Nonsupersymmetric Seiberg duality, orientifold QCD, and noncritical strings

2008/01/07 by Adi Armoni, Dan Israël, Dan Israel +2 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Dual polyhedron #Duality (order theory) #Gauge anomaly #Gauge group #Gauge theory #Mathematical physics #Moduli space #Orientifold #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Pure mathematics #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum chromodynamics #Quantum mechanics #S-duality #Seiberg duality #String theory #Supersymmetric gauge theory #Supersymmetry #Theoretical physics #Triality #hep-th

paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.77.105009

published as Phys.Rev.D77:105009,2008 · 45 pages, 1 figure

arxiv created 2008/01/07 · openalex publication_date 2008/05/12 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

We propose an electric-magnetic duality and conjecture an exact conformal window for a class of nonsupersymmetric U(N_c) gauge theories with fermions in the (anti)symmetric representation of the gauge group and N_f additional scalar and fermion flavors. The duality exchanges N_c\ensuremath→N_f\ensuremath-N_c\ensuremath∓4 leaving N_f invariant, and has common features with Seiberg duality in N=1 super QCD (SQCD) with SU or SO/Sp gauge group. At large N the duality holds due to planar equivalence with N=1 SQCD. At finite N we embed these gauge theories in a setup with D-branes and orientifolds in a nonsupersymmetric, but tachyon-free, noncritical type 0B string theory and argue in favor of the duality in terms of boundary and crosscap state monodromies as in analogous supersymmetric situations. One can verify explicitly that the resulting duals have matching global anomalies. Finally, we comment on the moduli space of these gauge theories and discuss other potential nonsupersymmetric examples that could exhibit similar dualities.

Citations

• Electric-magnetic duality in supersymmetric non-Abelian gauge theories
• Surprises in open-string perturbation theory
• D-branes in unoriented non-critical strings and duality in SO(N) and Sp(N) gauge theories
• Anomaly Cancellations in the Type I D9-anti-D9 System and the USp(32) String Theory
• Notes on Orientifolds of Rational Conformal Field Theories
• Massless black holes and conifolds in string theory
• Orientifolds, branes, and duality of 4D gauge theories
• A planar diagram theory for strong interactions
• Lectures on supersymmetric gauge theories and electric-magnetic duality
• String theory and black holes
• D-branes in non-critical superstrings and duality in Script N = 1 gauge theories with flavor
• Exact results in non-supersymmetric large N orientifold field theories

Cited by

• A Note on Seiberg Duality and Chiral Symmetry Breaking