Liberating confinement from Lagrangians: 1-form symmetries and lines in 4d N=1 from 6d N=(2,0)

Abstract

We study confinement in 4d \mathcal{N}=1 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mstyle mathvariant="script"> <mml:mi>𝒩</mml:mi> </mml:mstyle> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> theories obtained by deforming 4d \mathcal{N}=2 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mstyle mathvariant="script"> <mml:mi>𝒩</mml:mi> </mml:mstyle> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> theories of Class S. We argue that confinement in a vacuum of the \mathcal{N}=1 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mstyle mathvariant="script"> <mml:mi>𝒩</mml:mi> </mml:mstyle> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> theory is encoded in the 1-cycles of the associated \mathcal{N}=1 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mstyle mathvariant="script"> <mml:mi>𝒩</mml:mi> </mml:mstyle> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> curve. This curve is the spectral cover associated to a generalized Hitchin system describing the profiles of two Higgs fields over the Riemann surface upon which the 6d (2,0) <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo stretchy="false" form="prefix">(</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> <mml:mo>,</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> <mml:mo stretchy="false" form="postfix">)</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> theory is compactified. Using our method, we reproduce the expected properties of confinement in various classic examples, such as 4d \mathcal{N}=1 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mstyle mathvariant="script"> <mml:mi>𝒩</mml:mi> </mml:mstyle> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> pure Super-Yang-Mills theory and the Cachazo-Seiberg-Witten setup. More generally, this work can be viewed as providing tools for probing confinement in non-Lagrangian \mathcal{N}=1 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mstyle mathvariant="script"> <mml:mi>𝒩</mml:mi> </mml:mstyle> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> theories, which we illustrate by constructing an infinite class of non-Lagrangian \mathcal{N}=1 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mstyle mathvariant="script"> <mml:mi>𝒩</mml:mi> </mml:mstyle> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> theories that contain confining vacua. The simplest model in this class is an \mathcal{N}=1 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mstyle mathvariant="script"> <mml:mi>𝒩</mml:mi> </mml:mstyle> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> deformation of the \mathcal{N}=2 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mstyle mathvariant="script"> <mml:mi>𝒩</mml:mi> </mml:mstyle> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> theory obtained by gauging SU(3)^3 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>S</mml:mi> <mml:mi>U</mml:mi> <mml:mo stretchy="false" form="prefix">(</mml:mo> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> <mml:msup> <mml:mo stretchy="false" form="postfix">)</mml:mo> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> </mml:msup> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> flavor symmetry of the E_6 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>E</mml:mi> <mml:mn>6</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:math> Minahan-Nemeschansky theory.

Topics & Concepts