Holography for $\mathcal{N}=1^*$ on $S^4$

TL;DR

This paper constructs a holographic dual for the $ =1^*$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on $S^4$, enabling the calculation of its free energy at strong coupling and exploring novel features of the supergravity background.

Contribution

It provides the first holographic dual of $ =1^*$ on $S^4$, including a non-trivial dilaton profile and fixed gaugino condensate, advancing understanding of non-conformal supersymmetric theories.

Findings

Calculated the $S^4$ free energy at large 't Hooft coupling.

Found smooth holographic RG flow solutions preserving four supercharges.

Analyzed the role of S-duality and partition function ambiguities in the theory.

Abstract

We construct the five-dimensional supergravity dual of the $\mathcal{N}=1^*$ mass deformation of the $\mathcal{N} =4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory on $S^4$ and use it to calculate the universal contribution to the corresponding $S^4$ free energy at large 't Hooft coupling in the planar limit. The holographic RG flow solutions are smooth and preserve four supercharges. As a novel feature compared to the holographic duals of $\mathcal{N} = 1^*$ on $\mathbb{R}^4$, in our backgrounds the five-dimensional dilaton has a non-trivial profile, and the gaugino condensate is fixed in terms of the mass-deformation parameters. Important aspects of the analysis involve characterizing the ambiguities in the partition function of non-conformal $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric theories on $S^4$ as well as the action of S-duality on the $\mathcal{N}=1^*$ theory.