Some beautiful equations of mathematical physics

The basic ideas and the important role of gauge principles in modern elementary particle physics are outlined. There are three theoretically consistent gauge principles in quantum field theory: the spin-1 gauge principle of electromagnetism and the standard model, the spin-2 gauge principle of general relativity, and the spin-3/2 gauge principle of supergravity. (Dirac Prize lecture, November 1993. Two figures are unavailable, but should not be essential.)Comment: 18 page

The Holography of F-maximization

We find new supersymmetric backgrounds of ${\cal N} = 8$ gauged supergravity in four Euclidean dimensions that are dual to deformations of ABJM theory on $S^3$. The deformations encode the most general choice of $U(1)_R$ symmetry used to define the theory on $S^3$. We work within an ${\cal N} = 2$ truncation of the ${\cal N} = 8$ supergravity theory obtained via a group theory argument. We find perfect agreement between the $S^3$ free energy computed from our supergravity backgrounds and the previous field theory computations of the same quantity based on supersymmetric localization and matrix model techniques.Comment: 48 pages; v2 minor improvement

Spatial Geometry and the Wu-Yang Ambiguity

We display continuous families of SU(2) vector potentials $A_i^a(x)$ in 3 space dimensions which generate the same magnetic field $B^{ai}(x)$ (with det $B\neq 0$). These Wu-Yang families are obtained from the Einstein equation $R_{ij}=-2G_{ij}$ derived recently via a local map of the gauge field system into a spatial geometry with $2$-tensor $G_{ij}=B^a{}_i B^a{}_j\det B$ and connection $\Gamma_{jk}^i$ with torsion defined from gauge covariant derivatives of $B$.Comment: Based on talks given by R. Khuri at PASCOS-94, Syracuse University, May 1994 and at Gursey Memorial Conference I, Istanbul, June 1994, 7 pages, TeX (typo in first Author's name is corrected.

Spinning Geodesic Witten Diagrams

We present an expression for the four-point conformal blocks of symmetric traceless operators of arbitrary spin as an integral over a pair of geodesics in Anti-de Sitter space, generalizing the geodesic Witten diagram formalism of Hijano et al [arXiv:1508.00501] to arbitrary spin. As an intermediate step in the derivation, we identify a convenient basis of bulk three-point interaction vertices which give rise to all possible boundary three point structures. We highlight a direct connection between the representation of the conformal block as a geodesic Witten diagram and the shadow operator formalism.Comment: 28+6 pages, 8 figure

Explicitly Broken Supersymmetry with Exactly Massless Moduli

There is an avatar of the little hierarchy problem of the MSSM in 3-dimensional supersymmetry. We propose a solution to this problem in AdS$_3$ based on the AdS/CFT correspondence. The bulk theory is a supergravity theory in which U(1) $\times$ U(1) R-symmetry is gauged by Chern-Simons fields. The bulk theory is deformed by a boundary term quadratic in the gauge fields. It breaks SUSY completely and sources an exactly marginal operator in the dual CFT. SUSY breaking is communicated by gauge interactions to bulk scalar fields and their spinor superpartners. Since the R-charges of scalar and spinor differ, this generates a SUSY breaking shift of their masses. The Ward identity facilitates the calculation of these mass shifts to any desired order in the strength of the deformation. Moduli fields are massless $R$-neutral bulk scalars with vanishing potential in the undeformed theory. These properties are maintained to all orders in the deformation despite the fact that moduli couple in the bulk to loops of R-charged fields.Comment: Match to published version. All order corrections, i.e. exact results after SUSY breaking, are show