ABJ Quadrality

TL;DR

This paper explores the effects of orientifolds on the ABJ triality, proposing a new N=5 Vasiliev theory, establishing a four-way duality among theories, and providing detailed holographic correspondences and predictions.

Contribution

It introduces the N=5 Vasiliev theory as a projection of the N=6 theory, extending the ABJ triality to an ABJ quadrality involving string/M-theory and two Vasiliev theories.

Findings

Identification of two N=5 Vasiliev theories as projections of N=6 Vasiliev theory.

Proposal of two vector model limits corresponding to different internal symmetries.

Support for the conjecture through spectra, free energies, and SUSY enhancement evidence.

Abstract

We study physical consequences of adding orientifolds to the ABJ triality, which is among 3d N=6 superconformal Chern-Simons theory known as ABJ theory, type IIA string in AdS_4 x CP^3 and N=6 supersymmetric (SUSY) Vasiliev higher spin theory in AdS_4. After adding the orientifolds, it is known that the gauge group of the ABJ theory becomes O(N_1)xUSp(2N_2) while the background of the string theory is replaced by AdS_4 x CP^3/Z_2, and the supersymmetries in the both theories reduce to N=5. We propose that adding the orientifolds to the N=6 Vasiliev theory leads to N=5 SUSY Vasiliev theory. It turns out that the N=5 case is more involved because there are two formulations of the N=5 Vasiliev theory with either O or USp internal symmetry. We show that the two N=5 Vasiliev theories can be understood as certain projections of the N=6 Vasiliev theory, which we identify with the orientifold projections in the Vasiliev theory. We conjecture that the O(N_1)xUSp(2N_2) ABJ theory has the two vector model like limits: N_2 >> N_1 and N_1 >> N_2 which correspond to the semi-classical N=5 Vasiliev theories with O(N_1) and USp(2N_2) internal symmetries respectively. These correspondences together with the standard AdS/CFT correspondence comprise the ABJ quadrality among the N=5 ABJ theory, string/M-theory and two N=5 Vasliev theories. We provide a precise holographic dictionary for the correspondences by comparing correlation functions of stress tensor and flavor currents. Our conjecture is supported by various evidence such as agreements of the spectra, one-loop free energies and SUSY enhancement on the both sides. We also predict the leading free energy of the N=5 Vasiliev theory from the CFT side. As a byproduct, we give a derivation of the relation between the parity violating phase in the N=6 Vasiliev theory and the parameters in the N=6 ABJ theory, which was conjectured in arXiv:1207.4485.