In this note, we prove that for all five-dimensional supergravities arising from M-theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefold, points of vanishing gauge coupling lie at infinite distance in the moduli space. Conversely, any point at infinite distance in the vector multiplet moduli space is a point of vanishing gauge coupling. This agrees with expectations from the Tower/Sublattice Weak Gravity Conjecture, the Swampland Distance Conjecture, and the Emergence Proposal.
We study the SO(4)-symmetric solution of the five-dimensional SU(2) x U(1) gauged N=4 supergravity theory obtained in [hep-th/0101202]. This solution contains purely magnetic non-Abelian and electric Abelian fields. It can be interpreted as a reduction of seven-dimensional gauged supergravity on a torus, which comes from type IIB supergravity on S^3. We also show how to obtain that solution from six-dimensional Romans' theory on a circle. We then up-lift the solution to massless type IIA supergravity. The dual gauge field theory is twisted and is defined on the worldvolume of a NS-fivebrane wr…
We construct supergravity solutions dual to twisted field theories that are the worldvolume theories of D4-branes wrapped on 2, 3-cycles, and NS-fivebranes on 3-cycles. We first obtain the solutions for the Romans' six-dimensional gauged supergravity theories and then up-lift them to ten dimensions. In particular, we find solutions for field configurations with either non-Abelian fields or B-fields being excited. One of these solutions, in the massless case, is up-lifted to the massless type IIA string theory. This is the first example of such a kind. The cases studied provide new examples of …
We compute the index for the conifold gauge theory from type IIB supergravity (superstring) on AdS_5 \times T^{1,1}. We discuss its implication from the gauge theory viewpoint.
Using the fact that eleven-dimensional supergravity yields type IIA supergravity under dimensional reduction on a circle, we determine higher-derivative terms of 11-dimensional supergravity including the $ R^4 $, $ ({\partial {F_4}})^2 R^2 $ and $ ({\partial {F_4}})^4 $ terms.
Some recent results in the study of four dimensional supergravity flux compactifications are reviewed, discussing in particular the role of torsion on the compactification manifold in generating gauge charges for the effective four dimensional theories.
Starting with the prepotential description of two-dimensional $(2,2)$ supergravity we use local supersymmetry transformations to go to light-cone gauge. We discuss properties of the theory in this gauge and derive Ward identities for correlation functions defined with respect to the induced supergravity action.
We explicitly construct $N=10$ Chern-Simons gaged supergravity in three dimensions with non-semisimple gauge group $SO(5)\ltimes \mathbf{T}^{10}$. The gauge group is embedded in $E_{6(-14)}$ which is the isometry group of the 32-dimensional scalar manifold $E_{6(-14)}/SO(10)\times U(1)$. The resulting theory is on-shell equivalent to $SO(5)$ Yang-Mills gauged supergravity coming from dimensional reduction on $S^1$ of $SO(5)$ $N=5$ gauged supergravity in four dimensions. We discuss the spectrum of the corresponding reduction. The $SO(5)\ltimes \mathbf{T}^{10}$ gauged supergravity, describing th…
We identify the space of symplectic deformations of maximal gauged supergravity theories. Coordinates of such space parametrize inequivalent supergravity models with the same gauge group. We apply our procedure to the SO(8) gauging, extending recent analyses. We also study other interesting cases, including Cremmer-Scherk-Schwarz models and gaugings of groups contained in SL(8,R) and in SU*(8).
We treat the N-extended supergravity in 2+1 space-time dimensions as a Yang-Mills gauge field with Chern-Simons action associated to the N-extended Poincaré supergroup. We fix the gauge of this theory within the Batalin-Vilkovisky scheme.
We determine the gauge symmetries of all p-forms in maximal three-dimensional gauged supergravity by requiring invariance of the Lagrangian. It is shown that in a particular ungauged limit these symmetries are in precise correspondence to those predicted by the very-extended Kac-Moody algebra E11. We demonstrate that whereas in the ungauged limit the bosonic gauge algebra closes off-shell, the closure is only on-shell in the full gauged theory. This underlines the importance of dynamics for understanding the Kac-Moody origin of the symmetries of gauged supergravity.
Motivated by the fact that there exists a continuous one-parameter family of gauged SO(8) supergravities, possible eleven-dimensional origins of this phenomenon are explored. Taking the original proof of the consistency of the truncation of 11D supergravity to SO(8) gauged supergravity as a starting point, a number of critical issues is discussed, such as the preferred electric-magnetic duality frame in four dimensions and the existence of dual magnetic gauge fields and related quantities in eleven dimensions. Some of those issues are resolved but others seem to point to obstructions in embedd…
Five nontrivial stationary points are found for maximal gauged N=16 supergravity in three dimensions with gauge group $SO(8)\times SO(8)$ by restricting the potential to a submanifold of the space of $SU(3)\subset(SO(8)\times SO(8))_{\rm diag}$ singlets. The construction presented here uses the embedding of $E_{7(+7)}\subset E_{8(+8)}$ to lift the analysis of N=8, D=4 supergravity performed by N. Warner to N=16, D=3, and hence, these stationary points correspond to some of the known extrema of gauged N=8, D=4 supergravity.
Effective superpotentials obtained by integrating out matter in super Yang-Mills and conformal supergravity backgrounds in N=1 SUSY theories are considered. The pure gauge and supergravity contributions (generalizing Veneziano-Yankielowicz terms) are derived by considering the case with matter fields in the fundamental representation of the gauge group. These contributions represent quantum corrections to the tree-level Yang-Mills and conformal supergravity actions. The classical equations of motion following from the conformal supergravity action require the background to be (super)conformall…
We present a new anomaly-free gauged N=1 supergravity model in six dimensions. The gauge group is E_7xG_2xU(1)_R, with all hyperinos transforming in the product representation {56,14). The theory admits monopole compactifications to R^4xS^2, leading to D=4 effective theories with broken supersymmetry and massless fermions.
Domain wall and electrovac solutions of gauged N=4 D=4 supergravity, with gauge group SU(2) or SU(2)xSU(2), are interpreted as supersymmetric Kaluza-Klein vacua of N=1 D=10 supergravity. These vacua are shown to be the near-horizon geometries of certain intersecting brane solutions.
In these two lectures, delivered at the XXXVII Karpacz Winter School, February 2001, I review some applications of superspace in various topics related to string theory and M-theory. The first lecture is mainly devoted to descriptions of brane dynamics formulated in supergravity backgrounds. The second lecture concerns the use of superspace techniques for determining consistent interactions in supersymmetric gauge theory and supergravity, e.g. alpha'-corrections from string/M-theory.
In $D=4$, $\cal{N}=1$ conformal superspace, the Yang-Mills matter coupled supergravity system is constructed where the Yang-Mills gauge interaction is introduced by extending the superconformal group to include the Kähler isometry group of chiral matter fields. There are two gauge-fixing procedures to get to the component Poincaré supergravity: one via the superconformal component formalism and the other via the Poincaré superspace formalism. These two types of superconformal gauge-fixing conditions are analyzed in detail and their correspondence is clarified.
We consider gauged five dimensional supergravity with boundaries and vector multiplets in the bulk. We analyse the zero modes of the BPS configurations preserving N=1 supergravity at low energy. We find the 4d low energy effective action involving the moduli associated to the BPS zero modes. In particular, we derive the Kähler potential on the moduli space corresponding to the low energy 4d N=1 effective action.
We construct a huge number of anomaly-free models of six-dimensional N = (1,0) gauged supergravity. The gauge groups are products of U(1) and SU(2), and every hyperino is charged under some of the gauge groups. It is also found that the potential may have flat directions when the R-symmetry is diagonally gauged together with another gauge group. In an appendix, we determine the contribution to the global SU(2) anomaly from symplectic Majorana Weyl fermions in six dimensions.
In this note we discuss the classification of duality orbits of N = 8 gauged supergravity models. Using tensor classifiers, we show that there is a one-parameter family of inequivalent SO(8) gauged supergravity theories. We briefly discuss the couplings of such models and show that, although the maximally symmetric vacuum has the same quadratic spectrum, the supersymmetry transformations, the couplings and the scalar potential are parameter dependent. We also comment on the possible M-theory uplift and on the meaning of the parameter for the dual gauge theories.
We discuss the gauge theory mechanisms which are responsible for the causal structure of the dual supergravity. For D-brane probes we show that the light cone structure and Killing horizons of supergravity emerge dynamically. They are associated with the appearance of new light degrees of freedom in the gauge theory, which we explicitly identify. This provides a picture of physics at the horizon of a black hole as seen by a D-brane probe.
A gauge-averaging functional of the axial type is studied for simple supergravity at one loop about flat Euclidean four-space bounded by a three-sphere, or two concentric three-spheres. This is a generalization of recent work on the axial gauge in quantum supergravity on manifolds with boundary. Ghost modes obey nonlocal boundary conditions of the spectral type, in that half of them obey Dirichlet or Neumann conditions at the boundary. In both cases, they give a vanishing contribution to the one-loop divergence. The admissibility of noncovariant gauges at the classical level is also proved.
In the context of the formalism proposed by Stelle-West and Grignani-Nardelli, it is shown that Chern-Simons supergravity can be consistently obtained as a dimensional reduction of (3+1)-dimensional supergravity, when written as a gauge theory of the Poincare group. The dimensional reductions are consistent with the gauge symmetries, mapping (3+1)-dimensional Poincare supergroup gauge transformations onto (2+1)-dimensional Poincare supergroup ones.
We study $N=2$ gauged supergravity with $U(1)$ gauge group coupled to $n_v$ vector multiplets and find quite general analytic solutions for quarter-BPS black holes with mass, NUT and dyonic Maxwell charges. The solutions we find have running scalar fields and flow in the IR region to a horizon geometry of the form AdS$_2\times Σ_g$.
Light cone gauge manifestly supersymmetric formulations of type IIB 10-dimensional supergravity in $AdS_5 \times S^5$ background and related boundary conformal field theory representations are developed. A precise correspondence between the bulk fields of IIB supergravity and the boundary operators is established. The formulations are given entirely in terms of light cone scalar superfields, allowing us to treat all component fields on an equal footing.
We examine orbifolds of the IIB string via gauged supergravity. For the gravity duals of the A_{n-1} quiver gauge theories, we extract the massless degrees of freedom and assemble them into multiplets of N=4 gauged supergravity in five dimensions. We examine the embedding of the gauge group into the isometry group of the scalar manifold, as well as the symmetries of the scalar potential. From this we find that there is a large SU(1,n) symmetry group which relates different RG flows in the dual quiver gauge theory. We find that this symmetry implies an extension of the usual duality between ten…
Typical de Sitter (dS) vacua of gauged supergravity correspond to saddle points of the potential and often the unstable mode runs into a singularity. We explore the possibility to obtain dS points where the unstable mode goes on both sides into a supersymmetric smooth vacuum. Within N=2 gauged supergravity coupled to the universal hypermultiplet, we have found a potential which has two supersymmetric minima (one of them can be flat) and these are connected by a de Sitter saddle point. In order to obtain this potential by an Abelian gauging, it was important to include the recently proposed qua…
The maximal SO(5) gauged D=7 supergravity is dimensionally reduced to six dimensions yielding a new SO(5) gauged D=6 model. It is shown that, unlike in D=7, the SO(5) gauge coupling constant can be taken to zero to yield the maximally extended supergravity in six dimensions. It is also shown that the limit of D=5 N=4 SU(2)xU(1) gauged supergravity in which the U(1) coupling constant is turned off can be obtained.
We study gravity duals of the minimal $N=2$ super Yang-Mills (SYM) gauge theories in five dimensions using the matter coupled $F(4)$ gauged supergravity in six dimensions. The $F(4)$ gauged supergravity coupled to $n$ vector multiplets contains $4n+1$ scalar fields, parametrized by $\mathbb{R}^+\times SO(4,n)/SO(4)\times SO(n)$ coset manifold. Maximally supersymmetric vacua of the gauged supergravity with $SU(2)\times G$ gauge group, with $G$ being an $n$-dimensional subgroup of $SO(n)$, correspond to five dimensional superconformal field theories (SCFTs) with $SU(2)_R$ R-symmetry and $G$ glob…
We study the issue of gauge-invariant observables in d=4, N=4 noncommutative gauge theory and UV-IR relation therein. We show that open Wilson lines form a complete set of gauge invariant operators, which are local in momentum space and, depending on their size, exhibit two distinct behaviors of the UV-IR relation. We next study these properties in a proposed dual description in terms of supergravity and find agreement.
We demonstrate the close relationship between Chern-Simons gauge theory with gauge group Osp(1|2) and N=1 induced supergravity in two dimensions. More precisely, the inner product of the physical states in the former yields the partition function of the latter evaluated in the Wess-Zumino supergauge. It is also shown that the moduli space of flat Osp(1|2) connections naturally includes super Teichmüller space of super Riemann surfaces.
Four-dimensional ${\cal N}=2$ gauged STU supergravity is a consistent truncation of the standard ${\cal N}=8$ gauged $SO(8)$ supergravity in which just the four $U(1)$ gauge fields in the Cartan subgroup of $SO(8)$ are retained. One of these is the graviphoton in the ${\cal N}=2$ supergravity multiplet and the other three lie in three vector multiplets. In this paper we carry out the analogous consistent truncation of the newly-discovered family of $ω$-deformed ${\cal N}=8$ gauged $SO(8)$ supergravities, thereby obtaining a family of $ω$-deformed STU gauged supergravities. Unlike in some other…
We study exact renormalization group (RG) in O(4) gauged supergravity using the effective average action formalism. The nonperturbative RG equations for cosmological and newtonian coupling constants are found. It is shown the existence of (nonstable) fixed point of these equations. The solution of RG equation for newtonian coupling constant is qualitatively the same as in Einstein gravity(i.e. it is growing at large distances).
We discuss a gauged $U(1)_R$ supergravity on five-dimensional (5D) orbifold ($S^1/Z_2$) in which both a $Z_2$-even U(1) gauge field and the $Z_2$-odd graviphoton take part in the $U(1)_R$ gauging. Based on the off-shell formulation of 5D supergravity, we analyze the structure of Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) terms allowed in such model. Introducing a $Z_2$-even $U(1)_R$ gauge field accompanies new bulk and boundary FI terms in addition to the known integrable boundary FI term which could be present in the absence of any gauged $U(1)_R$ symmetry. Some physical consequences of these new FI terms are exa…
We show that IIA supergravity can be extended with two independent 10-form potentials. These give rise to a single BPS IIA 9-brane. We investigate the bosonic gauge algebra of both IIA and IIB supergravity in the presence of 10-form potentials and point out an intriguing relation with the symmetry algebra $E_{11}$, which has been conjectured to be the underlying symmetry of string theory/M-theory.
We expand the generic model involving chiral matter, super Yang-Mills gauge fields, and supergravity to second order in the gravity and gauge prepotentials in a manifestly covariant and conformal way. Such a class of models includes conventional chiral matter coupled to supergravity via a conformal compensator. This is a first step toward calculating one-loop effects in supergravity in a way that does not require a perturbative expansion in the inverse Planck scale or a recourse to component level calculations to handle the coupling of the Kähler potential to the gravity sector. We also consid…
We construct maximally supersymmetric gauged N=16 supergravity in three dimensions, thereby obtaining an entirely new class of AdS supergravities. These models are not derivable from any known higher-dimensional theory, indicating the existence of a new type of supergravity beyond D=11. They are expected to be of special importance also for the conjectured AdS/CFT correspondence. One of their noteworthy features is a nonabelian generalization of the duality between scalar and vector fields in three dimensions. Among the possible gauge groups, SO(8)xSO(8) is distinguished as the maximal compact…
We first construct a consistent Kaluza-Klein reduction ansatz for type IIB theory compactified on Sasaki-Einstein manifolds Y^{p,q} with Freund-Rubin 5-form flux giving rise to minimal N=2 gauged supergravity in five dimensions. We then investigate the R-charged black hole solution in this gauged supergravity, and in particular study its thermodynamics. Based on the gauge theory/string theory correspondence, this non-extremal geometry is dual to finite temperature strongly coupled four-dimensional conformal gauge theory plasma with a U(1)_R-symmetry charge chemical potential. We study transpor…
We study six-dimensional N=(1,0) supergravity theories with abelian, as well as non-abelian, gauge group factors. We show that for theories with fewer than nine tensor multiplets, the number of possible combinations of gauge groups - including abelian factors - and non-abelian matter representations is finite. We also identify infinite families of theories with distinct U(1) charges that cannot be ruled out using known quantum consistency conditions, though only a finite subset of these can arise from known string constructions.
We review and investigate different aspects of scalar fields in supergravity theories both when they parametrize symmetric spaces and when they parametrize spaces of special holonomy which are not necessarily symmetric (Kahler and Quaternionic-Kahler spaces): their role in the definition of derivatives of the fermions covariant under the R-symmetry group and (in gauged supergravities) under some gauge group, their dualization into (d-2)-forms, their role in the supersymmetry transformation rules (via fermion shifts, for instance) etc. We find a general definition of momentum map that applies t…
We apply the heat kernel method (using Avramidi's non-recursive technique) to the study of the effective action of chiral matter in a complex representation of an arbitrary gauge sector coupled to background U(1) supergravity. This generalizes previous methods, which restricted to 1) real representations of the gauge sector in traditional Poincaré supergravity or 2) vanishing supergravity background. In this new scheme, we identify a classical ambiguity in these theories which mixes the supergravity U(1) with the gauge U(1). At the quantum level, this ambiguity is maintained since the effectiv…
A general formula for the discrete states (Neveu-Schwarz sector) in $N=1$ $2D$ super-Liouville theory is written down in the world-sheet supersymmetric form. We then derive a set of gauge states at the discrete momenta. These discrete gauge states are shown to carry the $w_\infty$ charges and serve as the symmetry parameters in the old covariant quantization of the theory.
We explicitly construct two Chern-Simons gauged supergravities in three dimensions with N=4 and N=8 supersymmetries and non-semisimple gauge groups. The N=4 theory has scalar manifold $SO(4,3)/SO(4)\times SO(3)$ with the gauge group $SO(3)\ltimes (\mathbf{T}^3,\hat{\mathbf{T}}^3)$. The theory describes (1,0) six dimensional supergravity reduced on an SU(2) group manifold. The equivalent Yang-Mills type gauged supergravity has SO(3) gauge group coupled to three massive vector fields. The N=8 theory is described by $SO(8,8)/SO(8)\times SO(8)$ scalar manifold, and the gauge group is given by $SO(…
A general free differential algebra encoding the anti-Higgs mechanism among two-index antisymmetric tensors and gauge vectors is analyzed at the full group theoretical level. N=2 supergravity in five dimensions coupled to tensor, vector and hyper multiplets with all possible couplings included is reconsidered from this point of view. Within our approach, we find that some of the constraints on the couplings usually considered are too stringent and may in fact be relaxed. This generalization also affects the scalar potential.
We explain how to achieve the traceless gauge for the spatial part of the spin connection in the framework of the recently proposed correspondence between the (appropriately truncated) bosonic sectors of maximal supergravities and the `geodesic' sigma-model over E10/K(E10) at low levels. After making this gauge choice, the residual symmetries on both sides of this correspondence match precisely. The gauge choice also allows us to give a physical interpretation to the multiplicity of certain primitive affine null roots of E10.
We present the full two-loop four-graviton amplitudes in N=4,5,6 supergravity. These results were obtained using the double-copy structure of gravity, which follows from the recently conjectured color-kinematics duality in gauge theory. The two-loop four-gluon scattering amplitudes in N=0,1,2 supersymmetric gauge theory are a second essential ingredient. The gravity amplitudes have the expected infrared behavior: the two-loop divergences are given in terms of the squares of the corresponding one-loop amplitudes. The finite remainders are presented in a compact form. The finite remainder for N=…
Maximal and non-maximal supergravities in three dimensions allow for a large variety of semisimple (Chern-Simons) gauge groups. In this paper, we analyze non-semisimple and complex gauge groups that satisfy the pertinent consistency relations for a maximal (N=16) gauged supergravity to exist. We give a general procedure how to generate non-semisimple gauge groups from known admissible semisimple gauge groups by a singular boost within E_{8(8)}. Examples include the theories with gauge group SO(8) x T_{28} that describe the reduction of IIA/IIB supergravity on the seven-sphere. In addition, we …
This article contains an overview of some recent attempts at understanding supergravity and string duals of four dimensional gauge theories using the AdS/CFT correspondence. We discuss the general philosophy underlying the various ways to realize Super Yang-Mills theories in terms of systems of branes. We then review some of the existing duals for N=2 and N=1 theories. We also discuss differences and similarities with realistic theories.
We present an action for chiral $N=(1,0)$ supergravity in $2+2$ dimensions. The fields of the theory are organized into an $OSp(1|4)$ connection supermatrix, and are given by the usual vierbein $V^a$, spin connection $ω^{ab}$, and Majorana gravitino $ψ$. In analogy with a construction used for $D=10+2$ gauge supergravity, the action is given by $\int STr ({\bf R}^2 {\bf Γ})$, where ${\bf R}$ is the $OSp(1|4)$ curvature supermatrix two-form, and ${\bf Γ}$ a constant supermatrix containing $γ_5$. It is similar, but not identical to the MacDowell-Mansouri action for $D=2+2$ supergravity. The cons…
We investigate some properties of a recent supergravity solution of Pilch and Warner, which is dual to the N=4 gauge theory softly broken to N=2. We verify that a D3-brane probe has the expected moduli space and its effective action can be brought to N=2 form. The kinetic term for the probe vanishes on an enhancon locus, as in earlier work on large-n N=2 theories, though for the Pilch-Warner solution this locus is a line rather than a ring. On the gauge theory side we find that the probe metric can be obtained from a perturbative one-loop calculation; this principle may be useful in obtaining …
We construct supergravity solutions for Dp-branes at orbifold points. The solutions are written in terms of a single function, which is the solution to a nonlinear differential equation. The near horizon limits of these solutions are dual, in the AdS/CFT sense, to super-Yang-Mills theories with 8 supercharges in various dimensions. In particular, we present a dual to N=2 SU(N) SYM theory in 3+1 dimensions, and analyse some aspects of the duality.
Supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric deformations of large $N=(4,4)$ SCFT with superconformal symmetry $D^1(2,1;α)\times D^1(2,1;α)$ are explored in the gravity dual described by a Chern-Simons $N=8$, $(SO(4)\times SO(4))\ltimes \mathbf{T}^{12}$ gauged supergravity in three dimensions. For $α>0$, the gauged supergravity describes an effective theory of the maximal supergravity in nine dimensions on $AdS_3\times S^3\times S^3$ with the parameter $α$ being the ratio of the two $S^3$ radii. We consider the scalar manifold of the supergravity theory of the form $SO(8,8)/SO(8)\times SO(8)$ and fin…
We compute the two point correlation function of a dimension 4 operator in a nonconformal cascading N=1 SUSY gauge theory using the supergravity dual found by Klebanov and Strassler[hep-th/0007191]. The two point function has a logarithmic correction to conformal behavior which is related to the scale dependence of the effective number of colors. The nonsingular behavior of this correlator suggests that the theory remains a local 4-dimensional quantum field theory at all scales. We also compute the spectrum of low-lying glueball modes corresponding to the above operator.
We obtain the supergravity dual of N=1 supersymmetric gauge theory in 2+1 dimensions with a large number of unquenched massless flavors. The geometries found are obtained by solving the equations of motion of supergravity coupled to a suitable continuous distribution of flavor branes. The background obtained preserves two supersymmetries. We find that when N_c\ge 2N_f the behavior of the solutions is compatible with having an asymptotically free dual gauge theory with dynamical quarks. On the contrary, when N_c<2N_f the theory develops a Landau pole in the UV. We also find a new family of (unf…
We expose simple and practical relations between the integrated four- and five-point one-loop amplitudes of N >= 4 supergravity and the corresponding (super-)Yang-Mills amplitudes. The link between the amplitudes is simply understood using the recently uncovered duality between color and kinematics that leads to a double-copy structure for gravity. These examples provide additional direct confirmations of the duality and double-copy properties at loop level for a sample of different theories.
We derive the glueball masses in noncommutative super Yang--Mills theories in four dimensions via the dual supergravity description. The spectrum of glueball masses is discrete due to the noncommutativity and the glueball masses are proportional to the noncommutativity parameter with dimension of length. The mass spectrum in the WKB approximation closely agrees with the mass spectrum in finite temperature Yang--Mills theory.
We outline the the geometry of locally anisotropic (la) superspaces and la-supergravity. The approach is backgrounded on the method of anholonomic superframes with associated nonlinear connection structure. Following the formalism of enveloping algebras and star product calculus we propose a model of gauge la-gravity on noncommutative spaces. The corresponding Seiberg-Witten maps are established which allow the definition of dynamics for a finite number of gravitational gauge field components on noncommutative spaces.
