Quantum field theory (QFT) in six dimensions is more challenging than its four-dimensional counterpart: most models tend to become ill-defined at high energies. A combination of supersymmetry and string theory has yielded many QFTs that evade this problem and are low-energy effective manifestations of conformal field theories (CFTs). Besides the usual vector, spinor and scalar fields, the new ingredients are self-dual tensor fields, analogs of the electromagnetic field with an additional spacetime index, sometimes with an additional non-Abelian structure. A recent wave of interest in this field has produced several classification results, notably of models that have a holographic dual in string theory and of models that can be realized in F-theory. Several precise quantitative checks of the overall picture are now available, and give confidence that a full classification of all six-dimensional CFTs may be at hand.conformal field theories, supersymmetry, extra dimensions, holography, string theory, D-branes, F-theory
D-branes on ALE spaces and the ADE classification of conformal field theories
