Seiberg-like dualities in $2+1$d quiver gauge theories with $4$ supercharges are investigated. We consider quivers made of various combinations of classical gauge groups $U(N)$, $Sp(N)$, $SO(N)$ and $SU(N)$. Our main focus is the mapping of the supersymmetric monopole operators across the dual theories. There is a simple general rule that encodes the mapping of the monopoles upon dualising a single node. This rule dictates the mapping of all the monopoles which are not dressed by baryonic operators. We also study more general situations involving baryons and baryon-monopoles, focussing on three examples: $SU-Sp$, $SO-SO$ and $SO-Sp$ quivers.
We present a new family of dualities for three-dimensional gauge theories, motivated by the brane realization of the reduction of four-dimensional dualities on a circle. This family can be understood as a generalization of Aharony duality to quiver gauge theories whose nodes interact via monopole terms in the superpotential. We refer to this family of theories as monopole quivers. We corroborate the new dualities by checking the equivalence of the three-sphere partition functions, obtained from the standard circle reduction of the four-dimensional superconformal index. As a special case, we re…
We propose a universal manipulation to obtain Seiberg-like dualities of 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ general quiver gauge theories with unitary, symplectic and orthogonal gauge groups coupled to fundamental and bifundamental matter fields. We illustrate this with several examples of linear, circular and star-shaped quiver gauge theories. We examine the local operators in the theories by computing supersymmetric indices and also find precise matching for the proposed dualities as strong evidence. We also generalize the dualities in the presence of a boundary on which the theories obey $\mathcal{N}=(0,2)$…
Aspects of three dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ gauge theories with monopole superpotentials and their dualities are investigated. The moduli spaces of a number of such theories are studied using Hilbert series. Moreover, we propose new dualities involving quadratic powers for the monopole superpotentials, for unitary, symplectic and orthogonal gauge groups. These dualities are then tested using the three sphere partition function and matching of the Hilbert series. We also provide an argument for the obstruction to the duality for theories with quartic monopole superpotentials.
We propose new 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ Seiberg-like dualities by considering various monopole superpotential deformations on 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ $U(N_c)$ SQCDs with fundamental and adjoint matter fields. We provide nontrivial evidence of these new dualities by comparing the superconformal indices, from which we analyze the change of the moduli space due to the monopole deformation. In addition, we perform the $F$-maximization to check the relevance of the monopole deformation for some examples, one of which is found to exhibit nontrivial symmetry enhancement in the IR. We prove such enhancement of t…
We provide tests of dualities for three-dimensional N=4 quiver SCFTs with brane realizations in IIB string theory, by matching their exact partition functions on $S^3$. The dualities are generated by SL(2,Z) transformations and Hanany-Witten 5-brane moves. These contain mirror symmetry as well as dualities identifiying fixed points of Yang-Mills quivers and Chern-Simons theories. The partition function is given by a matrix model, that can be nicely rearranged into a sequence of factors mimicking the brane realization. Identities obeyed by these elementary factors can be used to match the parti…
We show that the recently proposed large $N$ equivalence between ABJM theories with Chern-Simons terms of different rank and level, U(N_1)_{k_1}\times U(N_1)_{-k_1} and U(N_2)_{k_2}\times U(N_2)_{-k_2}, but the same value of N' =N_1 k_1=N_2 k_2, can be explained using planar equivalence in the mirror duals. The combination of S-dualities and orbifold equivalence can be applied to other cases as well, with very appealing results. As an example we show that two different quiver theories with k nodes can be easily shown to be Seiberg dual through the orbifold equivalence, but it requires order k^…
We find exact relations among the sphere partition functions of three-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=4$ superconformal Chern-Simons theories with circular quiver diagrams. These relations suggest new dualities in gauge theories which are the products of circular quiver gauge theories and decoupled linear quiver gauge theories. The dualities can be interpreted as simple brane transitions in the Hanany-Witten brane construction in type IIB string theory. Interestingly, the brane transitions cannot be generated by the Hanany-Witten transition or the ${\rm SL}\left(2,\mathbb{Z}\right)$ transformation. O…
A large class of quiver gauge theories admits the action of finite Heisenberg groups of the form Heis(Z_q x Z_q). This Heisenberg group is generated by a manifest Z_q shift symmetry acting on the quiver along with a second Z_q rephasing (clock) generator acting on the links of the quiver. Under Seiberg duality, however, the action of the shift generator is no longer manifest, as the dualized node has a different structure from before. Nevertheless, we demonstrate that the Z_q shift generator acts naturally on the space of all Seiberg dual phases of a given quiver. We then prove that the space …
Chern-Simons quivers for M2-branes at Calabi-Yau singularities are best understood as the low energy theory of D2-branes on a dual type IIA background. We show how the D2-brane point of view naturally leads to three dimensional Seiberg dualities for Chern-Simons quivers with chiral matter content: They arise from a change of brane basis (or mutation), in complete analogy with the better known Seiberg dualities for D3-brane quivers. This perspective reproduces the known rules for Seiberg dualities in Chern-Simons-Yang-Mills theories with unitary gauge groups. We provide explicit examples of dua…
We extend the recently proposed symmetry breaking scenario of QCD$_3$ to the so-called "master" $(2+1)$d bosonization duality, which has bosonic and fermionic matter on both ends. Using anomaly arguments, a phase diagram emerges with several novel regions. We then construct $2+1$ dimensional dualities for flavored quivers using node-by-node dualization. Such dualities are applicable to theories which live on domain walls in QCD$_4$-like theories with dynamical quarks. We also derive dualities for quivers based on orthogonal and symplectic gauge groups. Lastly, we support the conjectured dualit…
We study various orientifold projections of 4d $\mathcal{N}=1$ toric gauge theories, associated with CY singularities known as $L^{a,b,a}/\mathbb{Z}_2$, with $a+b$ even. We obtain superconformal chiral theories that have the same central charge, anomalies and superconformal index, whereas they were different before the orientifold. Some of these projections are implemented by a novel type of orientifold without fixed loci, known as glide orientifold. We claim that these theories flow to the same conformal manifold, and they are connected by quadratic exactly marginal deformations. The latter c…
We claim that 3d monopole quivers, theories with product gauge groups interacting through Affleck-Harvey-Witten superpotentials, are a natural setup for the study of spontaneous breaking 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetry. We give evidence of this statement by studying various examples of increasing complexity, considering quivers that are mirror dual to Wess-Zumino models. These Wess-Zumino models, in opportune regimes of parameters, break supersymmetry in perturbatively controllable (meta)stable vacua.
We interpret certain Seiberg-like dualities of two-dimensional N=(2,2) quiver gauge theories with unitary groups as cluster mutations in cluster algebras, originally formulated by Fomin and Zelevinsky. In particular, we show how the complexified Fayet-Iliopoulos parameters of the gauge group factors transform under those dualities and observe that they are in fact related to the dual cluster variables of cluster algebras. This implies that there is an underlying cluster algebra structure in the quantum Kahler moduli space of manifolds constructed from the corresponding Kahler quotients. We stu…
We consider examples of global symmetry enhancement by monopole operators in three dimensional {\cal N}=4 gauge theories. These examples include unitary overbalanced quivers, quivers with non-simply laced gauge groups and nonlinear quivers.
We study the dynamics of a large class of N=1 quiver theories, geometrically realized by type IIB D-brane probes wrapping cycles of local Calabi-Yau threefolds. These include N=2 (affine) A-D-E quiver theories deformed by superpotential terms, as well as chiral N=1 quiver theories obtained in the presence of vanishing 4-cycles inside a Calabi-Yau. We consider the various possible geometric transitions of the 3-fold and show that they correspond to Seiberg-like dualities (represented by Weyl reflections in the A-D-E case or `mutations' of bundles in the case of vanishing 4-cycles) or large N du…
We study various conjectural dual descriptions of a stack of M2-branes in M-theory including ADHM, ABJ(M), BLG, discrete gauge theories and quiver Chern-Simons (CS) theories and propose several new dualities of the M2-brane SCFTs by analyzing flavored supersymmetric indices in detail. The mapping of local operators, Coulomb, Higgs and mixed branch operators as well as global symmetries under the dualities are obtained from the precise matching of the indices. Furthermore, we find closed form expressions for the Coulomb limit of the indices of the $U(N)$ ADHM theory and the dual quiver CS theor…
In this paper, we calculate the topological free energy for a number of ${\mathcal N} \geq 2$ Yang-Mills-Chern-Simons-matter theories at large $N$ and fixed Chern-Simons levels. The topological free energy is defined as the logarithm of the partition function of the theory on $S^2 \times S^1$ with a topological A-twist along $S^2$ and can be reduced to a matrix integral by exploiting the localization technique. The theories of our interest are dual to a variety of Calabi-Yau four-fold singularities, including a product of two asymptotically locally Euclidean singularities and the cone over var…
The relation between open topological strings and representation theory of symmetric quivers is explored beyond the original setting of the knot-quiver correspondence. Multiple cover generalizations of the skein relation for boundaries of holomorphic disks on a Lagrangian brane are observed to generate dual quiver descriptions of the geometry. Embedding into M-theory, a large class of dualities of 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ theories associated to quivers is obtained. The multi-cover skein relation admits a compact formulation in terms of quantum torus algebras associated to the quiver and in this lang…
We compute R-charges of the BPS-monopole operators in $\mathcal{N} = 3$ $\widehat{ADE}$ Chern-Simons quiver gauge theories, along the lines of the work of Benna, Klebanov and Klose in \cite{bkk}. These theories have a weakly coupled UV completion in terms of $\mathcal{N}=3$ supersymmetric Chern-Simons Yang-Mills theories. In the UV limit the monopole operators are well approximated by classical solutions. We construct classical BPS and anti-BPS monopole solutions to these theories which preserve $\frac{1}{3}$ supersymmetry all along the RG flow. We compute the $SU(2)_R$ charges in these backgr…
We start with the recently conjectured 3d bosonization dualities and gauge global symmetries to generate an infinite sequence of new dualities. These equate theories with non-Abelian product gauge groups and bifundamental matter. We uncover examples of Bose/Bose and Fermi/Fermi dualities, as well as a sequence of dualities between theories with scalar matter in two-index representations. Our conjectures are consistent with level/rank duality in massive phases.
We construct novel fermion-fermion dualities in $2+1$-dimensions using 3d bosonization dualities. This is achieved by relating two-node quiver theories using both the flavor-bounded and flavor-violated 3d bosonization dualities. Such quivers can be viewed as a generalization of the fermionic particle-vortex duality. A special case of these quivers exhibits a $\mathbb{Z}_2$ symmetry under interchange of the two nodes. Using orbifold techniques, we show that such dualities provide a novel way of deriving known 3d bosonization dualities with adjoint matter, thus unifying the non-Abelian bosonizat…
We develop semiclassical methods to analyze the spectrum of BPS monopole operators for superconformal field theories in three dimensions with N=2 supersymmetry. We show that the chiral ring of the theory results from the semiclassical holomorphic quantization of the solution of classical BPS equations of motion on the cylinder. We apply this formalism to various theories. We also use these techniques to compare the chiral rings of theories that might be related to each other via Seiberg dualities in four dimensions. We find that the change of basis transformations that generate dualities in fo…
Canonical threefold singularities in M-theory and Type IIB string theory give rise to superconformal field theories (SCFTs) in 5d and 4d, respectively. In this paper, we study canonical hypersurface singularities whose resolutions contain residual terminal singularities and/or 3-cycles. We focus on a certain class of `trinion' singularities which exhibit these properties. In Type IIB, they give rise to 4d $\mathcal{N}=2$ SCFTs that we call $D_p^b(G)$-trinions, which are marginal gaugings of three SCFTs with $G$ flavor symmetry. In order to understand the 5d physics of these trinion singulariti…
We discuss and provide nontrivial evidence for a large class of dualities in three-dimensional field theories with different gauge groups. We match the full partition functions of the dual phases for any value of the couplings to underpin our proposals. We focus on two classes of models. The first class, motivated by the AdS/CFT conjecture, consists of necklace U(N) quiver gauge theories with non chiral matter fields. We also consider orientifold projections and establish dualities among necklace quivers with alternating orthogonal and symplectic groups. The second class consists of theories w…
We study 4d SCFTs obtained by orientifold projections on necklace quivers with fractional branes. The models obtained by this procedure are $\mathcal{N}=1$ linear quivers with unitary, symplectic and orthogonal gauge groups, bifundamental and tensorial matter. Remarkably, models that are not dual in the unoriented case can have the same central charges and superconformal index after the projection. The reason for this behavior rests upon the ubiquitous presence of adjoint fields with R-charge one. We claim that the presence of such fields is at the origin of the notion of inherited S-duality o…
We use 3d bosonization dualities to derive new non-supersymmetric dualities between bosonic quiver theories in $2+1$ dimensions. It is shown that such dualities are a natural non-Abelian generalization of the bosonic particle-vortex duality. A special case of such dualities is applicable to Chern-Simons theories living on interfaces in $3+1$ dimensional $SU(N)$ Yang-Mills theory across which the theta angle jumps. We also analyze such interfaces in a holographic construction which provides further evidence for novel dualities between quiver gauge theories and gauge theories with adjoint scalar…
We obtain the brane setup describing 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ dualities for $USp(2N_c)$ and $U(N_c)$ SQCD with monopole superpotentials. This classification follows from a complete analysis of affine and twisted affine compactifications from 4d. The analysis leads to a new duality for the unitary case that has been previously overlooked in the literature. We check this by matching of the three sphere partition function of the two sides of this new duality and find a perfect agreement. Furthermore we use the partition function to predict new 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ dualities for SQCD with monopole superpo…
We use large N duality to study brane/anti-brane configurations on a class of Calabi-Yau manifolds. With only branes present, the Calabi-Yau manifolds in question give rise to N=2 ADE quiver theories deformed by superpotential terms. We show that the large N duality conjecture of hep-th/0610249 reproduces correctly the known qualitative features of the brane/anti-brane physics. In the supersymmetric case, the gauge theories have Seiberg dualities which are represented as flops in the geometry. Moreover, the holographic dual geometry encodes the whole RG flow of the gauge theory. In the non-sup…
We apply the technique of sequential deconfinement to the four dimensional $\mathcal{N}\!=\!1$ $Usp(2N)$ gauge theory with an antisymmetric field and $2F$ fundamentals. The fully deconfined frame is a length-$N$ quiver. We use this deconfined frame to prove the known self-duality of $Usp(2N)$ with an antisymmetric field and $8$ fundamentals. Along the way we encounter a subtlety: in certain quivers with degenerate holomorphic operators, a naive application of Seiberg duality rules leads to an incorrect superpotential or chiral ring. We also consider the reduction to $3d$ $\mathcal{N}\!=\!2$ th…
We test dualities between three dimensional N = 2 gauge theories proposed by Aharony in [1] by comparing superconformal indices of dual theories. We also extend the discussion of chiral rings matching to include monopole operators.
We present a unified mathematical framework that elegantly describes minimally SUSY gauge theories in even dimension, ranging from $6d$ to $0d$, and their dualities. This approach combines recent developments on graded quiver with potentials, higher Ginzburg algebras and higher cluster categories (also known as $m$-cluster categories). Quiver mutations studied in the context of mathematics precisely correspond to the order $(m+1)$ dualities of the gauge theories. Our work suggests that these equivalences of quiver gauge theories sit inside an infinite family of such generalized dualities, whos…
There is significant evidence for a duality between (non-supersymmetric) U(N) Chern-Simons theories at level k coupled to fermions, and U(k) Chern-Simons theories at level N coupled to scalars. Most of the evidence comes from the large N 't Hooft limit, where many details of the duality (such as whether the gauge group is U(N) or SU(N), the precise level of the U(1) factor, and order one shifts in the level) are not important. The main evidence for the validity of the duality at finite N comes from adding masses and flowing to pure Chern-Simons theories related by level-rank duality, and from …
We study Aharony dualities for 3d N=2 gauge theories of classical gauge group with one adjoint and fundamental matters. We work out the 3d superconformal index for the dual pairs to find the perfect matchings. Along with it, we enumerate the independent monopole operators parametrizing the Coulomb branches and confirm the nonperturbative truncation of the chiral rings, consistent with the proposed dualities.
In arXiv:1906.11820 and arXiv:1907.05404 we proposed an approach based on graphs to characterize 5d superconformal field theories (SCFTs), which arise as compactifications of 6d $\mathcal{N}= (1,0)$ SCFTs. The graphs, so-called combined fiber diagrams (CFDs), are derived using the realization of 5d SCFTs via M-theory on a non-compact Calabi--Yau threefold with a canonical singularity. In this paper we complement this geometric approach by connecting the CFD of an SCFT to its weakly coupled gauge theory or quiver descriptions and demonstrate that the CFD as recovered from the gauge theory appro…
We explore the relationship between four-dimensional N=2 quantum field theories and their associated BPS quivers. For a wide class of theories including super-Yang-Mills theories, Argyres-Douglas models, and theories defined by M5-branes on punctured Riemann surfaces, there exists a quiver which implicitly characterizes the field theory. We study various aspects of this correspondence including the quiver interpretation of flavor symmetries, gauging, decoupling limits, and field theory dualities. In general a given quiver describes only a patch of the moduli space of the field theory, and a ke…
We study $N = 2$ 3-d theories with two adjoints and fundamental flavors along with D-type superpotential. For superpotential $W_{D_{n+2}} = \mathrm{Tr} \left(X^{n+1}+X Y^2\right)$ with $n$ odd, we propose the 3d dualities, which we motivate from the dimensional reduction of the related 4-d theory. We consider the factorization of the superconformal index and match precisely the vortex partition function of the dual pairs. In the language of the Higgs branch localization, the nonzero contribution of the vortex partition function comes from the discrete Higgs vacua of the massively deformed theo…
We propose a number of new Seiberg dualities of N=1 quiver gauge theories. The new Seiberg dualities originate in new S-dualities of N=2 superconformal field theories recently proposed by Gaiotto. N=2 S-dual theories deformed by suitable mass terms flow to our N=1 Seiberg dual theories. We show that the number of exactly marginal operators is universal for these Seiberg dual theories and the 't Hooft anomaly matching holds for these theories. These provide strong evidence for the new Seiberg dualities. Furthermore, we study in detail the Klebanov-Witten type theory and its dual as a concrete e…
We realize four-dimensional N=2 superconformal quiver gauge theories with alternating SO and USp gauge groups as compactifications of the six-dimensional D_N theory with defects. The construction can be used to analyze infinitely strongly-coupled limits and S-dualities of such gauge theories, resulting in a new class of isolated four-dimensional N=2 superconformal field theories with SO(2N)^3 flavor symmetry.
We study the IR dynamics of the cascading non-conformal quiver theory on N regular and M fractional D3 branes at the tip of the complex cone over the first del Pezzo surface. The horizon of this cone is the irregular Sasaki-Einstein manifold Y^{2,1}. Our analysis shows that at the end of the cascade supersymmetry is dynamically broken.
We study integrable models in the context of the recently discovered Gauge/YBE correspondence, where the Yang-Baxter equation is promoted to a duality between two supersymmetric gauge theories. We study flavored elliptic genus of 2d $\mathcal{N}=(2,2)$ quiver gauge theories, which theories are defined from statistical lattices regarded as quiver diagrams. Our R-matrices are written in terms of theta functions, and simplifies considerably when the gauge groups at the quiver nodes are Abelian. We also discuss the modularity properties of the R-matrix, reduction of 2d index to 1d Witten index, an…
We study various aspects of the 4d/3d reduction of $\mathcal{N}=1$ dualities involving $USp(2N_c)$ gauge theories with $2N_f$ fundamentals and one antisymmetric. We discuss the non-trivial role played by the monopole superpotentials in the reduction and obtain new 3d dualities for models with both symplectic and unitary gauge groups. For $N_f=4$ we observe interesting webs of dualities and symmetry enhancements, recovering and extending some results already appeared in the literature.
We study the generalization of S-duality and Argyres-Seiberg duality for a large class of N=2 superconformal gauge theories. We identify a family of strongly interacting SCFTs and use them as building blocks for generalized superconformal quiver gauge theories. This setup provides a detailed description of the ``very strongly coupled'' regions in the moduli space of more familiar gauge theories. As a byproduct, we provide a purely four dimensional construction of N=2 theories defined by wrapping M5 branes over a Riemann surface.
We consider the IR phases of two-node quiver theories with $\mathcal{N}\,=\,1$ supersymmetry in $d\,=\,2\,+\,1$ dimensions. It turns out that the discussion splits into two main cases, depending on whether the Chern-Simons levels associated with two nodes have the same sign, or the opposite signs, with the latter case being more non-trivial. The determination of the phase diagrams allows us to conjecture certain infrared dualities involving either two quiver theories, or a quiver and adjoint QCD. We also provide a short discussion of quivers possessing time reversal symmetry.
We discuss monopole operators in $U(N_c)$ Chern-Simons-matter theories in three space-time dimensions. We mention an apparent problem in the matching of such operators in dualities between non-supersymmetric theories, and suggest a possible resolution. A similar apparent problem exists in the mapping of chiral monopole operators in theories with ${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetry. We show that in many theories the lowest naive chiral monopole operator is actually not chiral, and we find the lowest monopole operator that is actually chiral in these theories. It turns out that there are several differen…
We study two types of discrete operations on Coulomb branches of $3d$ $\mathcal{N}=4$ quiver gauge theories using both abelianisation and the monopole formula. We generalise previous work on discrete quotients of Coulomb branches and introduce novel wreathed quiver theories. We further study quiver folding which produces Coulomb branches of non-simply laced quivers.
We revisit the localization computation of the expectation values of 't Hooft operators in $\mathcal{N}=2^*$ SU(N) theory on $\mathbb{R}^3 \times S^1$. We show that the part of the answer arising from "monopole bubbling" on $\mathbb{R}^3$ can be understood as an equivariant integral over a Kronheimer-Nakajima moduli space of instantons on an orbifold of $\mathbb{C}^2$. It can also be described as a Witten index of a certain supersymmetric quiver quantum mechanics with $\mathcal{N}=(4,4)$ supersymmetry. The map between the defect data and the quiver quantum mechanics is worked out for all value…
