arXiv subjects

Kimyeong Lee

Publications and source records attributed to Kimyeong Lee.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

2d Conformal Field Theories on Magic Triangle

The magic triangle due to Cvitanović and Deligne--Gross is an extension of the Freudenthal--Tits magic square of semisimple Lie algebras. In this paper, we identify all two-dimensional rational conformal field theories associated to the magic triangle. These include various Wess--Zumino--Witten (WZW) models, Virasoro minimal models, compact bosons and their non-diagonal modular invariants. At level one, we uncover a two-parameter family of fourth-order modular linear differential equation whose solutions yield the affine characters of all elements in the magic triangle. We further establish a universal coset relation for the whole triangle, generalizing the dual-pair structure with respect to $(E_8)_1$ in the Cvitanović--Deligne exceptional series. This coset structure determines the dimensions and degeneracies of all primary fields and leads to five atomic models from which all theories in the triangle can be constructed. At level two, we find that a distinghuished row of the triangle -- the subexceptional series -- exhibits emergent $N=1$ supersymmetry. The corresponding Neveu--Schwarz/Ramond characters satisfy a one-parameter family of fermionic modular linear differential equations. In addition, we find several new uniform coset constructions involving WZW models at higher levels.

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arXiv2026

Integrable Systems for Generalized Toric Polygons and Higgsed 5d N=1 Theories

The interplay between toric Calabi-Yau 3-folds, dimer integrable systems, and 5-dimensional quantum field theories has proved fruitful. We extend this framework to generalized toric polygons (GTPs) and show that their integrable systems arise from refined birational transformations of known dimer integrable systems acting on the Casimirs and Hamiltonians as well as the Poisson structure and spectral curves. We argue that these transformations are realized as Hanany-Witten transitions producing (p,q) 5-brane webs dual to GTPs. We show that the resulting 5d N=1 theory is obtained by Higgsing a higher-rank theory whose associated toric Calabi-Yau has a toric diagram of the same shape as the GTP.

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arXiv2026

Dimers for Relativistic Toda Models with Reflective Boundaries

We construct dimer graphs for relativistic Toda chains associated with classical untwisted Lie algebras of A, B, C$_0$, C$_π$, D types and twisted A, D types. We show that the Seiberg-Witten curve of 5d $\mathcal{N}=1$ pure supersymmetric gauge theory of gauge group $G$ is a spectral curve of the relativistic Toda chain of the dual group $G^\vee$.

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arXiv2025

Probing Quantum Curves and Transitions in 5d SQFTs via Defects and Blowup Equations

We investigate codimension-2 defect partition functions and quantum Seiberg-Witten curves in 5d rank-1 supersymmetric QFTs, including non-Lagrangian and Kaluza-Klein theories. Using generalized blowup equations, we compute defect partition functions in the $Ω$-background and show that, in the Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit, they satisfy certain difference equations that encode the quantization of classical Seiberg-Witten curves. Furthermore, we explore novel transitions in the defect partition functions and their relation to coordinate transformations of quantum Seiberg-Witten curves, with a focus on SL(2,$\mathbb{Z}$) transformations and Hanany-Witten transitions. These findings provide new insights into the interplay between codimension-2 defects, quantum curves, and the geometric structure of 5d supersymmetric QFTs.

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arXiv2024

Defects and type D relativistic Toda lattice for some 5d gauge theories

We perform folding on the ADHM construction of the instanton moduli space from $SU$ to $SO$ group. A Young diagram description for the $SO$ instanton is obtained after modifying the real and complex moment maps of the ADHM data. We study the Bethe gauge correspondence between type D relativistic Toda lattice and 5d $\mathcal{N}=1$ folded theory. In particular we prove that the regular monodromy defect in the folded gauge theory is the stationary wavefunction of the type D relativistic Toda lattice.

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arXiv2024

Dimers for Type D Relativistic Toda Model

We construct dimer graphs for type D relativistic Toda models by introducing impurities to the $Y^{2N,0}$ square dimer graphs. By properly placing the impurities and change of canonical variables assigned to the 1-loops on the dimer graph, we introduce the "folding" of the graphs and get the type D relativistic Toda lattice Hamiltonian and monodromy matrix.

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arXiv2024

On Intermediate Exceptional Series

The Freudenthal--Tits magic square $\mathfrak{m}(\mathbb{A}_1,\mathbb{A}_2)$ for $\mathbb{A}=\mathbb{R},\mathbb{C},\mathbb{H},\mathbb{O}$ of semi-simple Lie algebras can be extended by including the sextonions $\mathbb{S}$. A series of non-reductive Lie algebras naturally appear in the new row associated with the sextonions, which we will call the \textit{intermediate exceptional series}, with the largest one as the intermediate Lie algebra $E_{7+1/2}$ constructed by Landsberg--Manivel. We study various aspects of the intermediate vertex operator (super)algebras associated with the intermediate exceptional series, including rationality, coset constructions, irreducible modules, (super)characters and modular linear differential equations. For all $\mathfrak{g}_I$ belonging to the intermediate exceptional series, the intermediate VOA $L_1(\mathfrak{g}_I)$ has characters of irreducible modules coinciding with those of the simple rational $C_2$-cofinite $W$-algebra $W_{-h^\vee/6}(\mathfrak{g},f_θ)$ studied by Kawasetsu, with $\mathfrak{g} $ belonging to the Cvitanović--Deligne exceptional series. We propose some new intermediate VOA $L_k(\mathfrak{g}_I)$ with integer level $k$ and investigate their properties. For example, for the intermediate Lie algebra $D_{6+1/2}$ between $D_6$ and $E_7$ in the subexceptional series and also in Vogel's projective plane, we find that the intermediate VOA $L_2(D_{6+1/2})$ has a simple current extension to a SVOA with four irreducible Neveu--Schwarz modules. We also provide some (super) coset constructions such as $L_2(E_7)/L_2(D_{6+1/2})$ and $L_1(D_{6+1/2})^{\otimes2}\!/L_2(D_{6+1/2})$. In the end, we find that the theta blocks associated with the intermediate exceptional series produce some new holomorphic Jacobi forms of critical weight and lattice index.

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arXiv2023

Seiberg-Witten curves with O7$^\pm$-planes

We construct Seiberg-Witten curves for 5d $\mathcal{N}=1$ gauge theories whose Type IIB 5-brane configuration involves an O7-plane and discuss an intriguing relation between theories with an O7$^+$-plane and those with an O7$^-$-plane and 8 D7-branes. We claim that 5-brane configurations with an O7$^+$-plane can be effectively understood as 5-brane configurations with a set of an O7$^-$-plane and eight D7-branes with some special tuning of their masses such that the D7-branes are frozen at the O7$^-$-plane. We check this equivalence between SU($N$) gauge theory with a symmetric hypermultiplet and SU($N$) gauge theory with an antisymmetric with 8 fundamentals, and also between SO($2N$) gauge theory and Sp($N$) gauge theory with eight fundamentals. We also compute the Seiberg-Witten curves for non-Lagrangian theories with a symmetric hypermultiplet, which includes the local $\mathbb{P}^2$ theory with an adjoint.

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arXiv2023

On intermediate Lie algebra $E_{7+1/2}$

$E_{7+1/2}$ is an intermediate Lie algebra filling a hole between $E_7$ and $E_8$ in the Deligne-Cvitanović exceptional series. It was found independently by Mathur, Muhki, Sen in the classification of 2d RCFTs via modular linear differential equations (MLDE) and by Deligne, Cohen, de Man in representation theory. In this paper we propose some new vertex operator algebras (VOA) associated with $E_{7+1/2}$ and give some useful information at small levels. We conjecture that the affine VOA $(E_{7+1/2})_k$ is rational if and only if the level $k$ is at most $5$, and provide some evidence from the viewpoint of MLDE. We propose a conjectural Weyl dimension formula for infinitely many irreducible representations of $E_{7+1/2}$, which generates almost all irreducible representations of $E_{7+1/2}$ with level $k\leq 4$. More concretely, we propose the affine VOA $E_{7+1/2}$ at level 2 and the rank-two instanton VOA associated with $E_{7+1/2}$. We compute the VOA characters and provide some coset constructions. These generalize the previous works of Kawasetsu for affine VOA $E_{7+1/2}$ at level 1 and of Arakawa--Kawasetsu at level $-5$. We then predict the conformal weights of affine VOA $E_{7+1/2}$ at level $3,4,5$.

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arXiv2023

On Classification of Fermionic Rational Conformal Field Theories

We systematically study how the integrality of the conformal characters shapes the space of fermionic rational conformal field theories in two dimensions. The integrality suggests that conformal characters on torus with a given choice of spin structures should be invariant under a principal congruence subgroup of $\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$. The invariance strongly constrains the possible values of the central charge as well as the conformal weights in both Neveu-Schwarz and Ramond sectors, which improves the conventional holomorphic modular bootstrap method in a significant manner. This allows us to make much progress on the classification of fermionic rational conformal field theories with the number of independent characters less than five.

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arXiv2022

Twisted Elliptic Genera

We study the twisted elliptic genera of 2d $(0,4)$ SCFTs associated with the BPS strings in the twisted circle compactification of 6d rank-one $(1,0)$ SCFTs. Such objects can arise when the 6d gauge algebra allows outer automorphism, thus are classified by twisted affine Lie algebras. We study several fascinating aspects of the twisted elliptic genera including 2d localization, twisted elliptic blowup equations, Higgsing and spectral flow symmetry. We derive a recursion formula with respect to the number of strings to exactly compute the twisted elliptic genera. We also investigate the modular bootstrap of twisted one-string elliptic genera and find the modularity of congruence subgroups $Γ_1(N)$ naturally appears with possible $N=2,3,4$. Geometrically, our study solves the refined BPS partition of the underlying genus-one fibered Calabi-Yau threefolds with $N$-section.

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arXiv2022

Hecke Relations among 2d Fermionic RCFTs

Recently, Harvey and Wu proposed a suitable Hecke operator for vector-valued $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ modular forms to connect the characters of different 2d rational conformal field theories (RCFTs). We generalize such an operator to the 2d fermionic RCFTs and call it fermionic Hecke operator. The new Hecke operator naturally maps the Neveu-Schwarz (NS) characters of a fermionic theory to the NS characters of another fermionic theory. Mathematically, it is the natural Hecke operator on vector-valued $Γ_θ$ modular forms of weight zero. We find it can also be extended to $\mathrm{\widetilde{NS}}$ and Ramond (R) sectors by combining the characters of the two sectors together. We systematically study the fermionic Hecke relations among 2d fermionic RCFTs with up to five NS characters and find that almost all known supersymmetric RCFTs can be realized as fermionic Hecke images of some simple theories such as supersymmetric minimal models. We also study the coset relations between fermionic Hecke images with respect to $c=12k$ holomorphic SCFTs.

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arXiv2022

Non-unitary TQFTs from 3D $\mathcal{N}=4$ rank 0 SCFTs

We propose a novel procedure of assigning a pair of non-unitary topological quantum field theories (TQFTs), TFT$_\pm [\mathcal{T}_{\rm rank \;0}]$, to a (2+1)D interacting $\mathcal{N}=4$ superconformal field theory (SCFT) $\mathcal{T}_{\rm rank \;0}$ of rank 0, i.e. having no Coulomb and Higgs branches. The topological theories arise from particular degenerate limits of the SCFT. Modular data of the non-unitary TQFTs are extracted from the supersymmetric partition functions in the degenerate limits. As a non-trivial dictionary, we propose that $F = \max_α\left(- \log |S^{(+)}_{0α}| \right) = \max_α\left(- \log |S^{(-)}_{0α}|\right)$, where $F$ is the round three-sphere free energy of $\mathcal{T}_{\rm rank \;0 }$ and $S^{(\pm)}_{0α}$ is the first column in the modular S-matrix of TFT$_\pm$. From the dictionary, we derive the lower bound on $F$, $F \geq -\log \left(\sqrt{\frac{5-\sqrt{5}}{10}} \right) \simeq 0.642965$, which holds for any rank 0 SCFT. The bound is saturated by the minimal $\mathcal{N}=4$ SCFT proposed by Gang-Yamazaki, whose associated topological theories are both the Lee-Yang TQFT. We explicitly work out the (rank 0 SCFT)/(non-unitary TQFTs) correspondence for infinitely many examples.

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arXiv2022

Hecke Relations, Cosets and the Classification of 2d RCFTs

We systemically study the Hecke relations and the $c=8k$ coset relations among 2d rational conformal field theories (RCFTs) with up to seven characters. We propose that the characters of any 2d RCFT -- unitary or non-unitary -- satisfying a holomorphic modular linear differential equation (MLDE) can be realized as either a Hecke image or the coset of a Hecke image with respect to a $c=8k$ theory. Benefited from the recent results on holomorphic modular bootstrap, we check this proposal for all admissible theories with up to five characters. We also find many new interesting Hecke relations. For example, the characters of WZW models $(E_{6})_2,(E_7)_2,(E_{7\frac12})_2$ can be realized as the Hecke images $\mathsf{T}_{13},\mathsf{T}_{19},\mathsf{T}_{19}$ of Virasoro minimal models $M_{\rm sub}(7,6),M(5,4),M_{\rm eff}(13,2)$ respectively. Besides, we find the characters associated to the second largest Fisher group $Fi_{23}$ and the Harada-Norton group $HN$ can be realized as the Hecke images $\mathsf{T}_{23},\mathsf{T}_{19}$ of the product theories $M_{\rm eff}(5,2)\otimes M_{\rm eff}(7,2)$ and $M_{\rm eff}(7,2)^{\otimes 2}$ respectively. Mathematically, our study provides a great many interesting examples of vector-valued modular functions up to rank seven.

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arXiv2022

S-foldings of 5d SCFTs

We explore the $\mathbb{Z}_{2,3,4,6}$ S-foldings of some 5d superconformal field theories from the $(p,q)$ 5-brane web perspective. The S-folding involves both a spatial quotient and an $\mathrm{SL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$ transformation on 5-branes simultaneously. The $\mathbb{Z}_{2,3,4,6}$ S-foldings are achieved by the insertion of the $D_4, E_6, E_7, E_8$ 7-branes, respectively. The deficit angles and monodromies of these 7-branes are exactly those necessary for the S-foldings. We explore the details of the S-folding process, especially the enhancement of global flavor symmetry in various simple cases. The characteristic of the S-folding depends sharply on whether the fixed point of the discrete symmetry is at the center of a compact face (or surface), at a 5-brane, or at a crossing point of 5 branes. The analysis of the prepotential greatly supports this view of the discrete gauging.

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arXiv2022

Topological strings and Wilson loops

We propose the refined topological string correspondence to the expectation values of half-BPS Wilson loop operators in 5d $\mathcal{N}=1$ gauge theory partition function on the Omega-deformed background $\mathbb{R}^4_{ε_{1,2}}\times S^1$. We provide the refined topological vertex method and the refined holomorphic anomaly equation method in the topological string theory, from which we have exact computations on the 5d Wilson loops partition functions in both A- and B-models. Finally, with the exact results we have in B-model, we recover the quantum periods of local $\mathbb{P}^1\times\mathbb{P}^1$ model and local $\mathbb{P}^2$ model in the study of quantum geometry and we further give a refined generalization of A-period.

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arXiv2021

Elliptic Quantum Curves of 6d SO(N) theories

We discuss supersymmetric defects in 6d $\mathcal{N}=(1,0)$ SCFTs with $\mathrm{SO}(N_c)$ gauge group and $N_c-8$ fundamental flavors. The codimension 2 and 4 defects are engineered by coupling the 6d gauge fields to charged free fields in four and two dimensions, respectively. We find that the partition function in the presence of the codimension 2 defect on $\mathbb{R}^4\times \mathbb{T}^2$ in the Nekrasov-Shatashvili limit satisfies an elliptic difference equation which quantizes the Seiberg-Witten curve of the 6d theory. The expectation value of the codimension 4 defect appearing in the difference equation is an even (under reflection) degree $N_c$ section over the elliptic curve when $N_c$ is even, and an odd section when $N_c$ is odd. We also find that RG-flows of the defects and the associated difference equations in the 6d $\mathrm{SO}(2N+1)$ gauge theories triggered by Higgs VEVs of KK-momentum states provide quantum Seiberg-Witten curves for $\mathbb{Z}_2$ twisted compactifications of the 6d $\mathrm{SO}(2N)$ gauge theories.

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arXiv2021

Twisted 6d $(2,0)$ SCFTs on a Circle

We study twisted circle compactification of 6d $(2,0)$ SCFTs to 5d $\mathcal{N} = 2$ supersymmetric gauge theories with non-simply-laced gauge groups. We provide two complementary approaches towards the BPS partition functions, reflecting the 5d and 6d point of view respectively. The first is based on the blowup equations for the instanton partition function, from which in particular we determine explicitly the one-instanton contribution for all simple Lie groups. The second is based on the modular bootstrap program, and we propose a novel modular ansatz for the twisted elliptic genera that transform under the congruence subgroups $Γ_0(N)$ of $\text{SL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$. We conjecture a vanishing bound for the refined Gopakumar-Vafa invariants of the genus one fibered Calabi-Yau threefolds, upon which one can determine the twisted elliptic genera recursively. We use our results to obtain the 6d Cardy formulas and find universal behaviour for all simple Lie groups. In addition, the Cardy formulas remain invariant under the twist once the normalization of the compact circle is taken into account.

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