We study the discrete flows generated by the symmetry group of the BPS quivers for Calabi-Yau geometries describing five dimensional superconformal quantum field theories on a circle. These flows naturally describe the BPS particle spectrum of such theories and at the same time generate bilinear equations of q-difference type which, in the rank one case, are q-Painlevé equations. The solutions of these equations are shown to be given by grand canonical topological string partition functions which we identify with $τ$-functions of the cluster algebra associated to the quiver. We exemplify our construction in the case corresponding to five dimensional $SU(2)$ pure Super Yang-Mills and $N_f = 2$ on a circle.
We present examples of 5d SCFTs that serve as counter-examples to a recently actively studied conjecture according to which it should be possible to obtain all 5d SCFTs by integrating out BPS particles from 6d SCFTs compactified on a circle. We further observe that it is possible to obtain these 5d SCFTs from 6d SCFTs if one allows integrating out BPS strings as well. Based on this observation, we propose a revised version of the conjecture according to which it should be possible to obtain all 5d SCFTs by integrating out both BPS particles and BPS strings from 6d SCFTs compactified on a circl…
Extending results of arXiv:1112.3984, we show that all rank 1 N=2 SCFT's in the sequence H_1, H_2, D_4 E_6, E_7, E_8 have canonical finite BPS chambers containing precisely 2 h(F)=12(Delta-1) hypermultiplets. The BPS spectrum of the canonical BPS chambers saturates the conformal central charge c, and satisfies some intriguing numerology.
We propose a graph-based approach to 5d superconformal field theories (SCFTs) based on their realization as M-theory compactifications on singular elliptic Calabi--Yau threefolds. Field-theoretically, these 5d SCFTs descend from 6d $\mathcal{N}=(1,0)$ SCFTs by circle compactification and mass deformations. We derive a description of these theories in terms of graphs, so-called Combined Fiber Diagrams, which encode salient features of the partially resolved Calabi--Yau geometry, and provides a combinatorial way of characterizing all 5d SCFTs that descend from a given 6d theory. Remarkably, thes…
We propose novel functional equations for the BPS partition functions of 6d (1,0) SCFTs, which can be regarded as an elliptic version of Gottsche-Nakajima-Yoshioka's K-theoretic blowup equations. From the viewpoint of geometric engineering, these are the generalized blowup equations for refined topological strings on certain local elliptic Calabi-Yau threefolds. We derive recursion formulas for elliptic genera of self-dual strings on the tensor branch from these functional equations and in this way obtain a universal approach for determining refined BPS invariants. As examples, we study in det…
The content of the OPE of two 1/2 BPS operators in N=4 SCFT$_4$ is given by their superspace three-point functions with a third, a priori long operator. For certain 1/2 BPS short superfields these three-point functions are uniquely determined by superconformal invariance. We focus on the cases where the leading ($θ=0$) components lie in the tensor products $[0,m,0]\otimes[0,n,0]$ and $[m,0,0]\otimes[0,0,n]$ of SU(4). We show that the shortness conditions at the first two points imply selection rules for the supermultiplet at the third point. Our main result is the identification of all possibl…
We study the spectrum of BPS particles on the Coulomb branch of five-dimensional superconformal field theories (5d SCFTs) compactified on a circle. By engineering these theories in M-theory on ${\mathbf X} \times S^1 $, for ${\mathbf X}$ an isolated Calabi-Yau threefold singularity, we naturally identify the BPS category of the 5d theory on a circle with the derived category of coherent sheaves on a resolution of ${\mathbf X}$. It follows that the BPS spectrum can be studied in terms of 5d BPS quivers, which are the fractional-brane quivers for the singularity ${\mathbf X}$. 5d BPS quivers gen…
Given the recent geometrical classification of 6d $(1,0)$ SCFTs, a major question is how to compute for this large class their elliptic genera. The latter encode the refined BPS spectrum of the SCFTs, which determines geometric invariants of the associated elliptic non-compact Calabi-Yau threefolds. In this paper we establish for all 6d $(1,0)$ SCFTs in the atomic classification blowup equations that fix these elliptic genera to large extent. The latter fall into two types: the unity- and the vanishing blowup equations. For almost all rank one theories, we find unity blowup equations which det…
With the purpose of holographically describing flows from a large family of four dimensional ${\cal N}=1$ and ${\cal N}=2$ conformal field theories, we discuss truncations of seven dimensional supergravity to five dimensions. We write explicitly the reduced gauged supergravity and find BPS equations for simple configurations. Lifting these flows to eleven dimensions or Massive IIA supergravity, we present string duals to RG flows from strongly coupled conformal theories when deformed by marginal and/or relevant operators. We further discuss observables common to infinite families of ${\cal N}=…
In theories with extended supersymmetry the protected observables of UV superconformal fixed points are found in a number of contexts to be encoded in the BPS solitons along an IR Coulomb-like phase. For six-dimensional SCFTs such a role is played by the BPS strings on the tensorial Coulomb branch. In this paper we develop a uniform description of the worldsheet theories of a BPS string for rank-one 6d SCFTs. These strings are the basic constituents of the BPS string spectrum of arbitrary rank six-dimensional models, which they generate by forming bound states. Motivated by geometric engineeri…
F-theory compactifications on appropriate local elliptic Calabi-Yau manifolds engineer six dimensional superconformal field theories and their mass deformations. The partition function $Z_{top}$ of the refined topological string on these geometries captures the particle BPS spectrum of this class of theories compactified on a circle. Organizing $Z_{top}$ in terms of contributions $Z_β$ at base degree $β$ of the elliptic fibration, we find that these, up to a multiplier system, are meromorphic Jacobi forms of weight zero with modular parameter the Kaehler class of the elliptic fiber and ellipti…
We use the superconformal bootstrap to derive exact relations between OPE coefficients in three-dimensional superconformal field theories with ${\cal N} \geq 4$ supersymmetry. These relations follow from a consistent truncation of the crossing symmetry equations that is associated with the cohomology of a certain supercharge. In ${\cal N} = 4$ SCFTs, the non-trivial cohomology classes are in one-to-one correspondence with certain half-BPS operators, provided that these operators are restricted to lie on a line. The relations we find are powerful enough to allow us to determine an infinite numb…
A large class of 5d superconformal field theories (SCFTs) can be constructed by integrating out BPS particles from 6d SCFTs compactified on a circle. We describe a general method for extracting the flavor symmetry of any 5d SCFT lying in this class. For this purpose, we utilize the geometric engineering of 5d N=1 theories in M-theory, where the flavor symmetry is encoded in a collection of non-compact surfaces.
We extend our recent study of K3 metrics near the $T^4/Z_2$ orbifold locus to the other torus orbifold loci. In particular, we provide several new constructions of K3 surfaces as hyper-Kähler quotients, which yield new formulae for K3 metrics. We then relate these to the construction of arXiv:1810.10540. As a corollary, we derive infinitely many constraints on the (as yet unknown) BPS spectra of the Minahan-Nemeschansky SCFTs with $E_n$ global symmetry. Specifically, we find linear combinations of $E_n$ characters (evaluated at different points) hiding within K3 metrics and we compute their se…
We establish the elliptic blowup equations for E-strings and M-strings and solve elliptic genera and refined BPS invariants from them. Such elliptic blowup equations can be derived from a path integral interpretation. We provide toric hypersurface construction for the Calabi-Yau geometries of M-strings and those of E-strings with up to three mass parameters turned on, as well as an approach to derive the perturbative prepotential directly from the local description of the Calabi-Yau threefolds. We also demonstrate how to systematically obtain blowup equations for all rank one 5d SCFTs from E-s…
The building blocks of 6d $(1,0)$ SCFTs include certain rank one theories with gauge group $G=SU(3),SO(8),F_4,E_{6,7,8}$. In this paper, we propose a universal recursion formula for the elliptic genera of all such theories. This formula is solved from the elliptic blowup equations introduced in our previous paper. We explicitly compute the elliptic genera and refined BPS invariants, which recover all previous results from topological string theory, modular bootstrap, Hilbert series, 2d quiver gauge theories and 4d $\mathcal{N}=2$ superconformal $H_{G}$ theories. We also observe an intriguing r…
We propose matching pairs of half-BPS boundary conditions related by IR dualities of 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ gauge theories. From these matching pairs we construct duality interfaces. We test our proposals by anomaly matching and the computation of supersymmetric indices. Examples include basic abelian dualities, level-rank dualities, and Aharony dualities.
We propose a systematic approach to computing the BPS spectra of any 5d/6d supersymmetric quantum field theory in Coulomb phases, which admits either gauge theory descriptions or geometric descriptions, based on the Nakajima-Yoshioka's blowup equations. We provide a significant generalization of the blowup equation approach in terms of both properly quantized magnetic fluxes on the blowup $\hat{\mathbb{C}}^2$ and the effective prepotential for 5d/6d field theories on the Omega background which is uniquely determined by the Chern-Simons couplings on their Coulomb branches. We employ our method …
We extend the analysis of arXiv:0801.4457 [hep-th] to charged black hole solutions of four-dimensional $U(1)^4$ gauged supergravity which carry three charges. There are two decoupling near-horizon limits, one over the near-BPS black hole solution and the other over the near-extremal, but non-BPS geometry. Taking the limit over the eleven dimensional uplift of these black hole solutions, for both of these cases we obtain a geometry which has a piece (conformal) to rotating BTZ $\times S^2$. We study the 4d, $11d$ and $5d, 3d$ black hole properties. Moreover, we show that the BTZ$\times S^2$ geo…
A broad class of holographic duals for 4d $\mathcal N=2$ SCFTs is based on the general half-BPS $AdS_5$ solutions to M-theory constructed by Lin, Lunin and Maldacena, and their Kaluza-Klein reductions to Type IIA. We derive the equations governing spin 2 fluctuations around these solutions. The resulting partial differential equations admit families of universal solutions which are constructed entirely out of the generic data characterizing the background. This implies the existence of families of spin 2 operators in the dual SCFTs, in short superconformal multiplets which we identify.
We study circular BPS Wilson loops in the $\mathcal{N}=2$ superconformal $n$-node quiver theories at large $N$ and strong 't Hooft coupling by using localization. We compute the expectation values of Wilson loops in the limit when the 't Hooft couplings are hierarchically different and when they are nearly equal. Based on these results, we make a conjecture for arbitrary strong couplings.
We study the consistency of four-point functions of half-BPS chiral primary operators of weight p in four-dimensional N=4 superconformal field theories. The resulting conformal bootstrap equations impose non-trivial bounds for the scaling dimension of unprotected local operators transforming in various representations of the R-symmetry group. These bounds generalize recent bounds for operators in the singlet representation, arising from consistency of the four-point function of the stress-energy tensor multiplet.
We show that TBA equations defined by the BPS spectrum of $5d$ $\mathcal{N}=1$ $SU(2)$ Yang-Mills on $S^1\times \mathbb{R}^4$ encode the q-Painlevé III$_3$ equation. We find a fine-tuned stratum in the physical moduli space of the theory where solutions to TBA equations can be obtained exactly, and verify that they agree with the algebraic solutions to q-Painlevé. Switching from the physical moduli space to that of stability conditions, we identify a one-parameter deformation of the fine-tuned stratum, where the general solution of the q-Painlevé equation in terms of dual instanton partition f…
This paper gives a classification of rank one 5d $\mathcal{N}=1$ and 6d $(1,0)$ SCFTs. The idea is to compactify 5d theory on $S^1$ and 6d theory on $T^2$ to get effective 4d $\mathcal{N}=2$ theory. These compactified theories all have a 4d $\mathcal{N}=2$ Coulomb branch whose solution can be described by mixed Hodge module (MHM). In the rank one case every Coulomb branch solution is related to rational elliptic surface with a section, whose classification is complete. So the classification is then reduced to pick up a subset from the data base of rational elliptic surface by imposing various …
We study strings associated with minimal 6d SCFTs, which by definition have only one string charge and no Higgs branch. These theories are labelled by a number n with 1 <= n <= 8 or n = 12. Quiver theories have previously been proposed which describe strings of SCFTs for n = 1, 2. For n > 2 the strings interact with the bulk gauge symmetry. In this paper we find a quiver description for the n = 4 string using Sen's limit of F-theory and calculate its elliptic genus with localization techniques. This result is checked using the duality of F-theory with M-theory and topological string theory who…
We consider the low-energy limit of the two-dimensional theory on multiple M2-branes suspended between a flat M5-brane and a curved M5-brane. We argue that it is described by an $\mathcal{N}=(2,2)$ supersymmetric Landau-Ginzburg model with the superpotential determined by the shape of the curved M5-branes, which flows in the low-energy limit to a Kazama-Suzuki coset model. We provide evidence by studying ground states and BPS spectra of the systems.
Université Libre de Bruxelles（布鲁塞尔自由大学）；University of Birmingham（伯明翰大学）；SISSA and INFN（的里雅斯特高等研究学院和意大利国家核物理研究所）；Università di Trieste（的里雅斯特大学）；INFN, Sezione di Trieste（意大利国家核物理研究所的里雅斯特分部）
In this work we construct the crossing symmetry equations for mixed correlators of two long and two BPS operators in 4D $\mathcal{N}=1$ SCFTs. The analysis presented here illustrates how our general group theoretic approach to long superblocks and tensor structures of superconformal algebras can be applied to give explicit ready-to-use expressions. In the case at hand, we obtain a system of four crossing symmetry equations for the relevant OPE coefficients. One of these four equations coincides with the equation found and analysed by Li, Meltzer and Stergiou by restricting to the superprimary …
We describe the general BPS system that governs the gravity duals of N=(0,2) two-dimensional superconformal field theories in the low-energy limit of M5-branes on a four-manifold, M4. In order to preserve supersymmetry, we restrict to cases where the four-manifold is embedded in a Calabi-Yau fourfold that is a sum of two line bundles over M4. We further reduce the N=(0,2) system to describe the gravity duals of SCFTs with N=(0,4) and N=(2,2) supersymmetry. In the first case, the solutions fit in the larger class of AdS3xS2xCY3 solutions of M-theory dual to N=(0,4) SCFTs. In the case of the N=(…
We review the connection of $Y$- and $Q$-systems with the BPS spectra of $4D$ $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric QFTs. For each finite BPS chamber of a $\mathcal{N}=2$ model which is UV superconformal, one gets a periodic $Y$-system, while for each finite BPS chamber of an asymptotically-free $\mathcal{N}=2$ QFT one gets a $Q$-system i.e. a rational recursion all whose solutions satisfy a linear recursion with constant coefficients (depending on the initial conditions). For instance, the classical $ADE$ $Y$-systems of Zamolodchikov correspond to the $ADE$ Argyres-Douglas $\mathcal{N}=2$ SCFTs, whi…
We study six dimensional supergravity theories with superconformal sectors (SCFTs). Instances of such theories can be engineered using type IIB strings, or more generally F-Theory, which translates field theoretic constraints to geometry. Specifically, we study the fate of the discrete 2-form global symmetries of the SCFT sectors. For both $(2,0)$ and $(1,0)$ theories we show that whenever the charge lattice of the SCFT sectors is non-primitively embedded into the charge lattice of the supergravity theory, there is a subgroup of these 2-form symmetries that remains unbroken by BPS strings. By …
This is the first of a series of papers in which we systematically use singularity theory to study four dimensional N=2 superconformal field theories. Our main focus in this paper is to identify what kind of singularity is needed to define a SCFT. The constraint for a hypersurface singularity has been found by Sharpere and Vafa, and here the complete set of solutions are listed using a related mathematical result of Stephen S. T. Yau and Yu. We also study other type of singularities such as the complete intersection, quotient of hypersurface singularity by a finite group and non-isolated singu…
We systematically analyse 5d superconformal field theories (SCFTs) obtained by dimensional reduction from 6d $\mathcal{N}=(1,0)$ SCFTs. Such theories have a realization as M-theory on a singular Calabi-Yau threefold, from which we determine the so-called combined fiber diagrams (CFD) introduced in arXiv:1906.11820, arXiv:1907.05404, arXiv:1909.09128. The CFDs are graphs that encode the superconformal flavor symmetry, BPS states, low energy descriptions, as well as descendants upon flavor matter decoupling. To obtain a 5d SCFT from 6d, there are two approaches: the first is to consider a circle…
We propose a graph-theoretic description to determine and characterize 5d superconformal field theories (SCFTs) that arise as circle reductions of 6d $\mathcal{N} = (1,0)$ SCFTs. Each 5d SCFT is captured by a graph, called a Combined Fiber Diagram (CFD). Transitions between CFDs encode mass deformations that trigger flows between SCFTs. In this way, the complete set of descendants of a given 6d theory are obtained from a single marginal CFD. The graphs encode key physical information like the superconformal flavor symmetry and BPS states. As an illustration, we ascertain the aforementioned dat…
For SCFTs with an $SU(2)$ R-symmetry, we determine the superconformal blocks that contribute to the four-point correlation function of a priori distinct half-BPS superconformal primaries as an expansion in terms of the relevant bosonic conformal blocks. This is achieved by using the superconformal Casimir equation and the superconformal Ward identity to fix the coefficients of the bosonic blocks uniquely in a dimension-independent way. In addition we find that many of the resulting coefficients are related through a web of linear transformations of the conformal data.
The conformal field theoretic elliptic genus, an invariant for N=(2,2) superconformal field theories, counts the BPS states in any such theory with signs, according to their bosonic or fermionic nature. For K3 theories, this invariant is the source of the Mathieu Moonshine phenomenon. There, the net number of quarter BPS states is positive for any conformal dimension above the massless threshold, but it may arise after cancellation of the contributions of an equal number of bosonic and fermionic BPS states present in non-generic theories, as is the case for the class of Z2-orbifolds of toroida…
We study the central charges and levels of 2d $\mathcal{N}=(0,4)$ superconformal field theories that are dual to four- and five-dimensional BPS black holes in compactifications of type IIB string theory on a K3 surface. They arise from wrapping a D3-brane on a curve $C$ inside K3 and have transverse space either an ALE or ALF space. These D3-branes have an AdS$_3 \times \mathrm{S}^3/ Γ$ near horizon geometry where $Γ$ is a discrete subgroup of $SU(2)$. We compute the central charges and levels of the 2d SCFTs both in the microscopic picture and from six-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=(2,0)$ supergra…
We study the twisted elliptic genera of 2d $(0,4)$ SCFTs associated with the BPS strings in the twisted circle compactification of 6d rank-one $(1,0)$ SCFTs. Such objects can arise when the 6d gauge algebra allows outer automorphism, thus are classified by twisted affine Lie algebras. We study several fascinating aspects of the twisted elliptic genera including 2d localization, twisted elliptic blowup equations, Higgsing and spectral flow symmetry. We derive a recursion formula with respect to the number of strings to exactly compute the twisted elliptic genera. We also investigate the modular…
We apply the modular approach to computing the topological string partition function on non-compact elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau 3-folds with higher Kodaira singularities in the fiber. The approach consists in making an ansatz for the partition function at given base degree, exact in all fiber classes to arbitrary order and to all genus, in terms of a rational function of weak Jacobi forms. Our results yield, at given base degree, the elliptic genus of the corresponding non-critical 6d string, and thus the associated BPS invariants of the 6d theory. The required elliptic indices are determi…
In this paper we introduce the characteristic dimension of a four dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ superconformal field theory, which is an extraordinary simple invariant determined by the scaling dimensions of its Coulomb branch operators. We prove that only nine values of the characteristic dimension are allowed, $-\infty$, 1 ,6/5, 4/3, 3/2, 2, 3, 4, and 6, thus giving a new organizing principle to the vast landscape of 4d $\mathcal N=2$ SCFTs. Whenever the characteristic dimension differs from 1 or 2, only very constrained special Kähler geometries (i.e. isotrivial, diagonal and rigid) are compa…
In the framework of the AdS/CFT duality, we calculate the supersymmetric partition function of the superconformal field theories living in the world volume of either $N$ $M2$-branes or $N$ $M5$-branes. We used the dual supergravity partition function in a saddle point approximation over supersymmetric Black Holes. Since our BHs are written in asymptotically global $AdS_{d+1}$ co-ordinates, the dual SCFTs are in $R x S^{d}$ for $d=2,5$. The resulting partition function shows phase transitions, constraints on the phase space and allowed us to identify unstable BPS Black hole in the $AdS$ phase. …
We show that the non-gravitational sectors of certain 6d and 5d supergravity theories can be decomposed into superconformal field theories (SCFTs) which are coupled together by pairwise identifying and gauging mutual global symmetries. In the case of 6d supergravity, we consider F-theory on compact elliptic Calabi-Yau 3-folds with base $B=T^4/\mathbb{Z}_n\times \mathbb{Z}_m$ and we show in many examples that the non-gravitational field theory sectors can be described as configurations of coupled 6d $(1,0)$ SCFTs. We also conjecture that the effective 2d $(0,4)$ SCFTs living on the self-dual st…
A large family of 4d N=2 SCFT's was introduced in arXiv:1210.2886. Its elements $D_p(G)$ are labelled by a positive integer p\in N and a simply-laced Lie group G; their flavor symmetry is at least G. In the present paper we study their physics in detail. We also analyze the properties of the theories obtained by gauging the diagonal symmetry of a collection of $D_{p_i}(G)$ models. In all cases the computation of the physical quantities reduces to simple Lie-theoretical questions. To make the analysis more functorial, we replace the notion of the BPS-quiver of the N=2 QFT by the more intrinsic …
We holographically study supersymmetric deformations of $N=3$ and $N=1$ superconformal field theories (SCFTs) in three dimensions using four-dimensional $N=4$ gauged supergravity coupled to three-vector multiplets with non-semisimple $SO(3)\ltimes (\mathbf{T}^3,\hat{\mathbf{T}}^3)$ gauge group. This gauged supergravity can be obtained from a truncation of eleven-dimensional supergravity on a tri-sasakian manifold and admits both $N=1,3$ supersymmetric and stable non-supersymmetric $AdS_4$ critical points. We analyze the BPS equations for $SO(3)$ singlet scalars in details and study possible su…
We propose a method for determining the flavor charge lattice of the continuous flavor symmetry of rank-1 4d N = 2 superconformal field theories (SCFTs) and IR free gauge theories from topological invariants of the special Kähler structure of the mass-deformed Coulomb branches (CBs) of the theories. The method is based on the middle homology of the total space of the elliptic fibration over the CB, and is a generalization of the F-theory string web description of flavor charge lattices. The resulting lattices, which we call 'string web lattices', contain not only information about the flavor s…
We study twisted circle compactification of 6d $(2,0)$ SCFTs to 5d $\mathcal{N} = 2$ supersymmetric gauge theories with non-simply-laced gauge groups. We provide two complementary approaches towards the BPS partition functions, reflecting the 5d and 6d point of view respectively. The first is based on the blowup equations for the instanton partition function, from which in particular we determine explicitly the one-instanton contribution for all simple Lie groups. The second is based on the modular bootstrap program, and we propose a novel modular ansatz for the twisted elliptic genera that tr…
We extend the Mellin space techniques of [1] for computing holographic four-point correlation functions in maximally superconformal theories to theories with only eight Poincaré supercharges. The one-half BPS operators in these correlators are taken to be the superconformal primary in the $\mathcal{D}[k]$ multiplet (with $k=2$ corresponding to the flavor current multiplet), and transform in the adjoint representation of a flavor group $G$. Because of the smaller R-symmetry group $SU(2)$, each individual superconformal Ward identity is less powerful. On the other hand, the constraining power is…
