Reading between the lines of four-dimensional gauge theories

Ofer Aharony, Nathan Seiberg, Yuji Tachikawa

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Starting with a choice of a gauge group in four dimensions, there is often freedom in the choice of magnetic and dyonic line operators. Different consistent choices of these operators correspond to distinct physical theories, with the same correlation functions of local operators in R4. In some cases these choices are permuted by shifting the θ-angle by 2π. In other cases they are labeled by new discrete θ-like parameters. Using this understanding we gain new insight into the dynamics of four-dimensional gauge theories and their phases. The existence of these distinct theories clarifies a number of issues in electric/magnetic dualities of supersymmetric gauge theories, both for the conformal N = 4 theories and for the low-energy dualities of N = 1 theories.

Original languageEnglish
Article number115
JournalJournal of High Energy Physics
Volume2013
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - 2013

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics

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