We review the holographic duals of gauge theories with eight supercharges obtained by adding very few flavors to pure supersymmetric Yang-Mills with sixteen supercharges. Assuming a brane-probe limit, the gravity duals are engineered in terms of probe branes (the so-called flavor brane) in the background of the color branes. Both types of branes intersect on a given subspace in which the matter is confined. The gauge theory dual is thus the corresponding flavoring of the gauge theory with sixteen supercharges. Those theories have in general a non-trivial phase structure; which is also captured in a beautiful way by the gravity dual. Along the lines of the gauge/gravity duality, we review also some of the results on the meson spectrum in the different phases of the theories.
The conditions under which matrix orientifolding and supersymmetry transformations commute are known to be stringent. Here we present the cases possessing four or eight supercharges upon ${\bf Z}_3$ orbifolding followed by matrix orientifolding. These cases descend from the matrix models with eight plus eight supercharges. There are fifty in total, which we enumerate.
We describe some recent investigation about the structure of generic D=4,5 theories obtained by generalized dimensional reduction of D=5,6 theories with eight supercharges. We relate the Scherk-Schwarz reduction to a special class of N=2 no-scale gauged supergravities.
We show how to treat the superconformal algebras with eight Poincaré supercharges in a unified manner for spacetime dimension $2 < d\leq 6$. This formalism is ideally suited for analyzing the quadratic Casimir operator of the superconformal algebra and its use in deriving superconformal blocks. We illustrate this by an explicit construction of the superconformal blocks, for any value of the spacetime dimension, for external protected scalar operators which are the lowest component of flavor current multiplets.
We investigate compactifications of type II and M-theory down to $AdS_5$ with generic fluxes that preserve eight supercharges, in the framework of Exceptional Generalized Geometry. The geometric data and gauge fields on the internal manifold are encoded in a pair of generalized structures corresponding to the vector and hyper-multiplets of the reduced five-dimensional supergravity. Supersymmetry translates into integrability conditions for these structures, generalizing, in the case of type IIB, the Sasaki-Einstein conditions. We show that the ten and eleven-dimensional type IIB and M-theory K…
These lectures give an introduction to the interrelated topics of Calabi-Yau compactification of the type II string, black hole attractors, the all-orders entropy formula, the dual (0,4) CFT, topological strings and the OSV conjecture. Based on notes by MG of lectures by AS at the 2006 Cargese summer school.
We investigate the distinction between color- and flavor-branes, that is usually made in the context of gauge/string duality with backreacting flavors. Our remarks are based on a series of examples concerning the role of source terms in relatively simple supergravity backgrounds that allow for a well-controlled approach to the problem. The observations suggest that, in opposite to general practice, one could consider such terms for both kinds of branes, while their presence is only essential for smeared sources - as is commonly the case for flavor-branes. Among the examples studied are D3-D7 s…
We extend the Mellin space techniques of [1] for computing holographic four-point correlation functions in maximally superconformal theories to theories with only eight Poincaré supercharges. The one-half BPS operators in these correlators are taken to be the superconformal primary in the $\mathcal{D}[k]$ multiplet (with $k=2$ corresponding to the flavor current multiplet), and transform in the adjoint representation of a flavor group $G$. Because of the smaller R-symmetry group $SU(2)$, each individual superconformal Ward identity is less powerful. On the other hand, the constraining power is…
We formulate Euclidean spacetime lattices whose continuum limits are supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories with eight supercharges in two and three dimensions. The lattice actions are themselves supersymmetric.
Using projective superspace techniques, we consider 4D N = 2 and 5D N = 1 gauged supersymmetric nonlinear sigma-models for which the hyper-Kahler target space is (an open domain of the zero section of) the cotangent bundle of a real-analytic Kahler manifold. As in the 4D N = 1 case, one may gauge those holomorphic isometries of the base Kahler manifold (more precisely, their lifting to the cotangent bundle) which are generated by globally defined Killing potentials. In the U(1) case, by freezing the background vector (tropical) multiplet to a constant value of its gauge-invariant superfield st…
Given an asymptotically Anti-de Sitter supergravity solution, one can obtain a microscopic interpretation by identifying the corresponding state in the holographically dual conformal field theory. This is of particular importance for heavy pure states that are candidate black hole microstates. Expectation values of light operators in such heavy CFT states are encoded in the asymptotic expansion of the dual bulk configuration. In the D1-D5 system, large families of heavy pure CFT states have been proposed to be holographically dual to smooth horizonless supergravity solutions. We derive the pre…
We provide a classification of half-supersymmetric branes in quarter-maximal supergravity theories with scalars parametrising coset manifolds. Guided by the results previously obtained for the half-maximal theories, we are able to show that half-supersymmetric branes correspond to the real longest weights of the representations of the brane charges, where the reality properties of the weights are determined from the Tits-Satake diagrams associated to the global symmetry groups. We show that the resulting brane structure is universal for all theories that can be uplifted to six dimensions. We a…
Models of interactions of D-dimensional hypermultiplets and supersymmetric gauge multiplets with $\mathcal{N}=8$ supercharges $(D{\leq} 6)$ can be formulated in the framework of harmonic superspaces. The effective Coulomb low-energy action for D=5 includes the free and Chern-Simons terms. We consider also the non-Abelian superfield D=5 Chern-Simons action. The biharmonic $D=3,\mathcal{N}=8$ superspace is introduced for a description of l and r supermultiplets and the mirror symmetry. The D=2,(4,4) gauge theory and hypermultiplet interactions are considered in the triharmonic superspace. Constr…
A complete study of local singularities of rank two $\mathcal{N}=2$ Coulomb branch geometry is given. Low energy theory associated with the local singularity is identified: it can be superconformal field theory (SCFT), or IR free gauge theory, or the combination of them. Various invariants for local singularity are also listed which are essential for the study of global Coulomb branch. As a first application, global Coulomb branch with only simplest local singularities in the bulk are given for 4d theories (including SCFTs and asymptotical free theories), 5d KK theories, and 6d KK theories; th…
In this paper we detail the lattice constructions of several classes of supersymmetric quiver gauge theories in two and three Euclidean spacetime dimensions possessing exact supersymmetry at finite lattice spacing. Such constructions are obtained through the methods of topological twisting and geometric discretization of Euclidean Yang--Mills theories with eight and sixteen supercharges in two and three dimensions. We detail the lattice constructions of two-dimensional quiver gauge theories possessing four and eight supercharges and three-dimensional quiver gauge theories possessing eight supe…
We provide a general classification of supersymmetric lattice gauge theories that can be obtained from orbifolding of theories with four and eight supercharges. We impose at least one preserved supercharge on the lattice and Lorentz invariance in the naive continuum limit. Starting with four supercharges, we obtain one two-dimensional lattice gauge theory, identical to the one already given in the literature. Starting with eight supercharges, we obtain a unique three-dimensional lattice gauge theory and infinitely many two-dimensional lattice theories. They can be classified according to seven…
We present three different Type IIB AdS$_4$ Supergravity solutions, derived using the electrostatic-like problem formalism which preserves 8 Poincaré Supercharges. Two of these solutions correspond to the Abelian and non-Abelian T-duals of a Type IIA background, obtained from the dimensional reduction of 11D AdS$_4 \times S^7$ Supegravity. The third solution is a new background with some special properties. We compute the Page charges in each case, and provide brane set-up descriptions of the geometries. Also, we argue that the non-Abelian T-dual can be understood as a zoom-in of a more genera…
We find an explicit supergravity background dual to the $Ω$-deformation of a four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ SCFT on $\mathbb{R}^4$. The solution can be constructed in the five-dimensional ${\cal N}=4^+$ gauged supergravity and has a nontrivial self-dual 2-form. When uplifted to type IIB supergravity the background is a deformation of AdS$_5\times S^5$ which preserves 16 supercharges. We also discuss generalizations of this solution corresponding to turning on a vacuum expectation value for a scalar operator in the dual SCFT.
We investigate the holographic correspondence between (p+1)-dimensional ($0\le p\le 4$) SYM theories with 16 supercharges and superstring theories on the near-horizon limit of Dp-brane backgrounds. Following an approach based on the tunneling picture, we study Euclidean superstring semi-classically along null geodesics which connect two points on the boundary of the spacetime. We extend the analysis of hep-th/0308024 and study the fermionic sector of the superstring. For $p\ne 3$, we do not have world-sheet supersymmetry, and the energies of bosonic and fermionic fluctuations do not match. By …
In this paper, we consider two-dimensional N=(4,4) supersymmetric Yang-Mills (SYM) theory and deform it by a mass parameter M with keeping all supercharges. We further add another mass parameter m in a manner to respect two of the eight supercharges and put the deformed theory on a two-dimensional square lattice, on which the two supercharges are exactly preserved. The flat directions of scalar fields are stabilized due to the mass deformations, which gives discrete minima representing fuzzy spheres. We show in the perturbation theory that the lattice continuum limit can be taken without any f…
M-theory on $AdS_7 \times S^4$ admits a description where the $AdS_7$ factor is constructed as a timelike Hopf fibration over a non-compact three dimensional complex projective space $\tilde{\mathbb{CP}}^3$. We consider the worldvolume theory for M5-branes at a fixed $\tilde{\mathbb{CP}}^3$ radius which, after reduction along the timelike fibre, is given by an $Ω$-deformed Yang-Mills theory with eight supercharges. Taking the radius to infinity then induces a classical RG flow. We construct the fixed point action which has an enhanced 24 supercharges and which can be understood as the $(2,0)$ …
In this thesis we study the spectra of supersymmetric states in string theory compactifications with eight and sixteen supercharges, with special focus placed on the quantum states of black holes and the phenomenon of wall-crossing in these theories. A self-contained introduction to the relevant background material is included.
Motivated by Ooguri and Vafa, we study superstrings in flat R^4 in a constant self-dual graviphoton background. The supergravity equations of motion are satisfied in this background which deforms the N=2 d=4 flat space super-Poincare algebra to another algebra with eight supercharges. A D-brane in this space preserves a quarter of the supercharges; i.e. N=1/2 supersymmetry is realized linearly, and the remaining N=3/2 supersymmetry is realized nonlinearly. The theory on the brane can be described as a theory in noncommutative superspace in which the chiral fermionic coordinates $θ^α$ of N=1 d=…
We study $\textrm{AdS}_2\times S^4 \times S^2 \times Σ_2$ solutions in type IIB string theory arising from D1 -- D3 -- NS5 brane intersections. These backgrounds enjoy sixteen supercharges and the corresponding internal geometry is non-compact due to the specific form of the warping w.r.t. the Riemann surface $Σ_2$. Even though a direct computation of the holographic free energy of the would-be dual CFT$_1$ yields a divergent behaviour, it reveals the typical $N^3$ scaling of a 6d theory upon introducing a hard cut-off. We claim that such geometries may be interpreted as the gravity duals of M…
We study $1/N$ corrections to a Wilson loop in holographic duality. Extending the AdS/CFT correspondence beyond the large $N$ limit is an important but a subtle issue, as it needs quantum gravity corrections in the gravity side. To find a physical property of the quantum corrected geometry of near-horizon black 0-branes previously obtained by Hyakutake, we evaluate a Euclidean string worldsheet hanging down in the geometry, which corresponds to a rectangular Wilson loop in the $SU(N)$ quantum mechanics with 16 supercharges at a finite temperature with finite $N$. We find that the potential ene…
We study large-N double-scaling limits of U(N) gauge theories in four dimensions. We focus on theories in a partially confining phase where an abelian subgroup $\hat{G}$ of the gauge group remains unconfined. Double-scaling is defined near critical points in the parameter/moduli space where states charged under $\hat{G}$ become massless. In specific cases, we present evidence that the double-scaled theory is dual to a non-critical superstring background. Models studied include the $β$-deformation of ${\cal N}=4$ SUSY Yang-Mills which leads to a non-critical string theory with sixteen superchar…
In this paper, we consider the D-brane, especially ${\rm D}_-$-brane, in the pp-wave background, which has the eight dynamical and the eight kinematical supercharges. Since the pp-wave background has not a SO(8) but a ${\rm SO}(4) \times {\rm SO}(4)$ symmetric group, the D-brane world-volume theory has a non-trivial symmetric group which depends on the configuration of D-brane. Here, we will analyze the open string spectrum consistent with the non-trivial symmetric group and, at the low energy limit, classify the field contents of the D-brane world-volume theory which come from the fermionic z…
The invariants in half-maximal supergravity theories in D=4,5 are discussed in detail up to dimension eight (e.g. R^4). In D=4, owing to the anomaly in the rigid SL(2,R) duality symmetry, the restrictions on divergences need careful treatment. In pure N=4 supergravity, this anomalous symmetry still implies duality invariance of candidate counterterms at three loops. Provided one makes the additional assumption that there exists a full 16-supercharge off-shell formulation of the theory, counterterms at L>1 loops would also have to be writable as full-superspace integrals. At the three-loop orde…
We consider five-dimensional supergravity theories with eight or sixteen supercharges with Abelian vector fields and ungauged scalars. We address the question under which conditions these theories can be interpreted as effective low energy descriptions of circle reductions of anomaly free six-dimensional theories with (1,0) or (2,0) supersymmetry. We argue that classical and one-loop gauge- and gravitational Chern-Simons terms are instrumental for this question.
For supersymmetric gauge theories with eight supercharges in four, five and six dimensions, a conserved current belongs to the linear multiplet. In the case of six-dimensional $\cal N=(1,0)$ Poincaré supersymmetry, we present a consistent deformation of the linear multiplet which describes chiral anomalies. This is achieved by developing a superform formulation for the deformed linear multiplet. In the abelian case, we compute a nonlocal effective action generating the gauge anomaly.
We construct the five-dimensional supergravity dual of the $\mathcal{N}=1^*$ mass deformation of the $\mathcal{N} =4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on $S^4$ and use it to calculate the universal contribution to the corresponding $S^4$ free energy at large 't Hooft coupling in the planar limit. The holographic RG flow solutions are smooth and preserve four supercharges. As a novel feature compared to the holographic duals of $\mathcal{N} = 1^*$ on $\mathbb{R}^4$, in our backgrounds the five-dimensional dilaton has a non-trivial profile, and the gaugino condensate is fixed in terms of the mas…
As we re-examine the known holographic N=1 supersymmetric renormalization group flow in four dimensions, we describe the mass-deformed Bagger-Lambert theory or equivalently the mass-deformed U(2) x U(2) Chern-Simons gauge theory with level k=1 or 2, that has G_2 symmetry, by adding a mass term for one of the eight adjoint superfields. We obtain a detailed correspondence between the fields of AdS_4 supergravity and composite operators of the infrared field theory in three dimensions. The geometric superpotential from an eleven dimensional viewpoint is obtained for M2-brane probe analysis.
We discuss local F-theory geometries and theirs gauge theory dualities in terms of intersecting D7-branes wrapped four-cycles in Type IIB superstring. The manifolds are built as elliptic K3 surface fibrations over intersecting F_0=CP^1 \times CP^1 base geometry according to ADE Dynkin Diagrams. The base is obtained by blowing up the extended ADE hyper-Kahler singularities of eight dimensional manifolds considered as sigma model target spaces with eight supercharges. The resulting gauge theory of such local F-theory models are given in terms of Type IIB D7-branes wrapped intersecting F_0. The f…
We consider consequences of triviality of cobordism classes and anomaly cancellation in supergravity theories in $d>6$. We argue that this leads to the existence of certain defects which we call "I-folds" (a generalization of orientifolds). The requirement that compactifications to lower dimensions involving these defects be anomaly free leads to conditions on the higher dimensional theory. We show that in theories with 16 supercharges in $d>6$ this leads to restrictions on the rank of the allowed gauge groups and thus provides an explanation for the observed restrictions in known string theor…
AdS5 X S5 and its pp-wave limit are self-dual under transformations involving eight fermionic T-dualities, a property which accounts for symmetries seen in scattering amplitudes in N=4 super-Yang-Mills. Despite strong evidence for similar symmetries in the amplitudes of three-dimensional N=6 ABJM theory, a corresponding self-duality in the dual geometry AdS4 X CP3 currently eludes us. Here, working with the type IIA pp-wave limit of AdS4 X CP3 preserving twenty four supercharges, we show that the pp-wave is self-dual with respect to eight commuting fermionic T-dualities and not the six expecte…
We study the vacuum structure of gauge theories with eight supercharges. It has been recently discovered that in the Higgs branch of $5d$ and $6d$ SQCD theories with eight supercharges, the new massless states, arising when the gauge coupling is taken to infinity, can be described in terms of Coulomb branches of $3d ~\mathcal N=4$ quiver gauge theories. The description of this new phenomenon draws from the ideas discovered in the analysis of nilpotent orbits as Higgs and Coulomb branches of $3d$ theories and promotes the Higgs mechanism known as the Kraft-Procesi transition to the status of a …
We study geometries produced by brane intersections preserving eight supercharges. Typical examples of such configurations are given by fundamental strings ending on Dp branes and we construct gravity solutions describing such intersections. The geometry is specified in terms of two functions obeying coupled differential equations and the boundary conditions are determined by distributions of D branes. We show that a consistency of type IIB supergravity constrains the allowed positions of the branes. The shapes of branes derived from gravity are found to be in a perfect agreement with profiles…
We study deep inelastic scattering structure functions from hadrons using different holographic dual models which describe the strongly coupled regime of gauge theories in the large $N$ limit. Particularly, we consider scalar and vector mesons obtained from holographic descriptions with fundamental degrees of freedom, corresponding to ${\cal {N}}=2$ supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories. We explicitly obtain analytic expressions for the full set of eight structure functions, i.e., $F_1$, $F_2$, $g_1$, $g_2$, $b_1$, $b_2$, $b_3$, $b_4$, arising from the standard decompositio…
We study the twisted compactifications of five-dimensional Seiberg SCFTs, with $SU_\mathcal{M}(2)\times E_{N_f+1}$ flavor symmetry, on a generic Riemann surface that preserves four supercharges. The five-dimensional SCFTs are obtained from the decoupling limit of $N$ D4-branes probing a geometry of $N_f<8$ D8-branes and an O8-plane. In addition to the R-symmetry, we can also twist the flavor symmetry by turning on background flux on the Riemann surface. In particular, in the string theory construction of the five-dimensional SCFTs, the background flux for the $SU_\mathcal{M}(2)$ has a geometri…
We review some recent observations in theories with eight supercharges. We point out that such theories can be generalized by starting from the equations of motion rather than from an action. We show that vector multiplets constructed in such a way can have more general Fayet-Iliopoulos terms and that the scalar fields of hypermultiplets can be coordinate functions on more general target spaces. Although our discussion holds in five dimensions, the results can easily be extended to other dimensions.
We explicitly construct a solution of eight-dimensional gauged supergravity representing D6-branes wrapped on six-cycles inside Calabi-Yau fourfolds. The solution preserves two supercharges and asymptotically is a cone with the coset space SU(2)^4/U(1)^3 as its base. It is shown to correspond to an M-theory compactification on a Calabi-Yau manifold with SU(5) holonomy and we discuss in detail its geometrical and topological features. We also construct a family of related higher dimensional metrics having SU(n+1) holonomy, which of course have no brane interpretation.
We study five-dimensional $N=4$ gauged supergravity coupled to five vector multiplets with compact and non-compact gauge groups $U(1)\times SU(2)\times SU(2)$ and $U(1)\times SO(3,1)$. For $U(1)\times SU(2)\times SU(2)$ gauge group, we identify $N=4$ $AdS_5$ vacua with $U(1)\times SU(2)\times SU(2)$ and $U(1)\times SU(2)_{\textrm{diag}}$ symmetries and analytically construct the corresponding holographic RG flow interpolating between these critical points. The flow describes a deformation of the dual $N=2$ SCFT driven by vacuum expaction values of dimension-two operators. In addition, we study…
We describe the conjectured holographic duality between Yang-Mills quantum mechanics and type IIa string theory. This duality allows us to use lattice Monte Carlo simulations to probe the physics of the gravitational theory - for example, at low energies it provides a computation of black hole entropy in terms of a sum over microstates of the dual gauge theory. Numerical results are presented of the 4 supercharge theory at finite temperature
