SciPost Submission Page
Coulomb branch surgery: Holonomy saddles, S-folds and discrete symmetry gaugings
by Elias Furrer, Horia Magureanu
This Submission thread is now published as
Submission summary
| Authors (as registered SciPost users): | Elias Furrer · Horia Magureanu |
| Submission information | |
|---|---|
| Preprint Link: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.02955v2 (pdf) |
| Date accepted: | 2024-08-21 |
| Date submitted: | 2024-07-17 11:31 |
| Submitted by: | Furrer, Elias |
| Submitted to: | SciPost Physics |
| Ontological classification | |
|---|---|
| Academic field: | Physics |
| Specialties: |
|
| Approaches: | Theoretical, Computational |
Abstract
Symmetries of Seiberg-Witten (SW) geometries capture intricate physical aspects of the underlying 4d $\mathcal{N} = 2$ field theories. For rank-one theories, these geometries are rational elliptic surfaces whose automorphism group is a semi-direct product between the Coulomb branch (CB) symmetries and the Mordell-Weil group. We study quotients of the SW geometry by subgroups of its automorphism group, which most naturally become gaugings of discrete 0- and 1-form symmetries. Yet, new interpretations of these surgeries become evident when considering 5d $\mathcal{N}=1$ superconformal field theories. There, certain CB symmetries are related to symmetries of the corresponding $(p,q)$-brane web and, as a result, CB surgeries can give rise to (fractional) S-folds. Another novel interpretation of these quotients is the folding across dimensions: circle compactifications of the 5d $E_{2N_f + 1}$ Seiberg theories lead in the infrared to two copies of locally indistinguishable 4d SU(2) SQCD theories with $N_f$ fundamental flavours. This extends earlier results on holonomy saddles, while also reproducing detailed computations of 5d BPS spectra and predicting new 5d and 6d BPS quivers. Finally, we argue that the semi-direct product structure of the automorphism group of the SW geometry includes mixed 't Hooft anomalies between the 0- and 1-form symmetries, and we also present some new results on non-cyclic CB symmetries.
Author indications on fulfilling journal expectations
- Provide a novel and synergetic link between different research areas.
- Open a new pathway in an existing or a new research direction, with clear potential for multi-pronged follow-up work
- Detail a groundbreaking theoretical/experimental/computational discovery
- Present a breakthrough on a previously-identified and long-standing research stumbling block
Author comments upon resubmission
List of changes
- Updated discussion on BPS spectrum on p. 41-42
- Quiver (4.38) added
- references added
- typos fixed
Published as SciPost Phys. 17, 073 (2024)
Reports on this Submission
Report
The requested changes have been appropriately addressed, and the current version of the manuscript meets the expectations for publication in SciPost.
I therefore recommend the publication of the manuscript.
Recommendation
Publish (surpasses expectations and criteria for this Journal; among top 10%)
Report
The updated discussions are presented in an appropriate manner and, therefore, I recommend that this paper be considered for publication.
Recommendation
Publish (easily meets expectations and criteria for this Journal; among top 50%)