Related papers: Comments on Quantum Higgs Vacua
The moduli space of vacua for the confining phase of N=1 $SO(N_c)$ supersymmetric gauge theories in four dimensions is analyzed by studying the M theory fivebrane. The type IIA brane configuration consists of a single NS5 brane, multiple…
In this work we compare different descriptions of the space of vacua of certain three dimensional N=4 superconformal field theories, compactified on a circle and mass-deformed to N=2 in a canonical way. The original N=4 theories are known…
We study a set of asymmetric deformations of non-critical superstring theories in various dimensions. The deformations arise as Kaehler and complex structure deformations of an orthogonal two-torus comprising of a parallel and a transverse…
Non-geometric flux vacua have recently been revisited, leading to the remarkable discovery of isolated 4D ${\mathcal N}=1$ supersymmetric Minkowski vacua. These constructions rely on the non-renormalization of the superpotential, which is…
We present a gauge theory formulation of a two-dimensional quantum smectic and its relatives, motivated by their realizations in correlated quantum matter. The description gives a unified treatment of phonons and topological defects,…
Within the context of the E_8 x E_8 heterotic superstring compactified on a smooth Calabi-Yau threefold with an SU(4) gauge instanton, we show the existence of simple, realistic N=1 supersymmetric vacua that are compatible with low energy…
In this talk I review the structure of vacua of N=2 theories broken down to N=1 and it's link with factorization of Seiberg-Witten curves. After an introduction to the structure of vacua in various supersymmetric gauge theories, I discuss…
We discuss a simple procedure for finding vacua of gauged supergravity models, based on the variation of the embedding tensor rather than on a direct minimization of the scalar potential. We apply this procedure to N=8 gauged supergravity…
Using the embedding tensor formalism we give the general conditions for the existence of N=1 vacua in spontaneously broken N=2 supergravities. Our results confirm the necessity of having both electrically and magnetically charged multiplets…
We study the $N=1$ supersymmetric $G_2$ gauge theories with $N_f$ flavors of quarks in the fundamental vector representation. We find dynamically generated superpotentials, smooth quantum moduli space, quantum moduli space with additional…
Vacuum compactifications may suffer from instabilities under small perturbations or tunnel effects; both are difficult to analyze. In this paper we consider the issue from a higher-dimensional perspective. We first look at how stability…
We study a brane configuration of D4-branes and NS5-branes in weakly coupled type IIA string theory, which describes in a particular limit d=4 N=1 SU(N+p) supersymmetric QCD with 2N flavors and a quartic superpotential. We describe the…
We study the vacuum structure of the U(N) gauge model with partially broken N=2 supersymmetry. From the analysis of the classical vacua of this model, we point out that in addition to the ordinary N=1 supersymmetric vacua, there are vacua…
We use brane techniques to study the space of vacua of abelian 3d $\mathcal{N}=3$ gauge theories. The coordinates on these spaces are the vevs of chiral monopole and meson operators, which are realized in the type IIB brane configuration of…
We revisit the study of confining vacua in the softly broken N=2 supersymmetric QCD, in the light of some recent developments in our understanding of the dynamics of N=2 gauge theories. These vacua are characterized by an effective magnetic…
In pure N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills with gauge group SU(N), the domain walls which separate the N vacua have been argued, on the basis of string theory realizations, to be D-branes for the confining string. In a certain limit, this means…
We study gauge theories which are associated with classical vacua of perturbative Type II string theory that allows for a conformal field theory description. We show that even if we compactify seven spatial dimensions (allowing for one…
In this thesis we investigate some aspects of the dramatic consequences of supersymmetry breaking on string vacua. In particular, we focus on the issue of vacuum stability in ten-dimensional string models with broken, or without,…
Using gauge theory, we describe how to construct generalized Kahler geometries with (2,2) two-dimensional supersymmetry, which are analogues of familiar examples like projective spaces and Calabi-Yau manifolds. For special cases, T-dual…
We argue that a class of ``non-critical superstring'' vacua is holographically related to the (non-gravitational) theory obtained by studying string theory on a singular Calabi-Yau manifold in the decoupling limit $g_s\to 0$. In two…