Five-dimensional SCFTs and gauge theory phases: an M-theory/type IIA perspective

Closset, Cyril; Del Zotto, Michele; Saxena, Vivek

Abstract

We revisit the correspondence between Calabi-Yau (CY) threefold isolated singularities X and five-dimensional superconformal field theories (SCFTs), which arise at low energy in M-theory on the space-time transverse to X. Focussing on the case of toric CY singularities, we analyze the “gauge-theory phases” of the SCFT by exploiting fiberwise M-theory/type IIA duality. In this setup, the low-energy gauge group simply arises on stacks of coincident D6-branes wrapping 2-cycles in some ALE space of type AM????1 fibered over a real line, and the map between the Kähler parameters of X and the Coulomb branch parameters of the field theory (masses and VEVs) can be read off systematically. Different type IIA “reductions” give rise to different gauge theory phases, whose existence depends on the particular (partial) resolutions of the isolated singularity X. We also comment on the case of non-isolated toric singularities. Incidentally, we propose a slightly modified expression for the Coulomb-branch prepotential of 5d N = 1 gauge theories.

Citation

Closset, C., Del Zotto, M., & Saxena, V. (2019). Five-dimensional SCFTs and gauge theory phases: an M-theory/type IIA perspective. SciPost Physics, 6(5), Article 052. https://doi.org/10.21468/scipostphys.6.5.052

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 17, 2019
• Online Publication Date: May 1, 2019
• Publication Date: May 31, 2019
• Deposit Date: May 1, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: May 1, 2019
• Journal: SciPost Physics.
• Print ISSN: 2542-4653
• Electronic ISSN: 2542-4653
• Publisher: SciPost
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 6
• Issue: 5
• Article Number: 052
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.21468/scipostphys.6.5.052
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1297480