The supergravity dual of 3d supersymmetric gauge theories with unquenched flavors

TL;DR

This paper constructs supergravity duals for 3D N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories with many unquenched flavors, revealing different UV behaviors depending on the ratio of colors to flavors and introducing new D5-brane backgrounds.

Contribution

It provides explicit supergravity solutions for 3D supersymmetric gauge theories with unquenched flavors, including new backgrounds with G_2 holonomy.

Findings

For N_c ≥ 2N_f, the dual is asymptotically free.

For N_c < 2N_f, the theory exhibits a Landau pole.

New unflavored backgrounds with D5-branes wrapping a G_2 holonomy cycle.

Abstract

We obtain the supergravity dual of N=1 supersymmetric gauge theory in 2+1 dimensions with a large number of unquenched massless flavors. The geometries found are obtained by solving the equations of motion of supergravity coupled to a suitable continuous distribution of flavor branes. The background obtained preserves two supersymmetries. We find that when N_c\ge 2N_f the behavior of the solutions is compatible with having an asymptotically free dual gauge theory with dynamical quarks. On the contrary, when N_c<2N_f the theory develops a Landau pole in the UV. We also find a new family of (unflavored) backgrounds generated by D5-branes that wrap a three-cycle of a cone with G_2 holonomy.