Published November 15, 2021 | Version Submitted + Published
Journal Article Open

Infinitely many 4D N = 2 SCFTs with a = c and beyond

  • 1. ROR icon California Institute of Technology
  • 2. ROR icon Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
  • 3. ROR icon University of Pennsylvania

Abstract

We study a set of four-dimensional N=2 superconformal field theories (SCFTs) ^Γ(G) labeled by a pair of simply laced Lie groups Γ and G. They are constructed out of gauging a number of D_p(G) and (G,G) conformal matter SCFTs; therefore, they do not have Lagrangian descriptions in general. For Γ=D₄,E₆,E₇,E₈, and some special choices of G, the resulting theories have identical central charges (a=c) without taking any large N limit. Moreover, we find that the Schur indices for such theories can be written in terms of that of N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory upon rescaling fugacities. Especially, we find that the Schur index of ^D₄(SU(N)) theory for N odd is written in terms of MacMahon's generalized sum-of-divisor function, which is quasimodular. For generic choices of Γ and G, it can be regarded as a generalization of the affine quiver gauge theory obtained from D3-branes probing singularity of type Γ. We also comment on a tantalizing connection regarding the theories labeled by Γ in the Deligne-Cvitanović exceptional series.

Additional Information

© 2021 Published by the American Physical Society. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3. Received 31 August 2021; accepted 1 October 2021; published 9 November 2021. We thank Prarit Agarwal for providing us with an extensive database of Argyres-Douglas theories. We also thank Seungkyu Kim for helping us compute the Schur indices for higher-rank theories to high orders. C. L. was supported by a University Research Foundation grant at the University of Pennsylvania and U.S. DOE (HEP) Award No. DE-SC0021484. M. J. K. and J. S. are partly supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant No. NRF-2020R1C1C1007591. M. J. K. is also supported by NRF Grant No. NRF-2020R1A4A3079707, a Sherman Fairchild Postdoctoral Fellowship, and the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of High Energy Physics, under Award No. DE-SC0011632. J. S. is also supported by the Start-up Research Grant for new faculty provided by Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST).

Attached Files

Published - PhysRevD.104.105005.pdf

Submitted - 2106.12579.pdf

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Additional details

Identifiers

Eprint ID
109946
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20210720-225934652

Related works

Funding

University of Pennsylvania
Department of Energy (DOE)
DE-SC0021484
National Research Foundation of Korea
NRF2020R1C1C1007591
National Research Foundation of Korea
NRF-2020R1A4A3079707
Sherman Fairchild Foundation
Department of Energy (DOE)
DE-SC0011632
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST)
SCOAP3

Dates

Created
2021-07-21
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2022-06-08
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics
Other Numbering System Name
CALT-TH
Other Numbering System Identifier
2021-026