3091781
Open Strings and Dualities
In the fruitful interplay between gauge fields and strings and in many conjectured M-theory dualities, open strings play a prominent role. We review the construction of open-string descendants (un-orientifolds) of closed-string theories admitting a generalized orientation reversal involution. We then specialize the construction to some classes of non-supersymmetric models in D=10 that have been recently considered in the context of duality without supersymmetry. We also discuss the propagation of open and unoriented strings on the NS pentabrane (N5-brane). This background is a prototype of the configurations of branes and orientifold planes that represent a powerful alternative to the geometric engineering of Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theories. The resulting description of D-branes in non-trivial backgrounds looks very different from the one naively expected. In particular the very distinction between different Dp-branes becomes ambiguous in the presence of strong curvature effects.
119040998
Instanton Effects in Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theories on ALE Gravitational Backgrounds
In this letter we report on the computation of instanton-dominated correlation functions in supersymmetric YM theories on ALE spaces. Following the approach of Kronheimer and Nakajima, we explicitly construct the self-dual connection on ALE spaces necessary to perform such computations. We restrict our attention to the simplest case of an $SU(2)$ connection with lowest Chern class on the Eguchi-Hanson gravitational background.
120082660
Toroidal compactification and symmetry breaking in open-string theories
Abstract In toroidal compactification of open-string theories, the background fields of the “parent” closed string (metric and antisymmetric tensor, with suitable restrictions) are accompanied by open-string Wilson lines. In the SO(32) superstring, these control the breaking of the Chan-Paton symmetry in a way that presents interesting analogies with the corresponding phenomenon in the heterotic string. An extension of the closed-string results to include contributions from the disk and the projective plane shows that these fields are genuine “moduli”, since their amplitudes vanish when the momenta are all scaled to zero.
118440611
On stable higher spin states in heterotic string theories
We study properties of 1/2 BPS Higher Spin states in heterotic compactifications with extended supersymmetry. We also analyze non BPS Higher Spin states and give explicit expressions for physical vertex operators of the first two massive levels. We then study on-shell tri-linear couplings of these Higher Spin states and confirm that BPS states with arbitrary spin cannot decay into lower spin states in perturbation theory. Finally, we consider scattering of vector bosons off higher spin BPS states and extract form factors and polarization effects in various limits.
121785638
Twist symmetry and open string Wilson lines
Abstract The Mobius amplitude plays an important role in open-string theories, since it determines which sectors of a given model consist of unoriented open strings. It also fixes the Chan-Paton representations of all their states, according to the behavior under the interchange of the ends of open strings (“twist”). In this paper we discuss the role played by conventional Wilson lines in Chan-Paton symmetry breaking, and we show that the presence of an extended symmetry algebra allows, in general, a number of choices for the behavior of massive states under twist. This freedom may be ascribed to additional discrete Wilson lines, and yields consistent modifications of the group assignments, that are illustrated in a number of examples.
119081797
The open story of the magnetic fluxes
We discuss the effects of oblique internal magnetic fields on the spectrum of type I superstrings compactified on tori. In particular we derive general formulae for the magnetic shifts and multiplicities of open strings connecting D9-branes with arbitrary magnetic fluxes. We discuss the flux induced potential and offer an interpretation of the stabilization of R-R moduli associated to deformations of the complex structure of T6 in terms of non-derivative mixings with NS-NS moduli. Finally we briefly comment on how to extract other low energy couplings and generalize our results to toroidal orbifolds and other configurations governed by rational conformal field theories on the worldsheet.
56038769
BPS Wilson loops and Bremsstrahlung function in ABJ(M): a two loop analysis
A bstractWe study a family of circular BPS Wilson loops in $ \mathcal{N} $ = 6 super Chern-Simons-matter theories, generalizing the usual 1/2-BPS circle. The scalar and fermionic couplings depend on two deformation parameters and these operators can be considered as the ABJ(M) counterpart of the DGRT latitudes defined in $ \mathcal{N} $ = 4 SYM. We perform a complete two-loop analysis of their vacuum expectation value, discuss the appearance of framing-like phases and propose a general relation with cohomologically equivalent bosonic operators. We make an all-loop proposal for computing the Bremsstrahlung function associated to the 1/2-BPS cusp in terms of these generalized Wilson loops. When applied to our two-loop result it reproduces the known expression. Finally, we comment on the generalization of this proposal to the bosonic 1/6-BPS case.
119243475
Light-like Wilson loops in ABJM and maximal transcendentality
A bstractWe revisit the computation of the two-loop light-like tetragonal Wilson loop for three dimensional pure Chern-Simons and $ \mathcal{N} $= 6 Chern-Simons-matter theory, within dimensional regularization with dimensional reduction scheme. Our examination shows that, contrary to prior belief, the result respects maximal transcendentality as is the case of the four-point scattering amplitude of the theory. Interestingly, the corrected result matches exactly the scattering amplitude both in the divergent and in the finite parts, constants included.
119108513
The 1/2 BPS Wilson loop in ABJ(M) at two loops: the details
A bstractWe compute the expectation value of the 1/2 BPS circular Wilson loop operator in ABJ(M) theory at two loops in perturbation theory. Our result turns out to be in exact agreement with the weak coupling limit of the prediction coming from localization, including finite N contributions associated to non-planar diagrams. It also confirms the identification of the correct framing factor that connects framing-zero and framing one expressions, previously proposed. The evaluation of the 1/2 BPS operator is made technically difficult in comparison with other observables of ABJ(M) theory by the appearance of integrals involving the coupling between fermions and gauge fields, which are absent for instance in the 1/6 BPS case. We describe in detail how to analytically solve these integrals in dimensional regularization with dimensional reduction (DRED). By suitably performing the physical limit to three dimensions we clarify the role played by short distance divergences on the final result and the mechanism of their cancellation.
119238771
Scattering in ABJ theories
A bstractWe study the correspondence between scattering amplitudes and Wilson loops in three-dimensional Chern-Simons matter theories. In particular, using $ \mathcal{N} = {2} $ superspace formalism, we compute at one loop the whole spectrum of four-point superamplitudes for generic $ \mathcal{N} \geqslant {2} $ supersymmetric theories and find a vanishing result for $ \mathcal{N} = {6} $ ABJ(M) and $ \mathcal{N} = {8} $ BLG models. This restricts the possible range of theories for which Wilson loops/scattering amplitudes duality might work. At two loops, we present the computation of the four-point ABJ scattering amplitude for external chiral superfields. Extending the known result for the ABJM Wilson loop to the ABJ case we find perfect agreement. We also discuss the dual conformal invariance of our results and the relationship between the Feynman diagram computation and unitarity methods. While for the ABJM theory dual conformally invariant integrals exactly reproduce the amplitude, for the ABJ case this happens only up to a residual constant depending on the parity-violating parameter. Finally we propose a BDS-like exponentiation for the amplitude based on an analogy with the four dimensional $ \mathcal{N} = {4} $ SYM case, and discuss its strong coupling dual counterpart.
119236388
Infrared stability of ABJ-like theories
We consider marginal deformations of the superconformal ABJM/ABJ models which preserve $ \mathcal{N} = 2 $ supersymmetry. We determine perturbatively the spectrum of fixed points and study their infrared stability. We find a closed line of fixed points which is IR stable. The fixed point corresponding to the ABJM/ABJ models is stable under marginal deformations which respect the original SU(2)A × SU(2)B invariance, while deformations which break this group destabilize the theory which then flows to a less symmetric fixed point. We discuss the addition of flavor degrees of freedom. We prove that in general a flavor marginal superpotential does not destabilize the system in the IR. An exception is represented by a marginal coupling which mixes matter charged under different gauge sectors. Finally, we consider the case of relevant deformations which should drive the system to a strongly coupled IR fixed point recently investigated in arXiv:0909.2036 [hep-th].