We use exceptional field theory to systematically study all possible consistent truncations around half-maximal AdS$_5$ vacua of M-theory. We show that only truncations with at most three vector multiplets are consistent. The possible gaugings are SU(2)$\times$U(1) and ISO(3)$\times$U(1) where, in the first case, the U(1) factor can have different embeddings inside the global symmetry group SO$(5,n)$, where $n \leq 3$ equals the number of vector multiplets. We show that the ISO(3)$\times$U(1) truncation only exists around vacua that are locally an $S^4$ fibration over a Riemann surface, and argue that this is the only consistent truncation with vector multiplets around these vacua that can be constructed by going through the 7-dimensional SO(5) gauged supergravity obtained after an $S^4$ reduction. The consistent truncations with SU(2)$\times$U(1) gaugings with vector multiplets exist only if certain conditions are satisfied, which we derive.
We show how to construct supersymmetric warped AdS$_7$ vacua of massive IIA and AdS$_6$ vacua of IIB supergravity, using "half-maximal structures" of exceptional field theory. We use this formalism to obtain the minimal consistent truncations around these AdS vacua.
Using exceptional field theory we construct supersymmetric warped AdS$_7$ vacua of massive IIA and AdS$_6$ vacua of IIB, as well as their consistent truncations including vector multiplets. We show there are no consistent truncations of massive IIA supergravity around its supersymmetric AdS$_7$ vacua with vector multiplets when the Roman's mass is non-vanishing. For AdS$_6$ vacua of IIB supergravity, we find that in addition to the consistent truncation to pure $\mathrm{F}(4)$ gauged SUGRA, the only other half-maximal truncations that are consistent result in $\mathrm{F}(4)$ gauged SUGRA coupl…
Stable non-supersymmetric Anti-de Sitter (AdS) vacua of string theory are widely believed not to exist. In this letter, we analytically compute the full bosonic Kaluza-Klein spectrum around the ${\rm G_2}$-invariant non-supersymmetric $\textrm{AdS}_4$ solution of massive IIA supergravity, and show that it is perturbatively stable. We also provide evidence that six other non-supersymmetric $\textrm{AdS}_4$ solutions of massive IIA supergravity are perturbatively stable. Since previous studies have indicated that these AdS vacua may also be non-perturbatively stable, our findings pose a challeng…
We address the possibility of false vacuum decay in $N=1$ supergravity theories, including those corresponding to superstring vacua. By establishing a Bogomol'nyi bound for the energy density stored in the domain wall of the $O(4)$ invariant bubble, we show that supersymmetric vacua remain absolutely stable against false vacuum decay into another supersymmetric vacuum, including those from a Minkowski to an anti-deSitter (AdS) one. As a consequence, there are no compact static spherical domain walls, while on the other hand there exist planar domain walls interpolating between non-degenerate s…
Maximal supergravity in four dimensions admits two inequivalent dyonic gaugings of the group $\mathrm{SO}(4) \times \mathrm{SO}(2,2) \ltimes T^{16}$. Both admit a Minkowski vacuum with residual $\mathrm{SO}(4) \times \mathrm{SO}(2)^2$ symmetry and identical spectrum. We explore these vacua and their deformations. Using exceptional field theory, we show that the four-dimensional theories arise as consistent truncations from IIA and IIB supergravity, respectively, around a $\mathrm{Mink}_4\times S^3\times H^3$ geometry. The IIA/IIB truncations are efficiently related by an outer automorphism of …
We consider classical type II supergravity with arbitrary fluxes, Dirichlet branes and orientifold planes and prove that a four-dimensional compactification of this theory can never correspond to a metastable de Sitter state.
This article presents a systematic study of critical points for the SL(8, R)-type gauging in four dimensional maximal gauged supergravity. We determine all the possible vacua for which the origin of the moduli space becomes a critical point. We formulate a new tool which enables us to find analytically the mass spectrum of the corresponding vacua in terms of eigenvalues of the embedding tensor. When the cosmological constant is nonvanishing, it turns out that many vacua obtained by the dyonic embedding admit a single deformation parameter of the theory, in agreement with the results of the rec…
This is the written version of two lectures given at the Newton Institute Euroconference on Duality and Supersymmetric Theories, Cambridge, England, 7-18 Apr 1997. It deals with the nature of supergravity vacua and black holes and black branes as solitons, focussing on my own work. While clearly dated, I believe that it contains material which remains of relevance and which is not available elsewhere
In this letter we discuss de Sitter vacua in maximal gauged supergravity in 4 dimensions. We show that, using the newly deformed theories introduced in arxiv:1209.0760, we can obtain de Sitter vacua with arbitrarily flat tachyonic directions in the SO(4,4)c models.
We perform a systematic search for anti-de Sitter vacua of maximal supergravity with N>2 residual supersymmetries. We find that maximal supergravity admits two 1-parameter classes of N=3 and N=4 vacua, respectively. They are embedded, for the different values of an angular parameter, in the $ω$-rotated SO(8) (N=3) and SO(1,7) (N=4 and 3) gauged models. All vacua disappear in the limit when $ω$ tends to zero. We determine the mass spectra and the AdS-supermultiplet structure. These appear to be the first and only N>2 supersymmetric AdS vacua in maximal supergravity, aside from the N=8 vacua of …
We compute one-loop threshold corrections to R^4 terms in N= 5,6 supergravity vacua of Type II superstrings. We then discuss non-perturbative corrections generated by asymmetric D-brane instantons. Finally we derive generating functions for MHV amplitudes at tree level in N = 5, 6 supergravities.
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.
We find 5D gauged supergravity theories exhibiting stable de Sitter vacua. These are the first examples of stable de Sitter vacua in higher-dimensional (D>4) supergravity. Non-compact gaugings with tensor multiplets and R-symmetry gauging seem to be the essential ingredients in these models. They are however not sufficient to guarantee stable de Sitter vacua, as we show by investigating several other models. The qualitative behaviour of the potential also seems to depend crucially on the geometry of the scalar manifold.
We show that a generalised reduction of D=10 IIB supergravity leads, in a certain limit, to a maximally extended SO(2) gauged supergravity in D=9. We show the scalar potential of this model allows both Minkowski and a new type of domain wall solution to the Bogomol'nyi equations. We relate these vacua to type IIB D-branes.
We classify maximally supersymmetric backgrounds (vacua) of chiral (1,0) and (2,0) supergravities in six dimensions and, by reduction, also those of the minimal N=2 supergravity in five dimensions. Up to R-symmetry, the (2,0) vacua are in one-to-one correspondence with (1,0) vacua, and these in turn are locally isometric to Lie groups admitting a bi-invariant lorentzian metric with anti-selfdual parallelising torsion, which we classify. We then show that the five-dimensional vacua are homogeneous spaces arising canonically as the spaces of right cosets of spacelike one-parameter subgroups.
We look for critical points with U(2) residual symmetry in 5-dimensional maximally supersymmetric gauged supergravity, by varying the embedding tensor, rather than directly minimizing the scalar potential. We recover all previously known vacua and we find four new vacua, with different gauge groups and cosmological constants. We provide the first example of a maximal supergravity model in $D \geq 4$ having critical points with both positive and vanishing cosmological constant. For each vacuum we also compute the full mass spectrum. All results are analytic.
We determine the conditions for maximally supersymmetric AdS_5 vacua of five-dimensional gauged N=2 supergravity coupled to vector-, tensor- and hypermultiplets charged under an arbitrary gauge group. In particular, we show that the unbroken gauge group of the AdS_5 vacua has to contain an U(1)_R-factor. Moreover we prove that the scalar deformations which preserve all supercharges form a Kahler submanifold of the ambient quaternionic Kahler manifold spanned by the scalars in the hypermultiplets.
We find extrema of the potential of matter couplings to N=2 supergravity that define de Sitter vacua and no tachyonic modes. There are three essential ingredients in our construction: namely non-abelian non-compact gaugings, de Roo-Wagemans rotation angles, and Fayet-Iliopoulos terms.
Within four dimensional (4d) N=1 supergravity theories we present extreme dilatonic domain wall solutions with a general overall coupling $α$ in the dilaton K\" ahler potential. We concentrate on extreme Type I walls, which are static, planar configurations, interpolating between Minkowski space-time and a new type of space-time with a varying dilaton field. $α=0$ case yields extreme ``ordinary'' supergravity walls between Minkowski and anti-de Sitter space-times. For $α=1$ the walls are extreme ``stringy dilatonic'' walls of the three level superstring vacua interpolating between the constant…
We propose the unified models of cosmological inflation, spontaneous SUSY breaking, and the dark energy (de Sitter vacuum) in $N=1$ supergravity with the dilaton-axion chiral superfield $T$ in the presence of an $N=1$ vector multiplet with the alternative Fayet-Iliopoulos term. By using the Kähler potential as $K=-α\log(T+\bar{T})$ and the superpotential as a sum of a constant and a linear term, we find that viable inflation is possible for $3\leqα\leqα_{\rm max}$ where $α_{\rm max}\approx 7.235$. Observations of the amplitude of primordial scalar perturbations fix the SUSY breaking scale in o…
We study AdS backgrounds of N=4 supergravity in four space-time dimensions which preserve all sixteen supercharges. We show that the graviphotons have to form a subgroup of the gauge group that consists of an electric and a magnetic SO(3)_+ x SO(3)_-. Moreover, these N=4 AdS backgrounds are necessarily isolated points in field space which have no moduli.
We consider a five-dimensional supergravity model with SU(5) gauge symmetry and the minimal field content. Studying the arising scalar potential we find that the gauging of the $U(1)_R$ symmetry of the five-dimensional supergravity causes instabilities. Lifting the instabilities the vacua are of Anti-de-Sitter type and SU(5) is broken along with supersymmetry. Keeping the $U(1)_R$ ungauged the potential has flat directions along which supersymmetry is unbroken.
We construct the fermionic sector and supersymmetry transformation rules of a variant N=(1,1) supergravity theory obtained by generalized Kaluza-Klein reduction from seven dimensions. We show that this model admits both (Minkowski)_4 x S^2 and (Minkowski)_3 x S^3 vacua. We perform a consistent Kaluza-Klein reduction on S^2 and obtain D=4, N=2 supergravity coupled to a vector multiplet, which can be consistently truncated to give rise to D=4, N=1 supergravity with a chiral multiplet.
No-scale supergravity is the appropriate general framework for low-energy effective field theories derived from string theory. The simplest no-scale Kähler potential with a single chiral field corresponds to a compactification to flat Minkowski space with a single volume modulus, but generalizations to single-field no-scale models with de Sitter vacua are also known. In this paper we generalize these de Sitter constructions to two- and multi-field models of the types occurring in string compactifications with more than one relevant modulus. We discuss the conditions for stability of the de Sit…
We discuss a simple procedure for finding vacua of gauged supergravity models, based on the variation of the embedding tensor rather than on a direct minimization of the scalar potential. We apply this procedure to N=8 gauged supergravity in 4 dimensions. We easily recover many of the previously known vacua, also completing their scalar mass spectrum, and we apply our procedure to find a dozen of new analytical vacuum solutions. The analysis shows an interesting structure on the moduli spaces of these vacua and provides new criteria to determine the expected value of the cosmological constant …
In the present talk I shall review the construction of N=2 supergravity models exhibiting stable de Sitter vacua. These solutions represent the first instance of stable backgrounds with positive cosmological constant in the framework of extended supergravities (N >=2). After briefly reviewing the role of de Sitter space--times in inflationary cosmology, I shall describe the main ingredients which were necessary for the construction of gauged N=2 supergravity models admitting stable solutions of this kind.
The existence of instantonic decay modes would indicate a semi-classical instability of the vacua of ten and eleven dimensional supergravity theories. Decay modes whose spin structures are incompatible with those of supersymmetric vacua have previously been constructed, and we present generalisations including those involving non trivial dilaton and antisymmetric tensor fields. We then show that the requirement that any instanton describing supersymmetric vacuum decay should admit both a zero momentum hypersurface from which we describe the subsequent Lorentzian evolution and a spin structure …
We show how to construct consistent truncations of 10-/11-dimensional supergravity to 3-dimensional gauged supergravity, preserving various amounts of supersymmetry. We show, that as in higher dimensions, consistent truncations can be defined in terms of generalised $G$-structures in Exceptional Field Theory, with $G \subset E_{8(8)}$ for the 3-dimensional case. Differently from higher dimensions, the generalised Lie derivative of $E_{8(8)}$ Exceptional Field Theory requires a set of "covariantly constrained" fields to be well-defined, and we show how these can be constructed from the $G$-stru…
We study the stability of vacua with spontaneously broken supersymmetry in N=2 supergravity theories with only hypermultiplets. Focusing on the projection of the scalar mass matrix along the sGoldstino directions, we are able to derive a universal upper bound on the lowest mass eigenvalue. This bound only depends on the gravitino mass and the cosmological constant, but not on the details of the quaternionic manifold spanned by the scalar fields. Comparing with the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound shows that metastability requires the cosmological constant to be smaller than a certain negative crit…
We analyze the gauging of Abelian isometries on the hypermultiplet scalar manifolds of N = 2 supergravity in four dimensions. This involves a study of symmetric special quaternionic-Kähler manifolds, building on the work of de Wit and Van Proeyen. In particular we compute the general set of Killing prepotentials and associated compensators for these manifolds manifolds. This allows us to glean new insights about AdS 4 vacua which preserve the full N = 2 supersymmetry as well as BPS static black hole horizons.
We analyze $N=2,1,0$ vacua of type IIB string theory on $K3\times T^2/Z_2$ in presence of three-form fluxes from a four dimensional supergravity viewpoint. The quaternionic geometry of the $K3$ moduli space together with the special geometry of the NS and R-R dilatons and of the $T^2$-complex structure moduli play a crucial role in the analysis. The introduction of fluxes corresponds to a particular gauging of N=2, D=4 supergravity. Our results agree with a recent work of Tripathy and Trivedi. The present formulation shows the power of supergravity in the study of effective theories with broke…
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…
We consider backgrounds of (massive) IIA supergravity of the form of a warped product $M_{1,3}\times_ω X_6$, where $X_6$ is a six-dimensional compact manifold and $M_{1,3}$ is $AdS_4$ or a four-dimensional Minkowski space. We analyse conditions for $\mathcal{N}=1$ and $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetry on manifolds of SU(2) structure. We prove the absence of solutions in certain cases.
We investigate the possibility of false vacuum decay in $N=1$ supergravity theories. By establishing a Bogomol'nyi bound for the energy density stored in the domain wall of the $O(4)$ invariant bubble, we show that supersymmetric vacua remain absolutely stable against false vacuum decay into another supersymmetric vacuum. This conforms with and completes the previous perturbative analysis of Weinberg. Implications for dynamical supersymmetry breaking and decompactification instabilities in superstring theory are discussed. In addition, we show that there are no compact static spherical domain …
These lectures aim to provide a global picture of the spaces of consistent quantum supergravity theories and string vacua in higher dimensions. The lectures focus on theories in the even dimensions 10, 8, and 6. Supersymmetry, along with with anomaly cancellation and other quantum constraints, places strong limitations on the set of physical theories which can be consistently coupled to gravity in higher-dimensional space-times. As the dimensionality of space-time decreases, the range of possible supergravity theories and the set of known string vacuum constructions expand. These lectures deve…
We study the vacuum structures of four-dimensional $\mathcal{N} = 1$ old minimal supergravity with higher derivative corrections. We find that $\mathcal{N} = 1$ supergravity with Riemann curvature square corrections and higher derivative matter chiral multiplets induces a non-trivial de Sitter vacuum, even in the absence of superpotentials. This vacuum generically breaks supersymmetry. We show that the auxiliary fields in the gravity and the chiral multiples play important roles to generate a potential in supersymmetric higher derivative theories.
We present a family of globally regular ${\cal N}=1$ vacua in the D=4, ${\cal N}=4$ gauged supergravity of Gates and Zwiebach. These solutions are labeled by the ratio $ξ$ of the two gauge couplings, and for $ξ=0$ they reduce to the supergravity monopole previously used for constructing the gravity dual of ${\cal N}=1$ super Yang-Mills theory. For $ξ>0$ the solutions are asymptotically anti de Sitter, but with an excess of the solid angle, and they reduce exactly to anti de Sitter for $ξ=1$. Solutions with $ξ<0$ are topologically $R^1\times S^3$, and for $ξ=-2$ they become $R^1\times S^3$ geom…
We give a classification of fully supersymmetric chiral ${\cal N}=(8,0)$ AdS$_3$ vacua in general three-dimensional half-maximal gauged supergravities coupled to matter. These theories exhibit a wealth of supersymmetric vacua with background isometries given by the supergroups OSp$(8|2,\mathbb{R})$, F(4), SU$(4|1,1)$, and OSp$(4^*|4)$, respectively. We identify the associated embedding tensors and the structure of the associated gauge groups. We furthermore compute the mass spectra around these vacua. As an off-spin we include results for a number of ${\cal N}=(7,0)$ vacua with supergroups OSp…
We review the subject of Kahler anomalies in gauged supergravity, emphasizing that field equations are inconsistent when the Kahler potential is non-invariant under gauge transformations or when there are elementary Fayet-Iliopoulos couplings. Flux vacua solutions of string theory with gauged U(1) shift symmetries appear to avoid this problem. The covariant Kahler anomalies involve tensors which are composite functions of the scalars as well as the gauge field strength and space-time curvature tensors. Anomaly cancellation conditions will be discussed in a sequel to this paper.
We perform a detailed analysis of the vacua of $ω$-deformed SO(8) supergravity in four dimensions. In particular, using Tensorflow-based numerical methods, we track how the equilibria of the theory change when varying the electric-magnetic deformation parameter $ω$. Apart from describing various properties of different equilibria (390 in total), we show that as $ω$ is deformed, the SO(3), N=1 vacuum of the de Wit-Nicolai theory becomes equivalent to a critical point in $U(4)\ltimes\mathbb{R}^{12}$ gauged supergravity with a known uplift in IIB supergravity. The procedure employed here to obtai…
We study $dS_5$ vacua within matter-coupled $N=4$ gauged supergravity in five dimensions using the embedding tensor formalism. With a simple ansatz for solving the extremization and positivity of the scalar potential, we derive a set of conditions for the gauged supergravity to admit $dS_5$ as maximally symmetric background solutions. The results provide a new approach for finding $dS_5$ vacua in five-dimensional $N=4$ gauged supergravity and explain a number of notable features pointed out in previous works. These conditions also determine the form of the gauge groups to be $SO(1,1)\times G_{…
Only two kinds of compactification are known that lead to four-dimensional supersymmetric AdS vacua with moduli stabilisation and separation of scales at tree-level. The most studied ones are compactifications of massive IIA supergravity on SU(3) structures with smeared O6 planes, for which a general ten-dimensional expression for the solution in terms of the SU(3) structure was found. Less studied are compactifications of IIB supergravity with smeared O5/O7 planes. In this paper we derive a general ten-dimensional expression for the smeared O5/O7 solutions in terms of SU(2) structures. For a …
A new class of metastable de Sitter vacua is presented and analyzed in N =1 supergravity and string theory with tunable (infinitesimally small) value of the cosmological constant. They are based on a gauged R-symmetry and the minimal spectrum contains a vector and a linear multiplet of the string dilaton or of a compactification modulus. In the minimum of the scalar potential supersymmetry is broken by an expectation value of both a D- and F-term.
Casimir energy for solid conducting ball is considered on the base of some finite models. One model is physical and built of a battery of parallel metallic plates. Two finite models are based on the Higgs model of superconductivity. One of them is supersymmetric and based on the Witten field model for superconducting strings. Treatment shows that contribution of Casimir energy can be very essential for superdence state in the neutron stars and nuclear matter.
We study fully supersymmetric $AdS_6$ vacua of half-maxi\-mal $N=(1,1)$ gauged supergravity in six space-time dimensions coupled to $n$ vector multiplets. We show that the existence of $AdS_6$ backgrounds requires that the gauge group is of the form $G'\times G"\subset SO(4,n)$ where $G'\subset SO(3,m)$ and $G"\subset SO(1,n-m)$. In the $AdS_6$ vacua this gauge group is broken to its maximal compact subgroup $SO(3)\times H'\times H"$ where $H'\subset SO(m)$ and $H"\subset SO(n-m)$. Furthermore, the $SO(3)$ factor is the R-symmetry gauged by three of the four graviphotons. We further show that …
We revisit the issue of moduli stabilization in a class of N=1 four dimensional supergravity theories which are low energy descriptions of standard perturbative heterotic string vacua compactified on Calabi-Yau spaces. In particular, we show how it is possible to stabilize the universal dilaton and Kahler moduli in a de Sitter/Minkowski vacuum with low energy supersymmetry breaking by means of non-perturbative gauge dynamics, including recent results by Intriligator, Seiberg and Shih. The non-SUSY vacua are meta-stable but sufficiently long-lived.
We consider a $D=4$, $\mathcal{N}=2$ gauged supergravity with an electromagentic Fayet-Iliopoulos term. We restrict to the uncharged, single dilaton consistent truncation and point out that the bulk Lagrangian is self-dual under electromagnetic duality. Within this truncation, we construct two families of exact hairy black hole solutions, which are asymptotically $AdS_4$. When a duality transformation is applied on these solutions, they are mapped to two other inequivalent families of hairy black hole solutions. The mixed boundary conditions of the scalar field correspond to adding a triple-tr…
We present a new Type IIB supergravity background of the warped form AdS$_4\times \mathcal{M}_6$ with dilaton, $B$-field and all Ramond-Ramond fluxes turned on. We obtain the solution by applying non-Abelian T-duality to a certain representative of a class of AdS$_4$ backgrounds in massive IIA supergravity. By explicitly constructing the Killing spinor of the seed solution and using an argument involving Kosmann spinorial Lie derivative we demonstrate that the background is supersymmetric.
We study some vacua of N=9 three dimensional gauged supergravity. The theory contains sixteen scalar fields parametrizing the exceptional coset space ${F_{4(-20)}}{SO(9)}$. Various AdS supersymmetric and some non-supersymmetric vacua are found in both compact and non-compact gaugings with gauge groups $SO(p)\times SO(9-p)$ for $p=0, 1, 2, 3, 4$, $G_{2(-14)}\times SL(2)$ and $Sp(1,2)\times SU(2)$. We also study many RG flow solutions, both analytic and numerical, interpolating between supersymmetric critical points in this theory. All the flows considered here are driven by a relevant operator …
We classify the supersymmetric vacua of N=4, d=5 supergravity in terms of G-structures. We identify three classes of solutions: with R^3, SU(2) and generic SO(4) structure. Using the Killing spinor equations, we fully characterize the first two classes and partially solve the latter. With the N=4 graviton multiplet decomposed in terms of N=2 multiplets: the graviton, vector and gravitino multiplets, we obtain new supersymmetric solutions corresponding to turning on fields in the gravitino multiplet. These vacua are described in terms of an SO(5) vector sigma-model coupled with gravity, in thre…
We study maximally supersymmetric Anti-de Sitter backgrounds in consistent N=2 truncations of type IIB supergravity compactified on the Sasaki-Einstein manifold $T^{1,1}$. In particular, we focus on truncations that contain fields coming from the nontrivial second and third cohomology forms on $T^{1,1}$. These give rise to N=2 supergravity coupled to two vector- and two hypermultiplets (Betti-vector truncation) or one vector- and three hypermultiplets (Betti-hyper truncation), respectively. We find that both truncations admit AdS$_5$ backgrounds with the gauge group always being broken but con…
We summarize the results for four-dimensional Bogomol'nyi-Prasad- Sommerfield (BPS) saturated dyonic black hole solutions arising in the Kaluza-Klein sector and the three-form field sector of the eleven-dimensional supergravity on a seven-torus. These black hole solutions break $3\over 4$ of $N=8$ supersymmetry, fill out the multipletes of $U$-duality group, and the two classes of solutions are related to each other by a discrete symmetry transformation in $E_7$. Using the field redefinitions of the corresponding effective actions, we present these solutions in terms of fields describing class…
We identify 219 AdS$_4$ solutions in four-dimensional dyonically gauged ISO(7) $\mathcal{N}=8$ supergravity and present some of their properties. One of the new solutions preserves $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetry and provides a rare explicit example of an AdS$_4$ vacuum dual to a 3d SCFT with no continuous global symmetry. There are also two new non-supersymmetric solutions for which all 70 scalar fields in the supergravity theory have masses above the BF bound. All of these AdS$_4$ solutions can be uplifted to massive type IIA supergravity. Motivated by this we present the low lying operator sp…
We study ten-dimensional N=2 maximal chiral supergravity in the context of Lie superalgebra SU(8/1). The possible successive superalgebraic truncations from ten dimensional N=2 chiral theory to the lower dimensional supergravity theories are systematically realized as sub-superalgebraic chains of SU(8/1) by using the Kac-Dynkin weight techniques.
We use the embedding tensor formalism to analyse maximally symmetric backgrounds of N=2 gauged supergravities which have the full N=2 supersymmetry. We state the condition for N=2 vacua and discuss some of their general properties. We show that if the gauged isometries leave the SU(2) R-symmetry invariant, then the N=2 vacuum must be Minkowski. This implies that there are no AdS backgrounds with eight unbroken supercharges in the effective N=2 supergravity of six-dimensional SU(3) x SU(3) structure compactifications of type II string theory and M-theory. Combined with previous results on N=1 v…
In the known examples of flux vacua with calibrated spacetime-filling sources (branes or orientifold planes), one can smear the source in order to perform a standard KK reduction and obtain a lower-dimensional supergravity description. Furthermore, it is expected that the smeared and localized solution preserve equal amounts of supersymmetry. In this note we point out that the $\mathrm{AdS}_7$ solution discussed in arXiv:1111.2605 and arXiv:1309.2949 is a counterexample to this common lore. The solution is supersymmetric when the spacetime-filling D6-branes are localized but breaks supersymmet…
