Related papers: Confinement in a finite duality cascade
We address the possibility of false vacuum decay in $N=1$ supergravity theories, including those corresponding to superstring vacua. By establishing a Bogomol'nyi bound for the energy density stored in the domain wall of the $O(4)$…
We study a SU(2) gauge theory with a classical complex modulus. Introducing a chemical potential for a conserved modulus hypercharge causes it to become unstable and start condensing. We show that the modulus condensation in turn generates…
We analyze the stability properties of a simple holographic model for a confining field theory. The gravity dual consists of an Abelian gauge field, with non-trivial magnetic flux, coupled to six-dimensional gravity with a negative…
In the first lecture, we derive the five-dimensional effective action of strongly coupled heterotic string theory for the complete (1,1) sector of the theory by performing a reduction, on a Calabi-Yau three-fold, of M-theory on S1/Z2. The…
We study the vacuum expectation value of half-BPS Wilson loop operators in two families of superconformal $\mathcal{N}=2$ Chern-Simons-matter theories. The first family is dual to AdS$_{4}$ solutions in M-theory, while the second one has a…
We study three-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ $Spin(7)$ gauge theories with $N_S$ spinorial matters and with $N_f$ vectorial matters. The quantum Coulomb branch on the moduli space of vacua is one- or two-dimensional depending on the matter…
We calculate configuration energies of string-like membranes in M2- and M5-brane spaces. In the near horizon approximation these backgrounds reduce to $AdS_4\times S^7$ and $AdS_7\times S^4$ spaces and the dual theories are supersymmetric…
Confinement is a well-known phenomenon in the infrared regime of (supersymmetric) Yang-Mills theory. While both experimental observations and numerical simulations have robustly confirmed its existence, the underlying physical mechanism…
A new family of $D=4$ $\mathcal{N}=8$ gauged supergravities is introduced, consisting in a mixture of Scherk-Schwarz and dyonic CSO gaugings that involves the trombone scaling symmetry. A specific theory in this class is shown to admit…
We consider renormalization group flows between conformal field theories in five (six) dimensions with a string (M-theory) dual. By compactifying on a circle (torus) with appropriate boundary conditions, we obtain continuous families of…
We investigate the invertible and non-invertible symmetries of topological finite-group gauge theories in general spacetime dimensions, where the gauge group can be abelian or non-abelian. We focus in particular on the 0-form symmetry. The…
We consider the interplay between brane constructions and type IIA, IIB or M-theory geometries on Calabi-Yau (CY) and G_2 holonomy manifolds. This is related to N=1 (and N=2) gauge theories in four dimensions. We first discuss simple…
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…
It has been shown that the mechanism of formation of glue-bags in the strong coupling limit of Yang-Mills theory can be understood in terms of the dynamics of a higher-rank abelian gauge field, namely, the 3-form dual to the Chern-Simons…
We explore novel examples of RG flows preserving a non-invertible self-duality symmetry. Our main focus is on $\mathcal{N}=1$ quadratic superpotential deformations of 4d $\mathcal{N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills theory with gauge algebra…
We propose the dual gravity of a non conformal gauge theory which has logarithmic running of couplings in the IR but becomes almost conformal in the far UV. The theory has matter in fundamental representation, non-zero temperature and under…
We construct the two dimensional N=(0,4) gauge theory that lives on the world volume of D1-branes and intersecting D5-branes. We conjecture that this theory flows in the infra-red to a fixed point with large N=(4,4) superconformal symmetry.…
As noted by Witten, compactifying a $d$-dimensional holographic CFT on an $S^1$ gives a class of $(d-1)$-dimensional confining theories with gravity duals. The prototypical bulk solution dual to the ground state is a double Wick rotation of…
Just comparing with the scenario that the (3+1)-dimensional "real world" of the Calabi-Yau compactification has a tremendous landscape, we conjecture that a (4+1)-dimensional holographic theory may also hold a landscape of its vacua. Unlike…
String and membrane dynamics may be unified into a theory of 2+2 dimensional self-dual world-volumes living in a 10+2 dimensional target space. Some of the vacua of this M-theory are described by the N=(2,1) heterotic string, whose target…