arXiv subjects

N. P. Warner

Publications and source records attributed to N. P. Warner.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2013

Global Structure of Five-dimensional BPS Fuzzballs

We describe and study families of BPS microstate geometries, namely, smooth, horizonless asymptotically-flat solutions to supergravity. We examine these solutions from the perspective of earlier attempts to find solitonic solutions in gravity and show how the microstate geometries circumvent the earlier "No-Go" theorems. In particular, we re-analyse the Smarr formula and show how it must be modified in the presence of non-trivial second homology. This, combined with the supergravity Chern-Simons terms, allows the existence of rich classes of BPS, globally hyperbolic, asymptotically flat, microstate geometries whose spatial topology is the connected sum of N copies of S^2 x S^2 with a "point at infinity" removed. These solutions also exhibit "evanescent ergo-regions," that is, the non-space-like Killing vector guaranteed by supersymmetry is time-like everywhere except on time-like hypersurfaces (ergo-surfaces) where the Killing vector becomes null. As a by-product of our work, we are able to resolve the puzzle of why some regular soliton solutions violate the BPS bound: their spactimes do not admit a spin structure.

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arXiv2005

Holographic Duals of a Family of N=1 Fixed Points

We construct a family of warped AdS_5 compactifications of IIB supergravity that are the holographic duals of the complete set of N=1 fixed points of a Z_2 quiver gauge theory. This family interpolates between the T^{1,1} compactification with no three-form flux and the Z_2 orbifold of the Pilch-Warner geometry which contains three-form flux. This family of solutions is constructed by making the most general Ansatz allowed by the symmetries of the field theory. We use Killing spinor methods because the symmetries impose two simple projection conditions on the Killing spinors, and these greatly reduce the problem. We see that generic interpolating solution has a nontrivial dilaton in the internal five-manifold. We calculate the central charge of the gauge theories from the supergravity backgrounds and find that it is 27/32 of the parent N=2, quiver gauge theory. We believe that the projection conditions that we derived here will be useful for a much larger class of N=1 holographic RG-flows.

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arXiv2003

A Dielectric Flow Solution with Maximal Supersymmetry

We obtain a solution to eleven-dimensional supergravity that consists of M2-branes embedded in a dielectric distribution of M5-branes. Contrary to normal expectations, this solution has maximal supersymmetry for a brane solution (i.e. sixteen supercharges). While the solution is constructed using gauged supergravity in four dimensions, the complete eleven-dimensional solution is given. In particular, we obtain the Killing spinors explicitly, and we find that they are characterised by a duality rotation of the standard Dirichlet projection matrix for M2-branes.

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arXiv2000

Continuous distributions of D3-branes and gauged supergravity

States on the Coulomb branch of N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory are studied from the point of view of gauged supergravity in five dimensions. These supersymmetric solutions provide examples of consistent truncation from type IIB supergravity in ten dimensions. A mass gap for states created by local operators and perfect screening for external quarks arise in the supergravity approximation. We offer an interpretation of these surprising features in terms of ensembles of brane distributions.

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arXiv1999

Quartic Gauge Couplings from K3 Geometry

We show how certain F^4 couplings in eight dimensions can be computed using the mirror map and K3 data. They perfectly match with the corresponding heterotic one-loop couplings, and therefore this amounts to a successful test of the conjectured duality between the heterotic string on T^2 and F-theory on K3. The underlying quantum geometry appears to be a 5-fold, consisting of a hyperk"ahler 4-fold fibered over a IP^1 base. The natural candidate for this fiber is the symmetric product Sym^2(K3). We are lead to this structure by analyzing the implications of higher powers of E_2 in the relevant Borcherds counting functions, and in particular the appropriate generalizations of the Picard-Fuchs equations for the K3.

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arXiv1999

Prepotentials from Symmetric Products

We investigate the prepotential that describes certain F^4 couplings in eight dimensional string compactifications, and show how they can be computed from the solutions of inhomogenous differential equations. These appear to have the form of the Picard-Fuchs equations of a fibration of Sym^2(K3) over P^1. Our findings give support to the conjecture that the relevant geometry which underlies these couplings is given by a five-fold.

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arXiv1999

Renormalization Group Flows from Five-Dimensional Supergravity

The use of gauged ${\cal N} = 8$ supergravity as a tool in studying the AdS/CFT correspondence for ${\cal N} = 4$ Yang-Mills theory is reviewed. The supergravity potential implies a non-trivial, supersymmetric IR fixed point, and the flow to this fixed point is described in terms of a supergravity kink. The results agree perfectly with earlier, independent field theory results. A supergravity inspired $c$-function, and corresponding $c$-theorem is discussed for general flows, and the simplified form for supersymmetric flows is also given. Flows along the Coulomb branch of the Yang-Mills theory are also described from the five-dimensional perspective.

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arXiv1999

Renormalization Group Flows from Holography--Supersymmetry and a c-Theorem

We obtain first order equations that determine a supersymmetric kink solution in five-dimensional N=8 gauged supergravity. The kink interpolates between an exterior anti-de Sitter region with maximal supersymmetry and an interior anti-de Sitter region with one quarter of the maximal supersymmetry. One eighth of supersymmetry is preserved by the kink as a whole. We interpret it as describing the renormalization group flow in N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory broken to an N=1 theory by the addition of a mass term for one of the three adjoint chiral superfields. A detailed correspondence is obtained between fields of bulk supergravity in the interior anti-de Sitter region and composite operators of the infrared field theory. We also point out that the truncation used to find the reduced symmetry critical point can be extended to obtain a new N=4 gauged supergravity theory holographically dual to a sector of N=2 gauge theories based on quiver diagrams. We consider more general kink geometries and construct a c-function that is positive and monotonic if a weak energy condition holds in the bulk gravity theory. For even-dimensional boundaries, the c-function coincides with the trace anomaly coefficients of the holographically related field theory in limits where conformal invariance is recovered.

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arXiv1998

New Vacua of Gauged N=8 Supergravity

We analyze a particular SU(2) invariant sector of the scalar manifold of gauged N=8 supergravity in five dimensions, and find all the critical points of the potential within this sector. The critical points give rise to Anti-de Sitter vacua, and preserve at least an SU(2) gauge symmetry. Consistent truncation implies that these solutions correspond to Anti-de Sitter compactifications of IIB supergravity, and hence to possible near-horizon geometries of 3-branes. Thus we find new conformal phases of softly broken N=4 Yang--Mills theory. One of the critical points preserves N=2 supersymmetry in the bulk and is therefore completely stable, and corresponds to an N=1 superconformal fixed point of the Yang--Mills theory. The corresponding renormalization group flow from the N=4 point has c_{IR}/c_{UV} = 27/32. We also discuss the ten-dimensional geometries corresponding to these critical points.

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arXiv1998

Quark Potentials in the Higgs Phase of Large N Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theories

We compute, in the large N limit, the quark potential for ${\cal N}=4$ supersymmetric SU(N) Yang-Mills theory broken to $SU(N_1) \times SU(N_2)$. At short distances the quarks see only the unbroken gauge symmetry and have an attractive potential that falls off as 1/L. At longer distances the interquark interaction is sensitive to the symmetry breaking, and other QCD states appear. These states correspond to combinations of the quark-antiquark pair with some number of W-particles. If there is one or more W-particles then this state is unstable because of the coulomb interaction between the W-particles and between the W's and the quarks. As L is decreased the W-particles delocalize and these coulomb branches merge onto a branch with a linear potential. The quarks on this branch see the unbroken gauge group, but the flux tube is unstable to the production of W-particles.

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arXiv1998

E-Strings and N=4 Topological Yang-Mills Theories

We study certain properties of six-dimensional tensionless E-strings (arising from zero size $E_8$ instantons). In particular we show that $n$ E-strings form a bound string which carries an $E_8$ level $n$ current algebra as well as a left-over conformal system with $c=12n-4-{248n \over n+30}$, whose characters can be computed. Moreover we show that the characters of the $n$-string bound state are captured by N=4 U(n) topological Yang-Mills theory on $\half K3$. This relation not only illuminates certain aspects of E-strings but can also be used to shed light on the properties of N=4 topological Yang-Mills theories on manifolds with $b_2^+=1$. In particular the E-string partition functions, which can be computed using local mirror symmetry on a Calabi-Yau three-fold, give the Euler characteristics of the Yang-Mills instanton moduli space on $\half K3$. Moreover, the partition functions are determined by a gap condition combined with a simple recurrence relation which has its origins in a holomorphic anomaly that has been conjectured to exist for N=4 topological Yang-Mills on manifolds with $b_2^+=1$ and is also related to the holomorphic anomaly for higher genus topological strings on Calabi-Yau threefolds.

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arXiv1997

Instanton Expansions for Mass Deformed N=4 Super Yang-Mills Theories

We derive modular anomaly equations from the Seiberg-Witten-Donagi curves for softly broken N=4 SU(n) gauge theories. From these equations we can derive recursion relations for the pre-potential in powers of m^2, where m is the mass of the adjoint hypermultiplet. Given the perturbative contribution of the pre-potential and the presence of ``gaps'' we can easily generate the m^2 expansion in terms of polynomials of Eisenstein series, at least for relatively low rank groups. This enables us to determine efficiently the instanton expansion up to fairly high order for these gauge groups, e. g. eighth order for SU(3). We find that after taking a derivative, the instanton expansion of the pre-potential has integer coefficients. We also postulate the form of the modular anomaly equations, the recursion relations and the form of the instanton expansions for the SO(2n) and E_n gauge groups, even though the corresponding Seiberg-Witten-Donagi curves are unknown at this time.

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arXiv1997

Partition Functions for BPS States of the Non-Critical E_8 String

We consider the BPS states of the $E_8$ non-critical string wound around one of the circles of a toroidal compactification to four dimensions. These states are indexed by their momenta and winding numbers. We find explicit expressions, $G_n$, for the momentum partition functions for the states with winding number $n$. The $G_n$ are given in terms of modular forms. We give a simple algorithm for generating the $G_n$, and we show that they satisfy a recurrence relation that is reminiscent of the holomorphic anomaly equations of Kodaira-Spencer theory.

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arXiv1997

Investigating the BPS Spectrum of Non-Critical E_n Strings

We use the effective action of the $E_n$ non-critical strings to study its BPS spectrum for $0 \le n \le 8$. We show how to introduce mass parameters, or Wilson lines, into the effective action, and then perform the appropriate asymptotic expansions that yield the BPS spectrum. The result is the $E_n$ character expansion of the spectrum, and is equivalent to performing the mirror map on a Calabi-Yau with up to nine Kähler moduli. This enables a much more detailed examination of the $E_n$ structure of the theory, and provides extensive checks on the effective action description of the non-critical string. We extract some universal ($E_n$ independent) information concerning the degeneracies of BPS excitations.

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arXiv1997

Non-Critical Strings, Del Pezzo Singularities And Seiberg-Witten Curves

We study limits of four-dimensional type II Calabi-Yau compactifications with vanishing four-cycle singularities, which are dual to $\IT^2$ compactifications of the six-dimensional non-critical string with $E_8$ symmetry. We define proper subsectors of the full string theory, which can be consistently decoupled. In this way we obtain rigid effective theories that have an intrinsically stringy BPS spectrum. Geometrically the moduli spaces correspond to special geometry of certain non-compact Calabi-Yau spaces of an intriguing form. An equivalent description can be given in terms of Seiberg-Witten curves, given by the elliptic simple singularities together with a peculiar choice of meromorphic differentials. We speculate that the moduli spaces describe non-perturbative non-critical string theories.

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arXiv1996

Exceptional SW Geometry from ALE Fibrations

We show that the genus 34 Seiberg-Witten curve underlying $N=2$ Yang-Mills theory with gauge group $E_6$ yields physically equivalent results to the manifold obtained by fibration of the $E_6$ ALE singularity. This reconciles a puzzle raised by $N=2$ string duality.

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arXiv1995

Supersymmetric, Integrable Boundary Field Theories

Quantum integrable models that possess $N=2$ supersymmetry are investigated on the half-space. Conformal perturbation theory is used to identify some $N=2$ supersymmetric boundary integrable models, and the effective boundary Landau-Ginzburg actions are constructed. It is found that $N=2$ supersymmetry largely determines the boundary action in terms of the bulk, and in particular, the boundary bosonic potential is $|W|^2$, where $W$ is the bulk superpotential. Supersymmetry is also discussed from the perspective of the affine quantum group symmetry of exact scattering matrices, and exact $N=2$ supersymmetry preserving boundary reflection matrices are described.

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arXiv1995

Integrability in N=2 Gauge Theory: A Proof

The holomorphic prepotential of ultraviolet finite N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories is obtained by a partial twisting of N=1 gauge theory in six dimensions, compactified on $\IR^4\timesT^2$. We show that Ward identities for the conserved chiral $\R$-symmetry in these theories generate a set of constraints on the correlation functions of chiral ring operators. These correlators depend only on the coordinates of the $T^2$, and the constraints are analogs of the Knihnik-Zamolodchikov-Bernard equations at the critical level.

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