Axion-dilaton cosmology, Ricci flows and integrable structures

In this work we study renormalization-group flows by deforming a class of conformal sigma-models. At leading order in $\alpha'$, renormalization-group equations represent a Ricci flow. In the three-sphere background, the latter is described by the Halphen system, which is exactly solvable in terms of modular forms. The round sphere is found to be the unique perturbative infra-red fixed point at one loop order.Comment: 2 pages, based on a talk given at the Cargese Summer School, May 22 to June 3, 200

Deformed supersymmetric gauge theories from the fluxtrap background

The fluxtrap background of string theory provides a transparent and algorithmic way of constructing supersymmetric gauge theories with both mass and Omega-type deformations in various dimensions. In this article, we review a number of deformed supersymmetric gauge theories in two and four dimensions which can be obtained via the fluxtrap background from string or M-theory. Such theories, the most well-known being Omega-deformed super Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions, have met with a lot of interest in the recent literature. The string theory treatment offers many new avenues of analysis and applications, such as for example the study of the gravity duals for deformed N=4 gauge theories

Corfu 05 lectures - part I: Strings on curved backgrounds

In these introductory lectures we summarize some basic facts and techniques about perturbative string theory (sections 1 to 6). These are further developed (sections 7 and 8) for describing string propagation in the presence of gravitational or gauge fields. We also remind some solutions of the string equations of motion, which correspond to remarkable (NS or D) brane configurations. A part II by Emilian Dudas will be devoted to orientifold constructions and applications to string model building

Omega-Deformed Seiberg-Witten Effective Action from the M5-brane

We obtain the leading order corrections to the effective action of an M5-brane wrapping a Riemann surface in the eleven-dimensional supergravity Omega-background. The result can be identified with the first order epsilon-deformation of the Seiberg-Witten effective action of pure SU(2) gauge theory. We also comment on the second order corrections and the generalization to arbitrary gauge group and matter content.Comment: Published in Phys.Lett.

Conformal dimensions via large charge expansion

We construct an efficient Monte Carlo algorithm that overcomes the severe signal-to-noise ratio problems and helps us to accurately compute the conformal dimensions of large-$Q$ fields at the Wilson-Fisher fixed point in the $O(2)$ universality class. Using it we verify a recent proposal that conformal dimensions of strongly coupled conformal field theories with a global $U(1)$ charge can be obtained via a series expansion in the inverse charge $1/Q$. We find that the conformal dimensions of the lowest operator with a fixed charge $Q$ are almost entirely determined by the first few terms in the series.Comment: 4 pages plus supplementary material, 10 figures. Various fixes. Accepted for publication in PR

A safe CFT at large charge

We apply the large-charge limit to the first known example of a four-dimensional gauge-Yukawa theory featuring an ultraviolet interacting fixed point in all couplings. We determine the energy of the ground state in presence of large fixed global charges and deduce the global symmetry breaking pattern. We show that the fermions decouple at low energy leaving behind a confining Yang-Mills theory and a characteristic spectrum of type I (relativistic) and type II (non-relativistic) Goldstone bosons. Armed with the knowledge acquired above we finally arrive at establishing the conformal dimensions of the theory as a triple expansion in the large-charge, the number of flavors and the controllably small inverse gauge coupling constant at the UV fixed point. Our results unveil a number of noteworthy properties of the low-energy spectrum, vacuum energy and conformal properties of the theory. They also allow us to derive a new consistency condition for the relative sizes of the couplings at the fixed point.Comment: 18 pages, published version, some typos correcte