Related papers: Loop operators and S-duality from curves on Rieman…
Surface operators in gauge theory are analogous to Wilson and 't Hooft line operators except that they are supported on a two-dimensional surface rather than a one-dimensional curve. In a previous paper, we constructed a certain class of…
We study the two-loop dilatation operator in the noncompact SL(2) sector of QCD and supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories with N=1,2,4 supercharges. The analysis is performed for Wilson operators built from three quark/gaugino fields of the…
The path integral of a general N=2 supersymmetric gauge theory on S^4 is exactly evaluated in the presence of a supersymmetric 't Hooft loop operator. The result we find - obtained using localization techniques - captures all perturbative…
We study 4D N=2 superconformal theories that arise from the compactification of 6D N=(2,0) theories of type A_{2N-1} on a Riemann surface C, in the presence of punctures twisted by a Z_2 outer automorphism. We describe how to do a complete…
Wilson loops in gauge theories pose a fundamental challenge for dualities. Wilson loops are labeled by a representation of the gauge group and should map under duality to loop operators labeled by the same data, yet generically, dual…
We derive a general formula of an index for N = 2 superconformal field theories on S1 \times S3 with insertions of BPS Wilson line or 't Hooft line operator at the north pole and their anti-counterpart at the south pole of S3. One-loop and…
We propose an SL(2,R) Chern-Simons description of Liouville field theory (LFT), whose correlation function duals to partition function of N=2 SU(2) gauge theories. We give the dual expressions for conformal blocks, fusion rules, and Wilson…
In these notes we attempt to give a pedagogical introduction to the work of Seiberg and Witten on S-duality and the exact results of N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories with and without matter. The first half is devoted to a review of…
Surface operators are nonlocal probes of gauge theories capable of distinguishing phases that are not discernible by the classic Wilson-'t Hooft criterion. We prove that the correlation function of a surface operator with a chiral primary…
A new universal model to implement the Seiberg-Witten approach to low-energy properties of the supersymmetric N=2 gauge theory with an arbitrary compact simple gauge group, classical or exceptional, is suggested. It is based on the…
The covariantization procedure is usually referred to the translation operator, that is the derivative. Here we introduce a general method to covariantize arbitrary differential operators, such as the ones defining the fundamental group of…
We study the generalization of S-duality and Argyres-Seiberg duality for a large class of N=2 superconformal gauge theories. We identify a family of strongly interacting SCFTs and use them as building blocks for generalized superconformal…
Loop operators of a class S theory arise from networks on the corresponding Riemann surface, and their operator product expansions are given in terms of the skein relations, that we describe in detail in the case of class S theories of type…
We give dual interpretations of Seiberg-Witten and Dijkgraaf-Vafa (or matrix model) curves in n=1 supersymmetric U(N) gauge theory. This duality interchanges the rank of the gauge group with the degree of the superpotential; moreover, the…
Using localization, matrix model and saddle-point techniques, we determine exact behavior of circular Wilson loop in N=2 superconformal (quiver) gauge theories. Focusing at planar and large `t Hooft couling limits, we compare its asymptotic…
The partition function of a family of four dimensional N=2 gauge theories has been recently related to correlation functions of two dimensional conformal Toda field theories. For SU(2) gauge theories, the associated two dimensional theory…
In this paper, we determine the charge lattice of mutually local Wilson and 't Hooft line operators for class S theories living on M5-branes wrapped on compact Riemann surfaces. The main ingredients of our analysis are the fundamental group…
The average of two Wilson loops is expressed in terms of gauge invariant field strength correlators. Assuming the existence of finite correlation length $T_g$ and taking into account the absence of a fixed direction in colour space, we…
We study rigid surface operators in the $N=4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories with gauge groups $SO(n)$ and $Sp(2n)$. Using maps $X_S$ and $Y_S$ between these two theories, Wyllard made explicit proposals for how the $S$-duality map…
We extend the methods of Spradlin and Volovich to compute the partition function for a conformally-invariant gauge theory on R x S^3 in which the dilatation operator is represented by a spin-chain Hamiltonian acting on pairs of states, not…