A geometric recipe for twisted superpotentials

We give a pedagogical introduction to spectral networks and abelianization, as well as their relevance to $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 2 supersymmetric field theories in four dimensions. Motivated by a conjecture of Nekrasov-Rosly-Shatashvili, we detail a geometric recipe for computing the effective twisted superpotential for $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 2 field theories of class $$ \mathcal{S} $$ S as a generating function of the brane of opers, with respect to the spectral coordinates found from abelianization. We present two new examples, the simplest Argyres-Douglas theory and the pure SU(2) gauge theory, while we conjecture the E-expansion of the effective twisted superpotential for the E6 Minahan-Nemeschansky theory.

5d/6d Wilson loops from blowups

We generalize Nakajima-Yoshioka’s blowup formula to calculate the partition functions counting the spectrum of bound states to half-BPS Wilson loop operators in 5d (and 6d) supersymmetric field theories. The partition function in the presence of a Wilson loop operator on the Ω-background is factorized when put on the blowup $$ \hat{\mathbb{C}} $$ ℂ ̂ 2 into two Wilson loop partition functions under the localization. This structure provides a set of blowup equations for Wilson loop operators. We explain how to formulate the blowup equations and solve them to compute the partition functions of Wilson loop operators. We test this idea by explicitly calculating the Wilson loop partition functions in various 5d/6d field theories and comparing them against known results and expected dualities.

Symmetries of $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = (1, 0) supergravity backgrounds in six dimensions

General $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = (1, 0) supergravity-matter systems in six dimensions may be described using one of the two fully fledged superspace formulations for conformal supergravity: (i) SU(2) superspace; and (ii) conformal superspace. With motivation to develop rigid supersymmetric field theories in curved space, this paper is devoted to the study of the geometric symmetries of supergravity backgrounds. In particular, we introduce the notion of a conformal Killing spinor superfield ϵα, which proves to generate extended superconformal transformations. Among its cousins are the conformal Killing vector ξa and tensor ζa(n) superfields. The former parametrise conformal isometries of supergravity backgrounds, which in turn yield symmetries of every superconformal field theory. Meanwhile, the conformal Killing tensors of a given background are associated with higher symmetries of the hypermultiplet. By studying the higher symmetries of a non-conformal vector multiplet we introduce the concept of a Killing tensor superfield. We also analyse the problem of computing higher symmetries for the conformal d’Alembertian in curved space and demonstrate that, beyond the first-order case, these operators are defined only on a limited class of backgrounds, including all conformally flat ones.

Supersymmetric space-time symmetry breaking sources

We construct new families of deformed supersymmetric field theories which break space-time symmetries but preserve half of the original supersymmetry. We do this by writing deformations as couplings to background multiplets. In many cases it is important to use the off-shell representation as auxiliary fields of the non-dynamical fields must be turned on to preserve supersymmetry. We also consider backgrounds which preserve some superconformal symmetry, finding scale-invariant field profiles, as well as $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 2 theories on S3. We discuss how this is related to previous work on interface SCFTs and other holographic calculations.