2009/09/30 by Francesco Benini, Yuji Tachikawa, Brian Wecht · 6 citations
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Geometry and complex manifolds #Homotopy and Cohomology in Algebraic Topology #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/jhep01(2010)088
published as JHEP 1001:088,2010 · 39 pages, 6 figures; v2: published version
openalex publication_date 2010/01/01 · arxiv created 2010/06/25 · arxiv updated 2010/06/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In theories without known Lagrangian descriptions, knowledge of the global symmetries is often one of the few pieces of information we have at our disposal. Gauging (part of) such global symmetries can then lead to interesting new theories, which are usually still quite mysterious. In this work, we describe a set of tools that can be used to explore the superconformal phases of these theories. In particular, we describe the contribution of such non-Lagrangian sectors to the NSVZ beta-function, and elucidate the counting of marginal deformations. We apply our techniques to N=1 theories obtained by mass deformations of the N=2 conformal theories recently found by Gaiotto. Because the basic building block of these theories is a triskelion, or trivalent vertex, we dub them "Sicilian gauge theories." We identify these N=1 theories as compactifications of the six-dimensional AN (2,0) theory on Riemann surfaces with punctures and SU(2) Wilson lines. These theories include the holographic duals of the N=1 supergravity solutions found by Maldacena and Nunez.