Holography, Brane Intersections and Six-dimensional SCFTs

TL;DR

This paper investigates supersymmetric brane intersections in type IIA string theory, revealing a universal deformation of AdS solutions that models RG flows in six-dimensional superconformal field theories.

Contribution

It identifies a supergravity description of intersecting branes leading to new AdS solutions and constructs a universal supersymmetric deformation relevant for 6D SCFTs.

Findings

Recovered classified AdS solutions in a new supergravity limit

Constructed a universal supersymmetric deformation of AdS vacua

Modeled RG flows on the tensor branch of 6D SCFTs

Abstract

We study supersymmetric intersections of NS5-, D6- and D8-branes in type IIA string theory. We focus on the supergravity description of this system and identify a "near horizon" limit in which we recover the recently classified supersymmetric seven-dimensional AdS solutions of massive type IIA supergravity. Using a consistent truncation to seven-dimensional gauged supergravity we construct a universal supersymmetric deformation of these AdS vacua. In the holographic dual six-dimensional (1,0) superconformal field theory this deformation describes a universal RG flow on the tensor branch of the vacuum moduli space triggered by a vacuum expectation value for a protected scalar operator of dimension four.