We investigate the possibility of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in a class of zero-dimensional ${\cal N} = 2$ supersymmetric quantum field theories, with complex actions, using complex Langevin dynamics and stochastic quantization. Our simulations successfully capture the presence or absence of supersymmetry breaking in these models. The expectation value of the auxiliary field under twisted boundary conditions was used as an order parameter to capture spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in these models.
Using complex Langevin method we probe the possibility of dynamical supersymmetry breaking in supersymmetric quantum mechanics models with complex actions. The models we consider are invariant under the combined operation of parity and time reversal, in addition to supersymmetry. When actions are complex traditional Monte Carlo methods based on importance sampling fail. Models with dynamically broken supersymmetry can exhibit sign problem due to the vanishing of the partition function. Complex Langevin method can successfully evade the sign problem. Our simulations suggest that complex Langevi…
The Lefschetz thimble method, i.e., the integration along the steepest descent cycles, is an idea to evade the sign problem by complexifying the theory. We discuss that such steepest descent cycles can be identified as ground-state wave-functions of a supersymmetric Hamilton dynamics, which is described with a framework akin to the complex Langevin method. We numerically construct the wave-functions on a grid using a toy model and confirm their well-localized behavior.
Self-interacting scalar quantum field theories possessing $PT$-symmetry are physically admissible since their energy spectrum is real and bounded below. However, models with $PT$-invariant potentials can have complex actions in general and a non-perturbative study of such systems using methods based on traditional Monte Carlo is hindered due to numerical sign problem. In this work we employ complex Langevin based on stochastic quantization to study two-dimensional scalar field theories, including the ones exhibiting $PT$-symmetry. We also study the simplest supersymmetric version of these syst…
Certain classes of supersymmetric gauge theories, including the well known N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, that takes part in the AdS/CFT correspondence, can be formulated on a Euclidean spacetime lattice using the techniques of exact lattice supersymmetry. Great ideas such as topological field theories, Dirac-Kaehler fermions, geometric discretization all come together to create supersymmetric lattice theories that are gauge-invariant, doubler free, local and exact supersymmetric. We discuss the recent lattice constructions of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories in two and three dimensio…
Using the Eguchi-Kawai equivalence, we provide regularizations of supersymmetric quiver and Chern-Simons gauge theories which leave the supersymmetries unbroken. This allow us to study many interesting theories on a computer. As examples we construct large-$N$ reduced models of supersymmetric QCD with flavor and the ABJM model of multiple M2 branes.
We prove that the prescription for construction of supersymmetric lattice gauge theories by orbifolding and deconstruction directly leads to Catterall's geometrical discretization scheme in general. These two prescriptions always give the same lattice discretizations when applied to theories of p-form fields. We also show that the geometrical discretization scheme can be applied to more general theories.
We provide a simple non-perturbative formulation for non-commutative four-dimensional N = 2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories. The formulation is constructed by a combination of deconstruction (orbifold projection), momentum cut-off and matrix model techniques. We also propose a moduli fixing term that preserves lattice supersymmetry on the deconstruction formulation. Although the analogous formulation for four-dimensional N = 2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories is proposed also in Nucl.Phys.B857(2012), our action is simpler and better suited for computer simulations. Moreover, not only for …
We formulate supersymmetric Euclidean spacetime Ad* lattices whose classical continuum limits are U(N) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories with sixteen supercharges in d=1,2,3 and 4 dimensions. This family includes the especially interesting N=4 supersymmetry in four dimensions, as well as a Euclidean path integral formulation of Matrix Theory on a one dimensional lattice.
Lattice simulation of supersymmetric gauge theories is not straightforward. In some cases the lack of manifest supersymmetry just necessitates cumbersome fine-tuning, but in the worse cases the chiral and/or Majorana nature of fermions makes it difficult to even formulate an appropriate lattice theory. We propose to circumvent all these problems inherent in the lattice approach by adopting a non-lattice approach in the case of one-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories, which are important in the string/M theory context.
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 present new results from ongoing lattice investigations of supersymmetric Yang--Mills (SYM) theories in three and four space-time dimensions. First considering the maximally supersymmetric 3d theory with $Q = 16$ supercharges, we check that the fermion pfaffian is approximately real and positive, validating phase-quenched RHMC calculations. We then initiate lattice studies of running couplings and non-perturbative $β$ functions for $Q = 16$ SYM in both 3d and 4d, using a simple scheme based on Creutz ratios. Finally, we consider 3d SYM with $Q = 8$ supercharges, developing new software as a…
Stochastic quantization offers the opportunity to simulate field theories with a complex action. In some theories unstable trajectories are prevalent when a constant stepsize is employed. We construct algorithms for generating an adaptive stepsize in complex Langevin simulations and find that unstable trajectories are completely eliminated. To illustrate the generality of the approach, we apply it to the three-dimensional XY model at nonzero chemical potential and the heavy dense limit of QCD.
We calculate partition functions for supersymmetric heterotic theories on Melvin background with Wilson line. These functions coincide with partition functions for some of non-supersymmetric heterotic theories in appropriate limits. This suggests that non-supersymmetric heterotic theories are equivalent to supersymmetric theories on supersymmetry-breaking backgrounds, just as in the case of recently conjectured IIA-0A duality.
It is shown that all affine Toda theories admit (1,0) supersymmetric extensions. The construction is based on classical Lie algebras and supersymmetric massive sigma models. The supersymmetrized affine Toda theories have a unique, supersymmetric vacuum, their mass matrix is well defined and their energy functional is positive semi-definite.
The aim of these notes is to provide a short introduction to supersymmetric theories: supersymmetric quantum mechanics, Wess-Zumino models and supersymmetric gauge theories. A particular emphasis is put on the underlying structures and non-perturbative effects in N=1, N=2 and N=4 Yang-Mills theories. (Extended version of lectures given at the TROISIEME CYCLE DE LA PHYSIQUE EN SUISSE ROMANDE)
Inspired by the ideas from topological field theory it is possible to rewrite the supersymmetric charges of certain classes of extended supersymmetric Yang--Mills (SYM) theories in such a way that they are compatible with the discretization on a Euclidean spacetime lattice. Such theories are known as maximally twisted SYM theories. In this review we discuss the construction and some applications of such classes of theories. The one-loop perturbative renormalization of the four-dimensional lattice ${\cal N}=4$ SYM is discussed in particular. The lattice theories constructed using twisted approa…
We investigate the various properties Janus supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories. A novel vacuum structure is found and BPS monopoles and dyons are studied. Less supersymmetric Janus theories found before are derived by a simpler method. In addition, we find the supersymmetric theories when the coupling constant depends on two and three spatial coordinates.
Supersymmetric quantum gauge theories are important mathematical tools in high energy physics. As an example, supersymmetric matrix models can be used as a holographic description of quantum black holes. The wave function of such supersymmetric gauge theories is not known and it is challenging to obtain with traditional techniques. We employ a neural quantum state ansatz for the wave function of a supersymmetric matrix model and use a variational quantum Monte Carlo approach to discover the ground state of the system. We discuss the difficulty of including bosonic particles and fermionic parti…
Manifestly invariant renormalization scheme for supersymmetric gauge theories is proposed. This scheme is applied to supersymmetric quantum electrodynamics.
Starting from Seiberg's electric-magnetic duality for supersymmetric QCD, we construct dual pairs of non-supersymmetric gauge theories. This is accomplished by first taking the large N limit of supersymmetric QCD and its dual partner and then performing a special ``orbifold projection'' recently introduced by Kachru and Silverstein. We argue that in the large N limit the two projected theories remain dual. The non-supersymmetric gauge theories which can be studied in this fashion have non-supersymmetric field content, chiral fermions and exactly massless scalar matter.
I point out that standard two dimensional, asymptotically free, non-linear sigma models, supplemented with terms giving a mass to the would-be Goldstone bosons, share many properties with four dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories, and are tractable even in the non-supersymmetric cases. The space of mass parameters gets quantum corrections analogous to what was found on the moduli space of the supersymmetric gauge theories. I focus on a simple purely bosonic example exhibiting many interesting phenomena: massless solitons and bound states, Argyres-Douglas-like CFTs and duality in the infra…
We consider the ultra-violet divergence structure of general noncommutative supersymmetric $U(N_c)$ gauge theories, and seek theories which are all-orders finite.
We present new supersymmetric extensions of Conformal Toda and $A^{(1)}_N$ Affine Toda field theories. These new theories are constructed using methods similar to those that have been developed to find supersymmetric extensions of two-dimensional bosonic sigma models with a scalar potential. In particular, we show that the Conformal Toda field theory admits a (1,1)-supersymmetric extension, and the $A^{(1)}_N$ Affine Toda field admits a (1,0)-supersymmetric extension.
In this talk I review some recent results concerning multi-instanton calculus in supersymmetric field theories. More in detail, I will show how these computations can be efficiently performed using the formalism of topological field theories.
We discuss the ways of constructing the exact superpotential for N=1 supersymmetric theories and propose a new approach. As a consequence, a new structure of the superpotential is found.
We give a recipe relating holomorphic quantities in supersymmetric field theory to their descendants in non-supersymmetric Z_2 orbifold field theories. This recipe, consistent with a recent proposal of Strassler, gives exact results for bifermion condensates, domain wall tensions and gauge coupling constants in the planar limit of the orbifold theories.
Supersymmetric field theories on noncommutative spaces are constructed. We present two different representations of noncommutative space, but we can obtain supersymmetry algebla and supersymmetric Yang-Mills action independent of its representation. As a result, we will see that the action has a close relationship with IIB matrix model.
Effective superpotentials are considered which include glueball chiral superfields among their arguments in supersymmetric gauge theories. It is seen that the accommodation of glueball superfields is suitable for their complete determination.
We propose scattering matrices for N=1 supersymmetric integrable quantum field theories in 1+1 dimensions which involve unstable particles in their spectra. By means of the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz we analyze the ultraviolet behaviour of some of these theories and identify the effective Virasoro central charge of the underlying conformal field theories.
Sufficient conditions are proven for 't Hooft's consistency conditions to hold at points in the moduli space of supersymmetric gauge theories. Known results for anomaly matching in supersymmetric QCD are rederived as a sample application of the results. The results can be used to show that the anomaly matching conditions hold for s-confining theories.
We discuss some properties of noncommutative supersymmetric field theories which do not involve gauge fields. We concentrate on the renormalizability issue of these theories.
We consider the non-supersymmetric "magic" theories based on the split quaternion and the split complex division algebras. We show that these theories arise as "Ehlers" $SL(2,\mathbb{R})$ and $SL(3,\mathbb{R})$ truncations of the maximal supergravity theory, exploiting techniques related to very-extended Kac-Moody algebras. We also generalise the procedure to other $SL(n,\mathbb{R})$ truncations, resulting in additional classes of non-supersymmetric theories, as well as to truncations of non-maximal theories. Finally, we discuss duality orbits of extremal black-hole solutions in some of these …
Lectures presented at the 33rd Karpacz Winter School ``Duality: Strings and Fields'' briefly introducing dualities in four-dimensional quantum field theory, and summarizing results found in supersymmetric field theories. The first lecture describes physical aspects of electric-magnetic (EM), strong-weak coupling (S), and infrared (IR) dualities. The second lecture focuses on results and conjectures concerning S-duality in N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories. The third lecture discusses IR-dualities and their relation to S-duality in N=1 supersymmetric field theories.
We review recent developments in two-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=(2,2)$ supersymmetric gauge theories focusing on the implementation and applications of localization techniques.
We study (4,4) supersymmetric field theories in two dimensions with a one dimensional Coulomb branch. These theories have applications in string theory. Our analysis explains the known relation between $A-D-E$ groups and modular invariants of affine SU(2).
Recently Seiberg has conjectured a duality symmetry connecting different theories of the supersymmetric QCD type. We provide support for this conjecture by analyzing a flat direction of the theory along which the two dual theories go over to the same theory in the IR.
We study a series of $N\!=\!1$ supersymmetric integrable particle theories in $d=1+1$ dimensions. These theories are represented as integrable perturbations of specific $N\!=\!1$ superconformal field theories. Starting from the conjectured $S$-matrices for these theories, we develop the Thermodynamic Bethe Ansatz (TBA), where we use that the 2-particle $S$-matrices satisfy a free fermion condition. Our analysis proves a conjecture by E.~Melzer, who proposed that these $N\!=\!1$ supersymmetric TBA systems are ``folded'' versions of $N\!=\!2$ supersymmetric TBA systems that were first studied by…
The Wess-Zumino term is constructed for supersymmetric QCD with two colors and flavors, and is shown to correctly reproduce the anomalous Ward identities. Supersymmetric QCD is also shown not to have topologically stable skyrmion solutions because of baryon flat directions, which allow them to unwind. The generalization of these results to other supersymmetric theories with quantum modified constraints is discussed.
We introduce simple and more advanced concepts that have played a key role in the development of supersymmetric systems. This is done by first describing various supersymmetric quantum mechanics models. Topics covered include the basic construction of supersymmetric field theories, the phase structure of supersymmetric systems with and without gauge particles, superconformal theories and infrared duality in both field theory and string theory. A discussion of the relation of conformal symmetry to a vanishing vacuum energy (cosmological constant) is included.
We construct supersymmetric theories on the SU(3)xU(1) symmetric squashed five-sphere with 2, 4, 6, and 12 supercharges. We first determine the Killing equation by dimensional reduction from 6d, and use Noether procedure to construct actions. The supersymmetric Yang-Mills action is straightforwardly obtained from the supersymmetric Chern-Simons action by using a supersymmetry preserving constant vector multiplet.
The analysis in previous publications of the instanton constraints required to produce a finite action of the theory is carried out also for N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory.
We obtain an explicit expression for the supersymmetric Wilson loop in terms of chiral superfields and supercurrents in superspace. The result turns out to be different from what one would expect from the simple replacement of Lie algebra valued connection in the exponent with the corresponding super-Lie algebraic one. Genralizing the super particle coupling represented by the supersymmetric Wilson loop, we show that there exists a unique dimensionless coupling of the superstring to abelian supersymmetric gauge theories that respects all the known symmetries. The coupling is expressed in terms…
We discuss $5d$ and $6d$ supersymmetric gauge theories in the target-space with compactified directions and with the matter hypermultiplets in fundamental representations in the framework of integrable systems. In particular, we consider the prepotentials of these theories and derive explicit formulas for their perturbative parts.
We study the $N=1$ supersymmetric $G_2$ gauge theories with $N_f$ flavors of quarks in the fundamental vector representation. We find dynamically generated superpotentials, smooth quantum moduli space, quantum moduli space with additional mesons, non trivial IR fixed points.
Recent work on the numerical solution of supersymmetric gauge theories is described. The method used is SDLCQ (supersymmetric discrete light-cone quantization). An application to N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in 2+1 dimensions at large N_c is summarized. The addition of a Chern-Simons term is also discussed.
We present the exact effective superpotentials in $4d$, $N=1$ supersymmetric $SU(2)$ gauge theories with $N_3$ triplets and $N_2$ doublets of matter superfields. For the theories with a single triplet matter superfield we present the exact gauge couplings for arbitrary bare masses and Yukawa couplings.
We study the fermionic zero modes around 1 instanton operators for 5d supersymmetric gauge theories of type USp, SO and the exceptional groups. The major motivation is to try to understand the global symmetry enhancement pattern in these theories.
This work is aimed at demonstrating the possibility to construct new exactly-solvable stochastic systems by use of the extended supersymmetric quantum mechanics ($N=4 SUSY QM$) formalism. A feature of the proposed approach consists in $N=4 SUSY QM$ the fact that probability densities and so obtained new potentials, which enter the Langevin equation, have a parametric freedom. The latter allows one to change the potentials form without changing the temporal behavior of the dispersion function.
We discuss asymptotic safety in four-dimensional $\mathcal{N} = 1$ supersymmetric gauge theories. Our main conclusion is that in a reasonable definition of this phenomenon there are currently no controlled examples of it; there are reasons to believe that it does not occur.
We show under suitable assumptions that zero-modes decouple from the dynamics of non-zero modes in the light-front formulation of some supersymmetric field theories. The implications for Lorentz invariance are discussed.
A previous analysis of possible constraints of Yang-Mills instantons in the presence of spontaneous symmetry breaking is extended to supersymmetric QCD. It is again found that a constraint is necessary for the gauge field in second and fourth order of the gauge breaking parameter v. While the supersymmetric zero mode is well behaved to all orders, the lifted superconformal and quark zero modes show nonpermissible behaviour, but only at first order in v.
