Defects in 4d SCFTs from supergravity and holographic renormalization
Abstract
Type IIB string theory admits Janus solutions connecting vacua. These geometries correspond to interface conformal field theories and are naturally described in five-dimensional supergravity as foliations over an interval. In this work, we introduce a novel type of Janus solution in , featuring foliations instead of . We interpret these solutions as the supergravity duals of line defects in four-dimensional SCFTs and we discuss their D-brane engineering. Our primary tool is Romans supergravity in five dimensions, which provides a simple Type IIB truncation over . Within this framework, under specific conditions, we construct regular solutions interpolating between and . These geometries represent one-parameter deformations of vacua and are characterized by a running profile for two-form gauge potentials and a scalar field in the supergravity bulk. Finally, using holographic renormalization, we explicitly compute the on-shell action of the defect and we discuss the one-point functions in the holographic field theory.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2501.17923,
title = {Defects in 4d SCFTs from supergravity and holographic renormalization},
author = {Federico Faedo and Nicolò Petri and Alessia Segati},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.17923},
year = {2025}
}
Comments
46 pages. v2: minor changes, references added, published version