Master Space and Hilbert Series are general tools to study any N=1 supersymmetric field theory. We concentrate on the particular case of N=1 super conformal field theories living on D3 branes at toric Calabi Yau singularities. We start reviewing the topic of branes at singularities, their algebraic geometric and field theory description. We then study the complete moduli spaces for N=1 and generic N number of branes, their different branches, their geometric properties and their symmetries. We study the spectrum of BPS operators both mesonic and baryonic, for N=1 and generic N number of branes, in the field theory and in the dual gravity side and the map between the two. More topics like the study of fermionic BPS operators, the modification of the moduli spaces and the chiral rings under marginal deformations and Seiberg Duality, are also briefly discussed. This paper is a revised version of the author's PhD thesis and it is aimed to give a pedagogical introduction to the use of Master Space and Hilbert Series to investigate supersymmetric field theories.
We analyze the action of Toric (Seiberg) duality on the combined mesonic and baryonic moduli space of quiver gauge theories obtained from D3 branes at Calabi-Yau singularities. We analyze in particular the structure of the master space, the complete moduli space for one brane, for different toric phases of a given singularity. We show that the Hilbert Series for the largest component of the master space of different phases is the same, when refined with all the non anomalous charges. This reflects the fact that the quiver gauge theories associated with different phases are related by Seiberg d…
A master equation ( $n$ dimensional non--Abelian current conservation law with mutually commuting current components ) is introduced for multi-dimensional non-linear field theories. It is shown that the master equation provides a systematic way to understand 2-d integrable non-linear equations as well as 4-d self-dual equations and, more importantly, their generalizations to higher dimensions.
We construct several BV master actions for open superstring field theory in the large Hilbert space. First, we show that a naive use of the conventional BV approach breaks down at the third order of the antifield number expansion, although it enables us to define a simple "string antibracket" taking the Darboux form as space-time antibrackets. This fact implies that in the large Hilbert space, "string fields-antifields" should be reassembled to obtain master actions in a simple manner. We determine the assembly of the string antifields on the basis of Berkovits' constrained BV approach, and gi…
The evolution of ideas which has led from the first proofs of the renormalizability of non-abelian gauge theories, based on Slavnov--Taylor identities, to the modern proof based on the BRS symmetry and the master equation is recalled. This lecture has been delivered at the {\bf Symposium in the Honour of Professor C. N. Yang}, Stony-Brook, May 21-22 1999.
We construct the chiral Wess-Zumino term as a solution for the Batalin-Vilkovisky master equation for anomalous two-dimensional gauge theories, working in an extended field-antifield space, where the gauge group elements are introduced as additional degrees of freedom. We analyze the Abelian and the non-Abelian cases, calculating in both cases the BRST generator in order to show the physical equivalence between this chiral solution for the master equation and the usual (non-chiral) one.
For a class of first order gauge theories it was shown that the proper solution of the BV-master equation can be obtained straightforwardly. Here we present the general condition which the gauge generators should satisfy to conclude that this construction is relevant. The general procedure is illustrated by its application to the Chern-Simons theory in any odd-dimension. Moreover, it is shown that this formalism is also applicable to BRST field theories, when one replaces the role of the exterior derivative with the BRST charge of first quantization.
Recently, Batalin and Marnelius proposed a superfield algorithm for master actions in the BV-formulation for a class of first order gauge field theories. Possible theories are determined by a ghost number prescription and a simple local master equation. We investigate consistent solutions of these local master equations with emphasis on four and six dimensional theories.
A superfield algorithm for master actions of a class of gauge field theories including topological ones in arbitrary dimensions is presented generalizing a previous treatment in two dimensions. General forms for master actions in superspace are given, and possible theories are determined by means of a ghost number prescription and the master equations. The resulting master actions determine the original actions together with their gauge invariances. Generalized Poisson sigma models in arbitrary dimensions are constructed by means of this algorithm, and other applications in low dimensions are …
We study the moduli spaces of k U(N) vortices which are realized by the Higgs branch of a U(k) supersymmetric gauge theory. The theory has 4 supercharges and lives on k D1-branes in a N D3- and NS5-brane background. We realize the vortex moduli space as a C* projection of the vortex master space. The Hilbert series is calculated in order to characterize the algebraic structure of the vortex master space and to identify the precise C* projection. As a result, we are able to fully classify the moduli spaces up to 3 vortices.
We study the large $N$ limit of the class of U(N) ${\CN}=1$ SUSY gauge theories with an adjoint scalar and a superpotential $W(¶)$. In each of the vacua of the quantum theory, the expectation values $\la$Tr$Φ^p$$\ra$ are determined by a master matrix $Φ_0$ with eigenvalue distribution $ρ_{GT}(ł)$. $ρ_{GT}(ł)$ is quite distinct from the eigenvalue distribution $ρ_{MM}(ł)$ of the corresponding large $N$ matrix model proposed by Dijkgraaf and Vafa. Nevertheless, it has a simple form on the auxiliary Riemann surface of the matrix model. Thus the underlying geometry of the matrix model leads to a d…
We develop master equations to study perturbative stability of de Sitter Dynamical Fixed Points (DFPs) of strongly coupled massive quantum field theories in $d+1$ space-time dimensions with a holographic dual. The derived spectrum of linearized fluctuations characterizes the late-time dynamics of holographic strongly coupled non-conformal gauge theories in de Sitter background. Numerous checks and examples are presented.
The Ward-Takahashi identities in large N field theories are expressed in a simple form using master fields. Operators appearing in these expressions are found to be generators of symmetry transformations acting on the master fields.
A construction of master field describing multicolour QCD is presented. The master fields for large N matrix theories satisfy to standard equations of relativistic field theory but fields are quantized according $q$-deformed commutation relations with $q=0$. These commutation relations are realized in the Boltzmannian Fock space. The master field for gauge theory does not take values in a finite-dimensional Lie algebra, however, there is a non-Abelian gauge symmetry and BRST-invariance.
We propose a new set of Master Integrals which can be used as a basis for certain multiloop calculations in massless gauge field theories. In these theories we consider three-point Feynman diagrams with arbitrary number of loops. The corresponding multiloop integrals may be decomposed in terms of this set of the Master Integrals. We construct a new reduction procedure which we apply to perform this decomposition.
Supersymmetric gauge theories have an important but perhaps under-appreciated notion of a master space, which controls the full moduli space. For world-volume theories of D-branes probing a Calabi-Yau singularity X the situation is particularly illustrative. In the case of one physical brane, the master space F is the space of F-terms and a particular quotient thereof is X itself. We study various properties of F which encode such physical quantities as Higgsing, BPS spectra, hidden global symmetries, etc. Using the plethystic program we also discuss what happens at higher number N of branes. …
Recently it was shown that an asymptotic behaviour of $SU(N)$ gauge theory for large $N$ is described by q-deformed quantum field. The master fields for large N theories satisfy to standard equations of relativistic field theory but fields satisfy $q$-deformed commutation relations with $q=0$. These commutation relations are realized in the Boltzmannian Fock space. The master field for gauge theory does not take values in a finite-dimensional Lie algebra however there is a non-Abelian gauge symmetry. The gauge master field for a subclass of planar diagrams, so called half-planar diagrams, is a…
We study linear perturbations about static and spherically symmetric black hole solutions with stealth scalar hair in degenerate higher-order scalar-tensor (DHOST) theories. We clarify master variables and derive the quadratic Lagrangian for both odd- and even-parity perturbations. It is shown that the even modes are in general plagued by gradient instabilities, or otherwise the perturbations would be strongly coupled. Several possible ways out are also discussed.
The Virasoro master equation describes a large set of conformal field theories known as the affine-Virasoro constructions, in the operator algebra (affine Lie algebra) of the WZW model, while the Einstein equations of the general non-linear sigma model describe another large set of conformal field theories. This talk summarizes recent work which unifies these two sets of conformal field theories, together with a presumable large class of new conformal field theories. The basic idea is to consider spin-two operators of the form $L_{ij} \partial x^i \partial x^j$ in the background of a general s…
A general solution of the Batalin-Vilkovisky master equation was formulated in terms of generalized fields. Recently, a superfields approach of obtaining solutions of the Batalin-Vilkovisky master equation is also established. Superfields formalism is usually applied to topological quantum field theories. However, generalized fields method is suitable to find solutions of the Batalin-Vilkovisky master equation either for topological quantum field theories or the usual gauge theories like Yang-Mills theory. We show that by truncating some components of superfields with appropriate actions, gene…
In this paper we study the structure of the Hilbert space for the recent noncommutative geometry models of gauge theories. We point out the presence of unphysical degrees of freedom similar to the ones appearing in lattice gauge theories (fermion doubling). We investigate the possibility of projecting out these states at the various levels in the construction, but we find that the results of these attempts are either physically unacceptable or geometrically unappealing.
In a previous paper it was shown that the recently constructed action for open superstring field theory based on $A_\infty$ algebras can be re-written in Wess-Zumino-Witten-like form, thus establishing its relation to Berkovits' open superstring field theory. In this paper we explain the relation between these two theories from a different perspective which emphasizes the small Hilbert space, and in particular the relation between the $A_\infty$ structures on both sides.
We give the general solution to the classical master equation (S,S)=0 for reducible gauge theories. To this aim, we construct a new coordinate system in the extended configuration space and transform the equation by changing variables. Then it can be solved by an iterative method.
We present a formula for the Hilbert series that counts gauge invariant chiral operators in a large class of 3d ${\cal N} \ge 2$ Yang-Mills-Chern-Simons theories. The formula counts 't Hooft monopole operators dressed by gauge invariants of a residual gauge theory of massless fields in the monopole background. We provide a general formula for the case of abelian theories, where nonperturbative corrections are absent, and consider a few examples of nonabelian theories where nonperturbative corrections are well understood. We also analyze in detail nonabelian ABJ(M) theories as well as worldvolu…
The algebraic structure of moduli spaces of 3d N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories is studied by computing the Hilbert series which is a generating function that counts gauge invariant operators in the chiral ring. These U(N_c) theories with N_f flavors have Aharony duals and their moduli spaces receive contributions from both mesonic and monopole operators. In order to compute the Hilbert series, recently developed techniques for Coulomb branch Hilbert series in 3d N=4 are extended to 3d N=2. The Hilbert series computation leads to a general expression of the algebraic variety which represents …
We lift the dynamical field of the $A_\infty$ superstring field theory to the large Hilbert space by introducing a gauge invariance associated with the eta zero mode. We then provide a field redefinition which relates the lifted field to the dynamical field of Berkovits' superstring field theory in the large Hilbert space. This generalizes the field redefinition in the small Hilbert space described in earlier works, and gives some understanding of the relation between the gauge symmetries of the theories. It also provides a new perspective on the algebraic structure underlying gauge invariance…
A "Master" gauge theory is constructed in 2+1-dimensions through which various gauge invariant and gauge non-invariant theories can be studied. In particular, Maxwell-Chern-Simons, Maxwell-Proca and Maxwell-Chern-Simons -Proca models are considered here. The Master theory in an enlarged phase space is constructed both in Lagrangian (Stuckelberg) and Hamiltonian (Batalin-Tyutin) frameworks, the latter being the more general one, which includes the former as a special case. Subsequently, BRST quantization of the latter is performed. Lastly, the master Lagrangian, constructed by Deser and Jackiw …
The Hilbert series is a generating function that enumerates gauge invariant chiral operators of a supersymmetric field theory with four supercharges and an R-symmetry. In this article I review how counting dressed 't Hooft monopole operators leads to a formula for the Hilbert series of a 3d $\mathcal{N}\geq 2$ gauge theory, which captures precious information about the chiral ring and the moduli space of supersymmetric vacua of the theory.
We evaluate the Coulomb branch Hilbert series of mirrors of three dimensional Sicilian theories, which arise from compactifying the $6d$ $(2,0)$ theory with symmetry $G$ on a circle times a Riemann surface with punctures. We obtain our result by gluing together the Hilbert series for building blocks $T_{\mathbfρ}(G)$, where $\mathbfρ$ is a certain partition related to the dual group of $G$, which we evaluated in a previous paper. The result is expressed in terms of a class of symmetric functions, the Hall-Littlewood polynomials. As expected from mirror symmetry, our results agree at genus zero…
This is the fourth paper in our series of five in which we test the Master Constraint Programme for solving the Hamiltonian constraint in Loop Quantum Gravity. We now move on to free field theories with constraints, namely Maxwell theory and linearized gravity. Since the Master constraint involves squares of constraint operator valued distributions, one has to be very careful in doing that and we will see that the full flexibility of the Master Constraint Programme must be exploited in order to arrive at sensible results.
In the framework of perturbative quantum field theory (QFT) we propose a new, universal (re)normalization condition (called 'master Ward identity') which expresses the symmetries of the underlying classical theory. It implies for example the field equations, energy-momentum, charge- and ghost-number conservation, renormalized equal-time commutation relations and BRST-symmetry. It seems that the master Ward identity can nearly always be satisfied, the only exceptions we know are the usual anomalies. We prove the compatibility of the master Ward identity with the other (re)normalization conditio…
This paper presents a formula for the Hilbert series that counts gauge invariant chiral operators in 3d N=2 Yang-Mills theories with vectorlike matter and no Chern-Simons interactions. The formula counts 't Hooft monopole operators dressed by gauge invariants of a residual gauge theory of massless fields in the monopole background, which is determined by the Higgs mechanism. The sum over magnetic charges is restricted due to instanton effects that partially lift the classical Coulomb branch. The formalism is applied to unitary and symplectic gauge theories with fundamental matter, reproducing …
We give an explicit formula for the Higgs and Coulomb branch Hilbert series for the class of 3d N=4 superconformal gauge theories T^σ_ρ(G) corresponding to a set of D3 branes ending on NS5 and D5-branes, with or without O3 planes. Here G is a classical group, σis a partition of G and ρa partition of the dual group G^\vee. In deriving such a formula we make use of the recently discovered formula for the Hilbert series of the quantum Coulomb branch of N=4 superconformal theories. The result can be expressed in terms of a generalization of a class of symmetric functions, the Hall-Littlewood polyn…
The full moduli space M of a class of N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories is studied. For gauge theories living on a stack of D3-branes at Calabi-Yau singularities X, M is a combination of the mesonic and baryonic branches, the former being the symmetric product of X. In consonance with the mathematical literature, the single brane moduli space is called the master space F. Illustrating with a host of explicit examples, we exhibit many algebro-geometric properties of the master space such as when F is toric Calabi-Yau, behaviour of its Hilbert series, its irreducible components and its symmetrie…
There has been a recent progress in understanding the chiral ring of 3d $\mathcal{N}=4$ superconformal gauge theories by explicitly constructing an exact generating function (Hilbert series) counting BPS operators on the Coulomb branch. In this paper we introduce Coulomb branch Hilbert series in the presence of background magnetic charges for flavor symmetries, which are useful for computing the Hilbert series of more general theories through gluing techniques. We find a simple formula of the Hilbert series with background magnetic charges for $T_ρ(G)$ theories in terms of Hall-Littlewood poly…
We propose a new formulation of gauge theories as a quantum theory which has the gauge theory action $S$ as its dynamical variable. This system is described by a simple actional $I(S)$ (that is, an action for the action $S$) whose equation of motion gives the Batalin-Vilkovisky (BV) master equation for $S$. Upon quantization we find that our new formulation is reduced to something like a topological field theory having a BRST exact gauge-fixed actional. Therefore the present formulation can reproduce ordinary gauge theories since the path-integral over $S$ is dominated by the classical configu…
The existence of an interpolating master action does not guarantee the same spectrum for the interpolated dual theories. In the specific case of a generalized self-dual (GSD) model defined as the addition of the Maxwell term to the self-dual model in $D=2+1$, previous master actions have furnished a dual gauge theory which is either nonlocal or contains a ghost mode. Here we show that by reducing the Maxwell term to first order by means of an auxiliary field we are able to define a master action which interpolates between the GSD model and a couple of non-interacting Maxwell-Chern-Simons theor…
This paper addresses a long standing problem - to identify the chiral ring and moduli space (i.e. as an algebraic variety) on the Coulomb branch of an N = 4 superconformal field theory in 2+1 dimensions. Previous techniques involved a computation of the metric on the moduli space and/or mirror symmetry. These methods are limited to sufficiently small moduli spaces, with enough symmetry, or to Higgs branches of sufficiently small gauge theories. We introduce a simple formula for the Hilbert series of the Coulomb branch, which applies to any good or ugly three-dimensional N = 4 gauge theory. The…
This is the final fifth paper in our series of five in which we test the Master Constraint Programme for solving the Hamiltonian constraint in Loop Quantum Gravity. Here we consider interacting quantum field theories, specificlly we consider the non -- Abelean Gauss constraints of Einstein -- Yang -- Mills theory and 2+1 gravity. Interestingly, while Yang -- Mills theory in 4D is not yet rigorously defined as an ordinary (Wightman) quantum field theory on Minkowski space, in background independent quantum field theories such as Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) this might become possible by working i…
We study aspects of 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric gauge theories on the product of a line and a Riemann surface. Performing a topological twist along the Riemann surface leads to an effective supersymmetric quantum mechanics on the line. We propose a construction of the space of supersymmetric ground states as a graded vector space in terms of a certain cohomology of generalized vortex moduli spaces on the Riemann surface. This exhibits a rich dependence on deformation parameters compatible with the topological twist, including superpotentials, real mass parameters, and background vector b…
We establish the action of the three-dimensional non-Abelian bosonization dualities in the presence of a boundary, which supports a non-anomalous two-dimensional theory. In particular, we generalize a prescriptive method for assigning duality consistent boundary conditions used originally for Abelian dualities to dual non-Abelian Chern-Simons-matter theories with $SU$ and $U$ gauge groups and fundamental matter sectors. The cases of single species matter sectors and those with both scalars and fermions in the dual theories are considered. Generalization of our methods to $SO$ and $USp$ Chern-S…
We build on previous studies of the Higgs and Coulomb branches of SUSY quiver theories having 8 supercharges, including $3d~{\cal N}=4$, and Classical gauge groups. The vacuum moduli spaces of many such theories can be parameterised by pairs of nilpotent orbits of Classical Lie algebras; they are transverse to one orbit and intersect the closure of the second. We refer to these transverse spaces as Slodowy intersections. They embrace reduced single instanton moduli spaces, nilpotent orbits, Kraft-Procesi transitions and Slodowy slices, as well as other types. We show how quiver subtractions, b…
We find an infinite dimensional free algebra which lives at large N in any SU(N)-invariant action or Hamiltonian theory of bosonic matrices. The natural basis of this algebra is a free-algebraic generalization of Chebyshev polynomials and the dual basis is closely related to the planar connected parts. This leads to a number of free-algebraic forms of the master field including an algebraic derivation of the Gopakumar-Gross form. For action theories, these forms of the master field immediately give a number of new free-algebraic packagings of the planar Schwinger-Dyson equations.
We utilise SUSY quiver gauge theories to compute properties of Slodowy slices; these are spaces transverse to the nilpotent orbits of a Lie algebra $\mathfrak g$. We analyse classes of quiver theories, with Classical gauge and flavour groups, whose Higgs branch Hilbert series are the intersections between Slodowy slices and the nilpotent cone $\mathcal S\cap \mathcal N$ of $\mathfrak{g}$. We calculate refined Hilbert series for Classical algebras up to rank $4$ (and $A_5$), and find descriptions of their representation matrix generators as algebraic varieties encoding the relations of the chir…
The general solution to the quantum master equation (and its $Sp(2)$ symmetric counterpart) is constructed explicitly in case of finite number of variables. It is shown that the finite-dimensional solution is physically trivial and thus can not be extended directly to cover the case of a local field theory. In this way we conclude that the locality condition plays an important role by making it possible to obtain nontrivial physical results when quantizing gauge field theories on the basis of field-antifield formalism.
Inspired by the formulation of the Batalin-Vilkovisky method of quantization in terms of ``odd time'', we show that for a class of gauge theories which are first order in the derivatives, the kinetic term is bilinear in the fields, and the interaction part satisfies some properties, it is possible to give the solution of the master equation in a very simple way. To clarify the general procedure we discuss its application to Yang-Mills theory, massive (abelian) theory in the Stueckelberg formalism, relativistic particle and to the self-interacting antisymmetric tensor field.
The superconformal index for N=2 5d theories contains a non-perturbative part arising from 5d instantonic operators which coincides with the Nekrasov instanton partition function. In this note, for pure gauge theories, we elaborate on the relation between such instanton index and the Hilbert series of the instanton moduli space. We propose a non-trivial identification of fugacities allowing the computation of the instanton index through the Hilbert series. We show the agreement of our proposal with existing results in the literature, as well as use it to compute the exact index for a pure U(1)…
We investigate the renormalization of gauge theories without assuming cohomological properties. We define a renormalization algorithm that preserves the Batalin-Vilkovisky master equation at each step and automatically extends the classical action till it contains sufficiently many independent parameters to reabsorb all divergences into parameter-redefinitions and canonical transformations. The construction is then generalized to the master functional and the field-covariant proper formalism for gauge theories. Our results hold in all manifestly anomaly-free gauge theories, power-counting reno…
Starting from gravity as a Chern-Simons action for the AdS algebra in five dimensions, it is possible to deform the theory through an expansion of the Lie algebra that leads to a system consisting of the Einstein-Hilbert action plus nonminimally coupled matter. The deformed system is gauge invariant under the Poincare group enlarged by an Abelian ideal. Although the resulting action naively looks like General Relativity plus corrections due to matter sources, it is shown that the nonminimal couplings produce a radical departure from GR. Indeed, the dynamics is not continuously connected to the…
The basic concepts of non-commutative probability theory are reviewed and applied to the large $N$ limit of matrix models. We argue that this is the appropriate framework for constructing the master field in terms of which large $N$ theories can be written. We explicitly construct the master field in a number of cases including QCD$_2$. There we both give an explicit construction of the master gauge field and construct master loop operators as well. Most important we extend these techniques to deal with the general matrix model, in which the matrices do not have independent distributions and a…
We argue that the complete Klebanov-Witten flow solution must be described by a Calabi-Yau metric on the conifold, interpolating between the orbifold at infinity and the cone over T^(1,1) in the interior. We show that the complete flow solution is characterized completely by a single, simple, quasi-linear, second order PDE, or "master equation," in two variables. We show that the Pilch-Warner flow solution is almost Calabi-Yau: It has a complex structure, a hermitian metric, and a holomorphic (3,0)-form that is a square root of the volume form. It is, however, not Kahler. We discuss the relati…
In this work, it is demonstrated how the kinematical Hilbert space of Loop Quantum Gravity (LQG) can be inferred from the configuration space of BF theories via the imposition of the Hamiltonian constraints. In particular, it is outlined how the projection to the representations associated with Ashtekar-Barbero connections provides the correct procedure to implement second-class constraints and the corresponding nontrivial induced symplectic structure. Then, the reduction to SU(2) invariant intertwiners is analyzed and the properties of LQG states under Lorentz transformations is discussed.
The Higgs branch of 4d $\mathcal{N}=2$ SCFTs can be analyzed via the Hilbert series of the Higgs branch or, in special cases, by computing the Hall-Littlewood index. For any class $\mathcal{S}$ theory corresponding to a genus-zero Riemann surface, they are conjectured to be identical. We present several families of counterexamples. We find that for any class $\mathcal{S}$ theory with four or more $\mathbb{Z}_2$-twisted punctures, they do not match. We construct 3d mirrors for such theories and analyze their Coulomb branch Hilbert series to compute the Higgs branch Hilbert series of the 4d theo…
The Coulomb branch of 3-dimensional N=4 gauge theories is the space of bare and dressed BPS monopole operators. We utilise the conformal dimension to define a fan which, upon intersection with the weight lattice of a GNO-dual group, gives rise to a collection of semi-groups. It turns out that the unique Hilbert bases of these semi-groups are a sufficient, finite set of monopole operators which generate the entire chiral ring. Moreover, the knowledge of the properties of the minimal generators is enough to compute the Hilbert series explicitly. The techniques of this paper allow an efficient ev…
