R7-branes as charge conjugation operators
Markus Dierigl, Jonathan J. Heckman, Miguel Montero, Ethan Torres
Abstract
R7-branes are a class of recently discovered nonsupersymmetric real codimension-two duality defects in type IIB string theory predicted by the swampland cobordism conjecture. For type IIB realizations of 6D SCFTs with <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mi mathvariant="script">N</a:mi><a:mo>=</a:mo><a:mo stretchy="false">(</a:mo><a:mn>2</a:mn><a:mo>,</a:mo><a:mn>0</a:mn><a:mo stretchy="false">)</a:mo></a:math> supersymmetry, wrapping an R7-brane “at infinity” leads to a topological operator associated with a zero-form charge conjugation symmetry that squares to the identity. Similar considerations hold for those theories obtained from further toroidal compactification, but this can be obstructed by bundle curvature effects. Using some minimal data on the topological sector of the R7-branes, we extract the associated fusion rules for these charge conjugation operators. More broadly, we sketch a top down realization of various topological operators/interfaces associated with <f:math xmlns:f="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><f:mi mathvariant="sans-serif">C</f:mi></f:math>, <i:math xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><i:mi mathvariant="sans-serif">R</i:mi></i:math>, and <l:math xmlns:l="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><l:mi mathvariant="sans-serif">T</l:mi></l:math> transformations. We also use holography to provide strong evidence for the existence of the R7-brane which is complementary to the cobordism conjecture. Similar considerations apply to other string-realized QFTs with symmetry operators constructed via nonsupersymmetric branes which carry a conserved charge. Published by the American Physical Society 2024