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Self-Dual Gauge Theory from the Top Down

High Energy Physics - Theory 2026-05-06 v3 Mathematical Physics math.MP Quantum Algebra

Abstract

We introduce a family of dualities between certain non-supersymmetric self-dual gauge theories on a large class of 4d4d self-dual asymptotically flat backgrounds, and the large NN limit of an independently defined 2d2d chiral defect CFT. Our construction goes via twisted holography for the type I topological string on a Calabi-Yau five-fold which fibres over twistor space. In particular, we show that single-trace operators of the 2d2d defect CFT are in bijection with states of the celestial chiral algebra. We match the operator products of these states with the collinear splitting amplitudes of the self-dual gauge theory up to one-loop. Assigning vacuum expectations to central operators in the boundary theory computes bulk amplitudes on self-dual backgrounds. We are able to extract form factors from these amplitudes, which we use to give a simple closed formula for certain nn-point two-loop all ++ amplitudes in SU(K)×SU(R)\mathrm{SU}(K) \times \mathrm{SU}(R) gauge theory coupled to bifundamental massless fermions.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2412.02680,
  title  = {Self-Dual Gauge Theory from the Top Down},
  author = {Roland Bittleston and Kevin Costello and Keyou Zeng},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2412.02680},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

122 pages + 18 page appendix, 22 figures; v2: computational error pointed out by Anthony Morales corrected; v3: published in CIMP

R2 v1 2026-06-28T20:21:47.646Z