A Landscape of Field Theories

Abstract

Studying a quantum field theory involves a choice of space-time manifold and a choice of background for any global symmetries of the theory. We argue that many more choices are possible when specifying the background. In the context of branes in string theory, the additional data corresponds to a choice of supergravity tensor fluxes. We propose the existence of a landscape of field theory backgrounds, characterized by the space-time metric, global symmetry background and a choice of tensor fluxes. As evidence for this landscape, we study the supersymmetric six-dimensional (2,0) theory compactified to two dimensions. Different choices of metric and flux give rise to distinct two-dimensional theories, which can preserve differing amounts of supersymmetry.

33 pages, LaTeX

References in corpus (12)

• Double Field Theory
• Four-Dimensional SCFTs from M5-Branes
• Torsional Heterotic Geometries
• K3 surfaces, modular forms, and non-geometric heterotic compactifications
• Branes, Calibrations and Supergravity
• Fivebrane instantons and Calabi-Yau fourfolds with flux
• Rigid 4D N=2 supersymmetric backgrounds and actions
• Geometries, Non-Geometries, and Fluxes
• Non-Geometric F-Theory-Heterotic Duality
• Supersymmetric branes on curved spaces and fluxes
• Supersymmetric Heterotic Action out of M5 Brane
• Partially twisted superconformal M5 brane in R-symmetry gauge field backgrounds

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Supergravity Backgrounds for Four-Dimensional Maximally Supersymmetric Yang-Mills
• Supersymmetric Yang-Mills, Spherical Branes, and Precision Holography
• Holography for field theory solitons
• Supersymmetric branes and instantons on curved spaces
• Ten-dimensional lifts of global supersymmetry on curved spaces
• Nonabelian Probes In Holography