group symmetries arise when 1-form symmetries and 0-form symmetries of a theory mix with each other under group multiplication. We discover the existence of 2-group symmetries in 5d N=1 abelian gauge theories arising on the (non-extended) Coulomb branch of 5d superconformal field theories (SCFTs), leading us to argue that the UV 5d SCFT itself admits a 2-group symmetry. Furthermore, our analysis determines the global forms of the 0-form flavor symmetry groups of 5d SCFTs, irrespective of whether or not the 5d SCFT admits a 1-form symmetry. As a concrete application of our method, we analyze 2-group symmetries of all 5d SCFTs, which reduce in the IR, after performing mass deformations, to 5d N=1 non-abelian gauge theories with simple, simply connected gauge groups. For rank-1 Seiberg theories, we check that our predictions for the flavor symmetry groups match with the superconformal and ray indices available in the literature. We also comment on the mixed 't Hooft anomaly between 1-form and 0-form symmetries arising in 5d N=1 non-abelian gauge theories and its relation to the 2-groups
Aspects of categorical symmetries from branes: SymTFTs and generalized charges
Full text linkRecently it has been observed that branes in geometric engineering and holography have a striking connection with generalized global symmetries. In this paper we argue that branes, in a certain topological limit, not only furnish the symmetry generators, but also encode the so-called Symmetry Topological Field Theory (or SymTFT). For a d-dimensional QFT, this is a (d+1) dimensional topological field theory, whose topological defects encode both the symmetry generators (invertible or non-invertible) and the generalized charges. Mathematically, the topological defects form the Drinfeld center of the symmetry category of the QFT. In this paper we derive the SymTFT and the Drinfeld center topological defects directly from branes. Central to the identification of these are Hanany-Witten brane configurations, which encode both topological couplings in the SymTFT and the generalized charges under the symmetries. We exemplify the general analysis with examples of QFTs realized in geometric engineering or holography
Generalized quotients and holographic duals for 5d S-fold SCFTs
Full text link S-folds of 5d SCFTs, including , which lead to brane webs
with 7-branes were discussed recently. We generalize the
construction to `fractional quotients', which are based on
actions linking multiple copies of the seed theory and lead to
7-branes. We provide the holographic duals for both classes. This expands the
space of explicitly known Type IIB solutions by incorporating
F-theory 7-branes of type and , extending previous
constructions for O7-planes. We discuss observables including the free energies
and link the results to matrix model descriptions.Comment: 27 pages, 16 figure
Wilson lines and Chern-Simons flux in explicit heterotic Calabi-Yau compactifications
Full text linkWe study to what extent Wilson lines in heterotic Calabi-Yau compactifications lead to non-trivial H-flux via Chern-Simons terms. Wilson lines are basic ingredients for Standard Model constructions but their induced H-flux may affect the consistency of the leading order background geometry and of the two-dimensional worldsheet theory. Moreover H-flux in heterotic compactifications would play an important role for moduli stabilization and could strongly constrain the supersymmetry breaking scale. We show how to compute H-flux and the corresponding superpotential, given an explicit complete intersection Calabi-Yau compactification and choice of Wilson lines. We do so by identifying large classes of special Lagrangian submanifolds in the Calabi-Yau, understanding how the Wilson lines project onto these submanifolds, and computing their Chern-Simons invariants. We illustrate our procedure with the quintic hypersurface as well as the split-bicubic, which can provide a potentially realistic three generation model
Fibers add flavor. Part II. 5d SCFTs, gauge theories, and dualities
Full text linkIn [1, 2] we proposed an approach based on graphs to characterize 5d superconformal field theories (SCFTs), which arise as compactifications of 6d N = (1, 0) SCFTs. The graphs, so-called combined fiber diagrams (CFDs), are derived using the realization of 5d SCFTs via M-theory on a non-compact Calabi-Yau threefold with a canonical singularity. In this paper we complement this geometric approach by connecting the CFD of an SCFT to its weakly coupled gauge theory or quiver descriptions and demonstrate that the CFD as recovered from the gauge theory approach is consistent with that as determined by geometry. To each quiver description we also associate a graph, and the embedding of this graph into the CFD that is associated to an SCFT provides a systematic way to enumerate all possible consistent weakly coupled gauge theory descriptions of this SCFT. Furthermore, different embeddings of gauge theory graphs into a fixed CFD can give rise to new UV-dualities for which we provide evidence through an analysis of the prepotential, and which, for some examples, we substantiate by constructing the M-theory geometry in which the dual quiver descriptions are manifest
Holography, 1-form symmetries, and confinement
Full text linkWe study confinement in 4d N=1 SU(N) Super-Yang Mills (SYM) from a holographic point of view, focusing on the 1-form symmetry and its relation to chiral symmetry breaking (χSB). We identify the topological couplings in the 5d truncation of the Klebanov-Strassler solution that determine the 1-form symmetry and its ’t Hooft anomalies. One coupling is a mixed 0-/1-form symmetry anomaly related to χSB in gapped confining vacua. In the gravity dual we also identify the infrared 4d topological field theory which realizes χSB and matches the mixed anomaly. Finally, complementing this, we derive the chiral and mixed anomalies from the little string theory realization of pure SYM
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