Extended Supersymmetry on Curved Spaces

We study N=2 superconformal theories on Euclidean and Lorentzian four-manifolds with a view toward applications to holography and localization. The conditions for supersymmetry are equivalent to a set of differential constraints including a "generalised" conformal Killing spinor equation depending on various background fields. We solve these equations in the general case and give very explicit expressions for the auxiliary fields that we need to turn on to preserve some supersymmetry. As opposed to what has been observed for the N=1 case, the conditions for unbroken supersymmetry turn out to be almost independent of the signature of spacetime, with the exception of few degenerate cases including the topological twist. Generically, the only geometrical constraint coming from supersymmetry is the existence of a conformal Killing vector on the manifold, all other constraints determine the background auxiliary fields.Comment: 31 pages, v2: minor changes and important references adde

A journey to 3d: exact relations for adjoint SQCD from dimensional reduction

In this note we elaborate on the reduction of four dimensional Seiberg duality with adjoint matter to three dimensions. We use the exact formulation of the superconformal index and of the partition function as instruments to test this reduction. We translate the identity between indices of the dual 4d theories to 3d. This produces various new identities between partition functions of 3d dual phases.Comment: 18 pages, appendix added on the large mass scaling of the partition function, version published in JHE

The M-theory origin of global properties of gauge theories

We show that global properties of gauge groups can be understood as geometric properties in M-theory. Different wrappings of a system of N M5-branes on a torus reduce to four-dimensional theories with $A_{N-1}$ gauge algebra and different unitary groups. The classical properties of the wrappings determine the global properties of the gauge theories without the need to impose any quantum conditions. We count the inequivalent wrappings as they fall into orbits of the modular group of the torus, which correspond to the S-duality orbits of the gauge theories.Comment: 19 pages, 5 figure

4D/3D reduction of dualities: mirrors on the circle

We engineer a brane picture for the reduction of Seiberg dualities from 4D to 3D, valid also in the presence of orientifold planes. We obtain effective 3D dualities on the circle by T-duality, geometrizing the non-perturbative superpotential which is an affine Toda potential. When reducing to pure 3D, we define a double-scaling limit which creates a confining sector, giving a unified mechanism for the brane reduction of dualities.Comment: 27 pages, 16 figures, discussion improve

The braneology of 3D dualities

In this paper we study the reduction of four-dimensional Seiberg duality to three dimensions from a brane perspective. We reproduce the non-perturbative dynamics of the three-dimensional field theory via a T-duality at finite radius and the action of Euclidean D-strings. In this way we also overcome certain issues regarding the brane description of Aharony duality. Moreover we apply our strategy to more general dualities, such as toric duality for M2-branes and dualities with adjoint matter fields.Comment: 20 pages, 8 figures, published versio

The Large N Limit of Toric Chern-Simons Matter Theories and Their Duals

We compute the large N limit of the localized three dimensional free energy of various field theories with known proposed AdS duals. We show that vector-like theories agree with the expected supergravity results, and with the conjectured F-theorem. We also check that the large N free energy is preserved by the three dimensional Seiberg duality for general classes of vector like theories. Then we analyze the behavior of the free energy of chiral-like theories by applying a new proposal. The proposal is based on the restoration of a discrete symmetry on the free energy before the extremization. We apply this procedure at strong coupling in some examples and we discuss the results. We conclude the paper by proposing an alternative geometrical expression for the free energy.Comment: 40 pages, 7 figures, using jheppub.sty, references adde