Intersecting surface defects and two-dimensional CFT

Jaume Gomis, Bruno Le Floch, Yiwen Pan, and Wolfger Peelaers
Phys. Rev. D 96, 045003 – Published 2 August 2017
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Abstract

We initiate the study of intersecting surface operators/defects in 4D quantum field theories (QFTs). We characterize these defects by coupled 4D/2D/0D theories constructed by coupling the degrees of freedom localized at a point and on intersecting surfaces in spacetime to each other and to the 4D QFT. We construct supersymmetric intersecting surface defects preserving just two supercharges in N=2 gauge theories. These defects are amenable to exact analysis by localization of the partition function of the underlying 4D/2D/0D QFT. We identify the 4D/2D/0D QFTs that describe intersecting surface operators in N=2 gauge theories realized by intersecting M2 branes ending on N M5 branes wrapping a Riemann surface. We conjecture and provide evidence for an explicit equivalence between the squashed four-sphere partition function of these intersecting defects and correlation functions in Liouville/Toda CFT with the insertion of arbitrary degenerate vertex operators, which are labeled by two representations of SU(N).

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  • Received 21 February 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.96.045003

© 2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Particles & Fields

Authors & Affiliations

Jaume Gomis

  • Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, Waterloo, Ontario N2L 2Y5, Canada

Bruno Le Floch

  • Princeton Center for Theoretical Science, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA

Yiwen Pan

  • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, SE-75120 Uppsala, Sweden

Wolfger Peelaers

  • New High Energy Theory Center, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA

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Issue

Vol. 96, Iss. 4 — 15 August 2017

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