Type-B anomaly matching and the 6D (2,0) theory

Niarchos, Vasilis; Papageorgakis, Constantinos; Pomoni, Elli

Abstract

We study type-B conformal anomalies associated with 12 -BPS Coulomb-branch operators in 4D N = 2 superconformal field theories. When the vacuum preserves the conformal symmetry these anomalies coincide with the two-point function coefficients in the Coulomb-branch chiral ring. They are non-trivial functions of exactly-marginal couplings that can be determined from the S4 partition function. In this paper, we examine the fate of these anomalies in vacua of the Higgs-branch moduli space, where conformal symmetry is spontaneously broken. We argue non-perturbatively that these anomalies are covariantly constant on conformal manifolds. In some cases, this can be used to show that they match in the broken and unbroken phases. Thus, we uncover a new class of data on the Higgs branch of 4D N = 2 conformal field theories that are exactly computable. An interesting application of this matching occurs in N = 2 circular quivers that deconstruct the 6D (2,0) theory on a torus. In that context, we argue that 4D supersymmetric localisation can be used to calculate non-trivial data involving 12 -BPS operators of the 6D theory as exact functions of the complex structure of the torus.

Citation

Niarchos, V., Papageorgakis, C., & Pomoni, E. (2020). Type-B anomaly matching and the 6D (2,0) theory. Journal of High Energy Physics, 2020(4), Article 48. https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep04%282020%29048

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 24, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Apr 8, 2020
• Publication Date: 2020-04
• Deposit Date: Jul 27, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 21, 2020
• Journal: Journal of High Energy Physics
• Print ISSN: 1126-6708
• Publisher: Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 2020
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: 48
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep04%282020%29048