Mirror symmetry has proven to be a powerful tool to study several properties of higher dimensional superconformal field theories upon compactification to three dimensions. We propose a quiver description for the mirror theories of the circle reduction of twisted $A_{2N}$ theories of class $\mathsf{S}$ in four dimensions. Although these quivers bear a resemblance to the star-shaped quivers previously studied in the literature, they contain unitary, symplectic and special orthogonal gauge groups, along with hypermultiplets in the fundamental representation. The vacuum moduli spaces of these quiver theories are studied in detail. The Coulomb branch Hilbert series of the mirror theory can be matched with that of the Higgs branch of the corresponding four dimensional theory, providing a non-trivial check of our proposal. Moreover various deformations by mass and Fayet-Iliopoulos terms of such quiver theories are investigated. The fact that several of them flow to expected theories also gives another strong support for the proposal. Utilising the mirror quiver description, we discover a new supersymmetry enhancement renormalisation group flow.
We study mirror symmetry of families of elliptic K3 surfaces with elliptic fibers of type $E_6,~E_7$ and $E_8$. We consider a moduli space $\mathsf{T}$ of the mirror K3 surfaces enhanced with the choice of differential forms. We show that coordinates on $\mathsf{T}$ are given by the ring of quasi modular forms in two variables, with modular groups adapted to the fiber type. We furthermore introduce an algebraic group $\mathsf{G}$ which acts on $\mathsf{T}$ from the right and construct its Lie algebra $\mathrm{Lie}(\mathsf{G})$. We prove that the extended Lie algebra generated by $\mathrm{Lie}(…
We engineer a brane picture for the reduction of Seiberg dualities from 4D to 3D, valid also in the presence of orientifold planes. We obtain effective 3D dualities on the circle by T-duality, geometrizing the non-perturbative superpotential which is an affine Toda potential. When reducing to pure 3D, we define a double-scaling limit which creates a confining sector, giving a unified mechanism for the brane reduction of dualities.
Let $X$ be a Nakajima quiver variety and $X'$ its $3d$-mirror. We consider the action of the Picard torus $\mathsf{K}=\mathrm{Pic}(X)\otimes \mathbb{C}^{\times}$ on $X'$. Assuming that $(X')^{\mathsf{K}}$ is finite, we propose a formula for the $\mathsf{K}$-character of the tangent spaces at the fixed points in terms of certain enumerative invariants of $X$ known as vertex functions.
We consider the compactification of the 6d N=(2,0) theories, or equivalently of M-theory 5-branes, on a punctured Riemann surface times a circle. This gives rise to what we call 3d N=4 Sicilian theories, and we find that their mirror theories are star-shaped quiver gauge theories. We also discuss an alternative construction of these 3d theories through 4d N=4 SYM on a graph, which allows us to obtain the 3d mirror via 4d S-duality.
C.N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stony Brook University（石溪大学杨振宁理论物理研究所）；Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, Stony Brook University（石溪大学西蒙斯几何与物理中心）
We study the Coulomb-Higgs duality of N=2 supersymmetric Abelian Chern-Simons theories in 2+1 dimensions, by compactifying dual pairs on a circle of radius R and comparing the resulting N=(2,2) theories in 1+1 dimensions. Below the compactification scale, the theory on the Higgs branch reduces to the non-linear sigma model on a toric manifold. In the dual theory on the Coulomb branch, the Kaluza-Klein modes generate an infinite tower of contributions to the superpotential. After resummation, in the limit R->0 the superpotential becomes that of the Landau-Ginzburg model which is the two-dimensi…
The Argyres-Douglas (AD) theories of type $(D_n,D_m)$, realized by type IIB geometrical engineering on a single hypersurface singularity, are studied. We analyze their conformal manifolds and propose the 3d mirror theories of all theories in this class upon reduction on a circle. A subclass of the AD theories in question that admits marginal couplings is found to be $\mathrm{SO}$ or $\mathrm{USp}$ gaugings of certain $D_p(\mathrm{SO}(2N))$ and $D_p(\mathrm{USp}(2N))$ theories. For such theories, we develop a method to derive this weakly-coupled description from the Newton polygon associated to…
We study IIA/B string theory compactified on twisted circles. These models possess closed string tachyons and reduce to type 0B/A theory in a special limit. Using methods of gauged linear sigma models and mirror symmetry we construct a conformal field theory which interpolates between these models and flat space via an auxiliary Liouville direction. Interpreting motion in the Liouville direction as renormalization group flow, we argue that the end point of tachyon condensation in all these models (including 0B/A theory) is supersymmetric type II theory. We also find a zero-slope limit of these…
Understanding the map of line defects in a Quantum Field Theory under a given duality is generically a difficult problem. This paper is the second in a series which aims to address this question in the context of 3d $\mathcal{N}=4$ mirror symmetry. A general prescription for constructing vortex defects and their mirror maps in quiver gauge theories beyond the $A$-type was presented by the author in an earlier paper [arxiv:2103.01243], where specific examples involving $D$-type and affine $D$-type quivers were discussed. In this paper, we apply the aforementioned prescription to construct a fam…
Mirror symmetry, a three dimensional $\mathcal{N}=4$ IR duality, has been studied in detail for quiver gauge theories of the $ADE$-type (as well as their affine versions) with unitary gauge groups. The $A$-type quivers (also known as linear quivers) and the associated mirror dualities have a particularly simple realization in terms of a Type IIB system of D3-D5-NS5-branes. In this paper, we present a systematic field theory prescription for constructing 3d mirror pairs beyond the $ADE$ quiver gauge theories, starting from a dual pair of $A$-type quivers with unitary gauge groups. The construct…
We present a general prescription for constructing 3d $\mathcal{N}=4$ Lagrangians for the IR SCFTs that arise from the circle reduction of a large class of Argyres-Douglas theories. The resultant Lagrangian gives a realization of the Higgs branch of the 4d SCFT as a quiver variety, up to a set of decoupled interacting SCFTs with empty Higgs branches. As representative examples, we focus on the families $(A_{p-N-1}, A_{N-1})$ and $D_p(SU(N))$. The Lagrangian in question is generically a non-ADE-type quiver gauge theory involving only unitary gauge nodes with fundamental and bifundamental hyperm…
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…
Let $X$ be a holomorphic symplectic variety with a torus $\mathsf{T}$ action and a finite fixed point set of cardinality $k$. We assume that elliptic stable envelope exists for $X$. Let $A_{I,J}= \operatorname{Stab}(J)|_{I}$ be the $k\times k$ matrix of restrictions of the elliptic stable envelopes of $X$ to the fixed points. The entries of this matrix are theta-functions of two groups of variables: the Kähler parameters and equivariant parameters of $X$. We say that two such varieties $X$ and $X'$ are related by the 3d mirror symmetry if the fixed point sets of $X$ and $X'$ have the same card…
String and particle braiding statistics are examined in a class of topological orders described by discrete gauge theories with a gauge group $G$ and a 4-cocycle twist $ω_4$ of $G$'s cohomology group $\mathcal{H}^4(G,\mathbb{R}/\mathbb{Z})$ in 3 dimensional space and 1 dimensional time (3+1D). We establish the topological spin and the spin-statistics relation for the closed strings, and their multi-string braiding statistics. The 3+1D twisted gauge theory can be characterized by a representation of a modular transformation group SL$(3,\mathbb{Z})$. We express the SL$(3,\mathbb{Z})$ generators …
A number of N=2 gauge theories can be realized by brane configurations in Type IIA string theory. One way of solving them involves lifting the brane configuration to M-theory. In this paper we present an alternative way of analyzing a subclass of these theories (elliptic models). We observe that upon compactification on a circle one can use a version of mirror symmetry to map the original brane configuration into one containing only D-branes. Simultaneously the Coulomb branch of the four-dimensional theory is mapped to the Higgs branch of a five-dimensional theory with three-dimensional impuri…
We study the compactification of the 6d ${\cal N}=(2,0)$ SCFT on the product of a Riemann surface with flux and a circle. On the one hand, this can be understood by first reducing on the Riemann surface, giving rise to 4d ${\cal N}=1$ and ${\cal N}=2$ class ${\cal S}$ theories, which we then reduce on $S^1$ to get 3d ${\cal N}=2$ and ${\cal N}=4$ class ${\cal S}$ theories. On the other hand, we may first compactify on $S^1$ to get the 5d ${\cal N}=2$ Yang-Mills theory. By studying its reduction on a Riemann surface, we obtain a mirror dual description of 3d class ${\cal S}$ theories, generaliz…
Argyres-Douglas (AD) theories constitute an infinite class of superconformal field theories in four dimensions with a number of interesting properties. We study several new aspects of AD theories engineered in $A$-type class $\mathcal{S}$ with one irregular puncture of Type I or Type II and also a regular puncture. These include conformal manifolds, structures of the Higgs branch, as well as the three dimensional gauge theories coming from the reduction on a circle. The latter admit a description in terms of a linear quiver with unitary and special unitary gauge groups, along with a number of …
In this paper we continue the study of the superconformal index of four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ theories of class $\mathcal{S}$ in the presence of surface defects. Our main result is the construction of an algebra of difference operators, whose elements are labeled by irreducible representations of $A_{N-1}$. For the fully antisymmetric tensor representations these difference operators are the Hamiltonians of the elliptic Ruijsenaars-Schneider system. The structure constants of the algebra are elliptic generalizations of the Littlewood-Richardson coefficients. In the Macdonald limit, we id…
In this work we compare different descriptions of the space of vacua of certain three dimensional N=4 superconformal field theories, compactified on a circle and mass-deformed to N=2 in a canonical way. The original N=4 theories are known to admit two distinct mirror descriptions as linear quiver gauge theories, and many more descriptions which involve the compactification on a segment of four-dimensional N=4 super Yang-Mills theory. Each description gives a distinct presentation of the moduli space of vacua. Our main result is to establish the precise dictionary between these presentations. W…
Superconformal field theories (SCFT) are known to possess solvable yet nontrivial sectors in their full operator algebras. Two prime examples are the chiral algebra sector on a two dimensional plane in four dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ SCFTs, and the topological quantum mechanics (TQM) sector on a line in three dimensional $\mathcal{N}=4$ SCFTs. Under Weyl transformation, they respectively map to operator algebras on a great torus in $S^1\times S^3$ and a great circle in $S^3$, and are naturally related by reduction along the $S^1$ factor, which amounts to taking the Cardy (high-temperature) li…
