English

Chiral Algebras, Localization and Surface Defects

High Energy Physics - Theory 2018-04-04 v2

Abstract

Four-dimensional N = 2 superconformal quantum field theories contain a subsector carrying the structure of a chiral algebra. Using localization techniques, we show for the free hypermultiplet that this structure can be accessed directly from the path integral on the four-sphere. We extend the localization computation to include supersymmetric surface defects described by a generic 4d/2d coupled system. The presence of a defect corresponds to considering a module of the chiral algebra: our results provide a calculational window into its structure constants.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1710.04306,
  title  = {Chiral Algebras, Localization and Surface Defects},
  author = {Yiwen Pan and Wolfger Peelaers},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1710.04306},
  year   = {2018}
}

Comments

47 pages; minor typos corrected

R2 v1 2026-06-22T22:10:50.816Z