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2d dualities from 4d
by Jiaqun Jiang, Satoshi Nawata, Jiahao Zheng
This is not the latest submitted version.
Submission summary
Authors (as registered SciPost users): | Jiang Jiaqun · Satoshi Nawata · Jiahao Zheng |
Submission information | |
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Preprint Link: | https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.17350v2 (pdf) |
Date submitted: | Feb. 17, 2025, 5:56 a.m. |
Submitted by: | Nawata, Satoshi |
Submitted to: | SciPost Physics |
Ontological classification | |
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Academic field: | Physics |
Specialties: |
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Approach: | Theoretical |
Abstract
We find new $\mathcal{N}=(2,2)$ and $\mathcal{N}=(0,2)$ dualities through the twisted compactifications of 4d supersymmetric theories on $S^2$. Our findings include dualities for both $\mathcal{N}=(2,2)$ and $\mathcal{N}=(0,2)$ non-Abelian gauge theories, as well as $\mathcal{N}=(0,2)$ Gauge/Landau-Ginzburg duality.
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
As noted above, the entire structure of the paper has been reorganized.
Section 2 has undergone a minor revision:
- In Section 2.3, we clarify that the term discussed is the scalar potential, not the superpotential. In an \(\mathcal{N}=(2,2)\) theory, the scalar potential is present even when there is no superpotential.
- Below equation (2.6) for the elliptic genus, we mention that the coordinate ring of the target space \((\mathrak{t} \times \mathrak{t}) / S_N\) is generated by \(\text{Tr}(\phi^i \sigma^j)\). However, we are unclear about the precise relation between these generators, and thus do not fully understand the cancellation mechanism that leads to such a simple expression for the elliptic genus.
Section 3 has undergone a major revision with the addition of new dualities:
- Section 3.1 provides a more detailed discussion of the duality of SU gauge theories originally found by Gadde-Razamat-Willet [arXiv:1506.08795], addressing various subtleties.
- Section 3.2 generalizes the (0,2) Seiberg-like duality for the Sp gauge group into a new triality. In a similar vein, we propose a new triality involving SO gauge theory, SU+1Sym gauge theory, and a Landau-Ginzburg model. Based on these results, we uncover new (0,2) dualities in the following subsections:
- Section 3.3 proposes a new duality between Sp gauge theory and SU quiver gauge theory.
- Section 3.4 presents a duality between two SU+1AS gauge theories.
- Section 3.5 introduces a duality between two SU+1Sym gauge theories.
- Section 3.6 investigates SO and Sp gauge theories with adjoint chiral matter, exploring their dualities with free chiral theories.
- Section 3.7 explores theories that contain both symmetric and anti-symmetric chiral multiplets, presenting a duality to a Landau-Ginzburg model.
We have added Appendix C to provide additional technical details on the (0,2) dualities that are too specialized for the main text:
- Appendix C.1 explains the twisted compactification of the 4d \(\mathcal{N}=1\) Intriligator-Seiberg duality on \(S^2\), which leads to a duality between (0,2) SO gauge theory and a Landau-Ginzburg model.
- Appendix C.2 proposes a triality similar to the one discussed in Section 3.2.
- Appendices C.3 and C.4 cover dualities not included in Section 3.5.
Current status:
Reports on this Submission
Report
The authors have significantly revised the manuscript so to address the comments from my previous report and the one of the other referee, and also to include numerous new results. Most changes look good to me, however since the manuscript has changed substantially I have some more comments.
- I am also confused (like the other referee) by the superpotentials that the authors have added (upon request from the previous reports) to the 2d (0,2) dualities of section 3.
1) Compared to the first version of the manuscript, the authors have expanded the duality between $SU(2N)$ with one antisymmetric $X$ and $2N+2$ fundamental chirals $Y$ and the LG model of one $U(2N+2)$ antisymmetric chiral $A$ to a triality, by exploiting the fact that the latter theory is known to be dual also to the $Sp(2N)$ gauge theory with $2N+2$ chirals. However, for this known duality to hold one also have to add a Fermi field $\Psi$ to the LG theory which flips $\mathrm{Pf}\,A$, so such a deformation should also be turned on in the $SU(2N)$ gauge theory. In the first version, the authors identified $A$ with $YXY$, so shouldn't the superpotential (3.12) be of the form $\Psi\, \mathrm{Pf}(YXY)$?
2) In the SO duality on pages 14-15 there is now an additional Fermi singlet $\Psi$ appearing in the superpotential (3.22) compared to the first version of the manuscript. Which of the two versions is the correct one? I share the concern of the other referee on the superpotential (3.22), but if there was not such a Fermi field then there would be no need for a superpotential.
- The logic in section 3.3 is a bit confusing and hard to follow. What is the purpose of going through the complicated dualizations of figure 6 if the goal is just to explain that the SU theory Higgses to the Sp theory when $x\to 1$ (I would write that $x\to 1$ is achieved by giving a VEV to X)? These dualizations would be useful to get to the Sp theory without studying explicitly the Higgsing, if somehow the duality in figure 7 was already known by some other means, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Also the last paragraph of this section 3.3 is quite cryptic. I would suggest to the authors to improve the presentation of this section and clarify its logic and purpose.
Recommendation
Ask for minor revision
Author: Satoshi Nawata on 2025-04-08 [id 5350]
(in reply to Report 2 on 2025-03-21)
1) In the AS-2 theory, the field $Y $ transforms in the fundamental representation of the $ SU(2N)$ gauge group, not in the anti-fundamental representation. Consequently, the operator $ YXY $ is not gauge invariant, since $ X $ transforms in the rank-two antisymmetric representation. This issue was initially pointed out by the other referee in the first round of review. The correct superpotential is now given in equation (3.12):
2) For the triality shown in Figure Sym-dual to hold, it is necessary to include the Fermi multiplet $ \Psi $ with the corrected superpotential given in equation (3.21) in the SO gauge theory.
Regarding the Higgsing procedure, we have incorporated the referee’s suggestion into the revised version of Section 3.3. We believe the updated explanation now provides clarity and better aligns with the referee’s expectations.
Report #1 by Bruno Le Floch (Referee 2) on 2025-3-21 (Invited Report)
Strengths
1- Many new two-dimensional dualities/trialities between non-abelian gauge theories with low (0,2) supersymmetry and various gauge groups including Sp, SO, SU, and Landau-Ginzburg models.
2- Derivation of these dualities from 4d N=1 and 4d N=2 dualities. Dimensional reduction is a robust way to anchor the dualities in the vast network of checks of higher-dimensional dualities.
3- Proposals for new dualities between (2,2) quiver theories.
Weaknesses
1- Superpotentials in (3.12), (3.22) seem to be incorrectly determined as certain Pfaffians or determinants simply vanish. See specific comments in the 'Changes' section of this report. If the hope was for these superpotentials to force various fugacities to be equal, then this hope breaks down. However, for some of these theories I don't see why the superpotentials would be needed in the first place.
2- Relatedly, the mechanism responsible for eliminating some fugacities, such as in (3.11), is not understood since the superpotential does not do this. There is an attempt around (3.33) for one such fine-tuning of fugacities (x→1) but it is not clear what triggers the Higgsing. Concretely, this means that symmetries of the putative dual theories are not shown to be the same in these cases. In principle this could be seen at the appropriate level in the index.
3- Since the analysis of dualities is centered around elliptic genera, which do not depend on moduli, it is impossible to specify the dictionary between 4d parameters (masses, gauge couplings) and 2d parameters (masses, R-charges, FI parameters, theta angles).
4- The paper could be clearer somewhere about the list of 4d dualities that are being dimensionally reduced. The current presentation makes it appear quite ad hoc.
Report
The authors approach of twisted reduction of 4d dualities down to 2d is sound, and I find particularly interesting their 2d (0,2) dualities and trialities derived from Seiberg duality. The paper advances significantly the state of knowledge of 2d dualities with low supersymmetry and constitutes good work.
Requested changes
1- Intro: 'of the duality frame' would be clearer than 'of the frame'
2- Section 2: regarding 'if these charges are non-negative integers', the situation (see the end of section 2 in ref [9]) seems to be that if *all* charges are non-negative then the 4d theory reduces cleanly to a single 2d theory. Under this condition it is confusing to talk about getting (1-r) chiral multiplets for r less than 1, since the only non-negative integer less than 1 is simply zero.
3- 'it becomes 2d' → 'it becomes a 2d'
4- Equation (2.2) has a stray word 'equivalent'
5- It's hard to understand when reading the text that between (2.8) and Figure 3 the authors turn to a new 2d theory. Maybe a more liberal use of the paragraph LaTeX commands would help clarify, or simply a clearer sentence at the start of the list of theories stating how the section 2 is organized?
6- In (2.11) and nearby, $U_2$ should be $U_N$? In (2.11) there are two $,V$ superscripts missing.
7- The identity (2.12) is an immediate consequence of gauging $U(1)$ in the identity (2.8) for $n=2$. There is probably a TQFT interpretation of all this.
8- The authors do not explain the condition (3.3) ($N_1\geq N_2+N_3$) imposed for the 2d (0,2) SU duality. A wrong explanation is given below (3.7): the truth is that the Grassmannians are defined whenever $N_1\geq|N_2-N_3|$, weaker than (3.3). I didn't locate in the literature an analysis of the IR behaviour of 2d (0,2) SU(n) SQCD theories, for instance ref [20] seems to focus on U(n), the authors may have better luck. Maybe, contrarily to U(n) theories which can flow to two different NLSMs depending on FI, the SU(n) theories can only flow to a single NLSM, at least in the regime $N_1\geq N_2+N_3$. Beyond this bound it may be that we get several NLSMs. For instance, in the left side of Figure SU-dual, going from the large~$N_1$ regime to the $N_2\geq N_1+N_3$ regime, the NLSM should go from giving vevs to the $N_1$ fundamental chirals to giving vevs to the $N_2$ antifundamental chirals. This whole discussion is probably beyond the scope of this work, unless some reference already does it.
9- When citing [21,22] write the words 'c-extremization' to orient the reader.
10- As far as I can tell, the Pfaffian of $A$ in (3.12) vanishes, because $A$ has rank at most 2. Indeed, in $\mathbb{C}^{2N+2}$, if the $2N$ vectors $Y_\alpha=(Y_\alpha^i)_{i=1,\dots,2N+2}$ for $\alpha=1,\dots 2N$ are not linearly independent, $A$ vanishes altogether, and otherwise we check that $A_{ij}Y_\alpha^i=0$ for all $\alpha$, hence $A$ is orthogonal to a $2N$-dimensional subspace of $\mathbb{C}^{2N+2}$. Maybe the correct superpotential mixes $X$ and $A$? Same comment for (C.7)--(C.8).
11- In (3.23) $A$ vanishes I think. The combination $\epsilon^{\alpha_1\dots\alpha_N} Y_{\alpha_1}^{j_1}\dots Y_{\alpha_N}^{j_N}$ vanishes because it is antisymmetrizing $N$ vectors $Y_\alpha\in\mathbb{R}^{N-2}$. In contrast, (3.25) is fine because $A$ is a projection of an $N\times N$ symmetric matrix~$Z$ to an $(N-2)\times(N-2)$ symmetric matrix, which can very well have full rank. But (C.18)--(C.19) seems to have a problem since ${\rm rank}(A)\leq{\rm rank}(X)\leq n-2$ so ${\rm Pf}(A)=0$. Same problem for (C.23)--(C.25).
12- I don't understand what the two paragraphs after (3.57) are doing there in particular. It seems we are in the middle of studying reductions of 4d ${\cal N}=4$, and suddenly we switch back to some comments about reductions of 4d ${\cal N}=2$ theories.
13- Comments around pages 27--30 about fields that contribute to the central charge but not to the elliptic genus seem very surprising. I think that the elliptic genus is a Jacobi form of weight zero and index related to the central charges, but maybe it is a combination of central charges that is not affected by these extra fields?
14- Below (B.2) it is stated that for a non-compact vacuum moduli space, the right-moving central charge is determined by the dimension, but this is wrong: in the product of a non-compact and compact theories, the central charge should simply add up, so c-extremization has to be done in the compact part of the theory. My understanding is that the non-compact chiral multiplets are forced to have R-charge zero, and then within the class of R-symmetries that respect this, one should do c-extremization, but I am unsure.
15- Just before section C.2 the reference to Fig Sym-dual should be AS-dual maybe?
16- In various places (in appendix C) 'one fundamental chirals' is incorrectly plural.
Recommendation
Ask for minor revision
Author: Satoshi Nawata on 2025-04-08 [id 5351]
(in reply to Report 1 by Bruno Le Floch on 2025-03-21)
We sincerely thank the referee for the thoughtful and constructive comments. We are especially grateful for pointing out the inaccuracies in our superpotentials and linear algebraic arguments. Below, we summarize the key changes and clarifications made in response to the referee's suggestions:
7- Below equations (2.12) and (2.14), we now briefly mention the underlying TQFT structure of the 2d $(2,2)$ theories. Since this structure is emphasized in reference [7], we have kept the explanation concise.
8- We agree with the referee’s observation. To the best of our knowledge, this point has not been addressed in the literature. We believe it warrants a more thorough study, and we leave a detailed analysis of the IR non-linear sigma model for future work.
10- We have corrected the superpotential in equation (3.12). As rightly pointed out by the referee, there is no consistent way to construct the previously proposed term involving the fundamental chiral multiplet $Y$. We have also corrected a similar issue in equation (C.17).
11- As the referee noted, the previous superpotentials in these examples were incorrect and the proposed terms would in fact vanish. The field $A$ can be constructed via the projection of $\Box \otimes \Box$ onto the trivial representation for the $SO$ gauge group. Accordingly, the superpotentials in equations (C.17) and (C.21) have been corrected.
12- We have moved the relevant comments to the conclusion in Section 4 for better flow and emphasis.
13- While these fields do contribute to the elliptic genus, they cancel each other. We have improved the phrasing below equation (3.62) to clarify this point. A similar cancellation occurs in the $(2,2)$ $SU(N)$ pure Yang-Mills theory, which is dual to $N-1$ $(2,2)$ twisted chiral multiplets, as discussed in the work of Aharony–Razamat–Seiberg–Willett. The central charges are $c_L = c_R = N - 1$, but the elliptic genus simplifies significantly due to cancellations between Fermi and chiral multiplets:
14- Thank you for pointing out the imprecise explanation. We have revised the discussion below equation (B.2) accordingly. Furthermore, below equation (3.9), we added a comparison to the evaluation of the central charge in the context of $(0,2)$ triality for unitary gauge groups. In particular, we emphasize the necessity of performing $c$-extremization, even when the IR non-linear sigma model has a non-compact target space.
For the remaining comments and suggestions, we have made appropriate changes and improvements throughout the manuscript.
Author: Satoshi Nawata on 2025-04-08 [id 5355]
(in reply to Report 2 on 2025-03-21)Above all, we sincerely thank the referee for the insightful and professional comments and suggestions.