N=2 S-duality Revisited
arXiv:1706.03797 · doi:10.1007/JHEP09(2017)087
Abstract
Using the chiral algebra bootstrap, we revisit the simplest Argyres-Douglas (AD) generalization of Argyres-Seiberg S-duality. We argue that the exotic AD superconformal field theory (SCFT), , emerging in this duality splits into a free piece and an interacting piece, T_X, even though this factorization seems invisible in the Seiberg-Witten (SW) curve derived from the corresponding M5-brane construction. Without a Lagrangian, an associated topological field theory, a BPS spectrum, or even an SW curve, we nonetheless obtain exact information about T_X by bootstrapping its chiral algebra, chi(T_X), and finding the corresponding vacuum character in terms of Affine Kac-Moody characters. By a standard 4D/2D correspondence, this result gives us the Schur index for T_X and, by studying this quantity in the limit of small S^1, we make contact with a proposed S^1 reduction. Along the way, we discuss various properties of T_X: as an N=1 theory, it has flavor symmetry SU(3)XSU(2)XU(1), the central charge of chi(T_X) matches the central charge of the bc ghosts in bosonic string theory, and its global SU(2) symmetry has a Witten anomaly. This anomaly does not prevent us from building conformal manifolds out of arbitrary numbers of T_X theories (giving us a surprisingly close AD relative of Gaiotto's T_N theories), but it does lead to some open questions in the context of the chiral algebra / 4D N=2 SCFT correspondence.
30+10 pages; 4 appendices; 6 figures
References in corpus (7)
- Notes on SUSY Gauge Theories on Three-Sphere
- S-duality in N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories
- Cardy Formulae for SUSY Theories in d=4 and d=6
- Coulomb Branch and The Moduli Space of Instantons
- Chiral Algebras for Trinion Theories
- Constraints on Chiral Operators in N=2 SCFTs
- Argyres-Douglas Theories and S-Duality