(Un)Higgsing the M2-brane

TL;DR

This paper explores the Higgsing process in N=2 quiver-Chern-Simons theories related to M2-branes, develops an un-Higgsing algorithm, and examines the effects of torsion G-flux on dual supergravity solutions.

Contribution

It introduces a general un-Higgsing algorithm for constructing quiver-Chern-Simons theories and analyzes the impact of torsion G-flux on supergravity duals.

Findings

Multiple quiver-Chern-Simons phases for C^4/Z_2^3 orbifold

All 18 toric partial resolutions constructed

Supergravity and field theory results match in specific example

Abstract

We study various aspects of N=2 quiver-Chern-Simons theories, conjectured to be dual to M2-branes at toric Calabi-Yau four-fold singularities, under Higgsing. In particular we study in detail the orbifold C^4/Z_2^3, obtaining a number of different quiver-Chern-Simons phases for this model, and all 18 toric partial resolutions thereof. In the process we develop a general un-Higgsing algorithm that allows one to construct quiver-Chern-Simons theories by blowing up, thus obtaining a plethora of new models. In addition we explain how turning on torsion G-flux non-trivially affects the supergravity dual of Higgsing, showing that the supergravity and field theory analyses precisely match in an example based on the Sasaki-Einstein manifold Y^(1,2)(CP^2).