Cascades with Adjoint Matter: Adjoint Transitions

TL;DR

This paper explores adjoint transitions in duality cascades from non-isolated singularities, using field theory and supergravity, revealing their effects on gauge groups, moduli, and monopoles, with implications for supersymmetry breaking.

Contribution

It introduces a simple family of cascades with adjoint transitions based on a Z2-orbifold of the conifold, analyzing their duality and Higgsing processes.

Findings

Adjoint transitions reduce gauge group ranks and produce U(1) factors.

The cascades proceed through Seiberg duality and Higgsing.

Light fields may emerge during UV completion, affecting stability.

Abstract

A large class of duality cascades based on quivers arising from non-isolated singularities enjoy adjoint transitions - a phenomenon which occurs when the gauge coupling of a node possessing adjoint matter is driven to strong coupling in a manner resulting in a reduction of rank in the non-Abelian part of the gauge group and a subsequent flow to weaker coupling. We describe adjoint transitions in a simple family of cascades based on a Z2-orbifold of the conifold using field theory. We show that they are dual to Higgsing and produce varying numbers of U(1) factors, moduli, and monopoles in a manner which we calculate. This realizes a large family of cascades which proceed through Seiberg duality and Higgsing. We briefly describe the supergravity limit of our analysis, as well as a prescription for treating more general theories. A special role is played by N=2 SQCD. Our results suggest that additional light fields are typically generated when UV completing certain constructions of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking into cascades, potentially leading to instabilities.