2010/12/31 by Daniel L. Jafferis · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/jhep05(2012)159
25 pages, v2: references added, typos and an error in a formula corrected
arxiv created 2011/03/30 · arxiv updated 2013/01/24
The three sphere partition function, Z, of three dimensional theories with four supercharges and an R-symmetry is computed using localization, resulting in a matrix integral over the Cartan of the gauge group. There is a family of couplings to the curved background, parameterized by a choice of R-charge, such that supersymmetry is preserved; Z is a function of those parameters. The magnitude of the result is shown to be extremized for the superconformal R-charge of the infrared conformal field theory, in the absence of mixing of the R-symmetry with accidental symmetries. This exactly determines the IR superconformal R-charge.