English

A Master Superspace Action for 3D S-Duality

High Energy Physics - Theory 2025-12-15 v1

Abstract

We formulate a `master' partition function in three-dimensional N=2\mathcal{N}=2 superspace that realises, upon integrating out complementary superfields, both the electric Maxwell--Chern--Simons (MCS) theory and its magnetic SS-dual: a non-gauge Deser--Jackiw self-dual massive vector times a decoupled level-kk Chern--Simons term. The two descriptions share the topological mass M=g2k2πM=\frac{g^{2}k}{2\pi} and obey an exact partition-function identity Zmag(gm2,k)=Zele(ge2,k)\mathcal Z_{\rm mag}(g_m^2,k)=\mathcal Z_{\rm ele}(g_e^2,k) with gegm=2πg_e g_m=2\pi, mapping a weakly coupled MCS theory to a strongly coupled Deser--Jackiw CS theory. Special limits reproduce pure Chern--Simons/Gaiotto--Witten (g2=0g^{2}=0) and Maxwell/compact-scalar duality (k=0k=0). We extend the construction to a non-Abelian U(N)(N) gauge group obtaining N=2\mathcal N=2 Yang--Mills--Chern--Simons on the electric side and a massive non-gauge vector coupled to level-kk Chern--Simons on the magnetic side; the interaction terms between the massive vector and the Chern-Simons term vanish in the Abelian case. Decomposing the N=2\mathcal N=2 vector into an N=1\mathcal N=1 vector and a real-linear multiplet factorises the master action and yields the N=1\mathcal N=1 counterparts. This uplifts the bosonic duality formulated recently to N=2\mathcal N=2 and clarifies its non-Abelian and N=1\mathcal N=1 reductions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.11563,
  title  = {A Master Superspace Action for 3D S-Duality},
  author = {Adi Armoni and Ricardo Stuardo and Mark Thomas},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.11563},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

37 pages, 1 table

R2 v1 2026-07-01T08:22:14.317Z