English

On Current-Squared Flows and ModMax Theories

High Energy Physics - Theory 2022-08-10 v3

Abstract

We show that the recently introduced ModMax theory of electrodynamics and its Born-Infeld-like generalization are related by a flow equation driven by a quadratic combination of stress-energy tensors. The operator associated to this flow is a 4d4d analogue of the TTˉT\bar{T} deformation in two dimensions. This result generalizes the observation that the ordinary Born-Infeld Lagrangian is related to the free Maxwell theory by a current-squared flow. As in that case, we show that no analogous relationship holds in any other dimension besides d=4d=4. We also demonstrate that the N=1\mathcal{N}=1 supersymmetric version of the ModMax-Born-Infeld theory obeys a related supercurrent-squared flow which is formulated directly in N=1\mathcal{N}=1 superspace.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2203.01085,
  title  = {On Current-Squared Flows and ModMax Theories},
  author = {Christian Ferko and Liam Smith and Gabriele Tartaglino-Mazzucchelli},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2203.01085},
  year   = {2022}
}

Comments

47 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-24T09:59:16.518Z