Holographic $\frac{1}{2}$-BPS surface defects in ABJM

TL;DR

This paper explores new $ ext{AdS}_3$ solutions in massive Type IIA supergravity that model $rac{1}{2}$-BPS surface defects in ABJ theories, revealing geometric and field theory dualities and flows to 2d CFTs.

Contribution

It constructs explicit supergravity solutions with surface defect branes and proposes dual quiver field theories flowing to 2d SCFTs, extending Seiberg duality to the massive case.

Findings

Massive solutions backreact to create a flow to 2d CFTs.

Explicit quiver theories proposed for IR fixed points.

Geometric realization of extended Seiberg duality.

Abstract

We study the class of $\text{AdS}_3\times \mathbb{CP}^3$ solutions to massive Type IIA supergravity with $\mathfrak{osp}(6|2)$ superconformal algebra recently constructed in arXiv:2304.12207 [hep-th]. These solutions are foliations over an interval preserving $\mathcal{N}=(0,6)$ supersymmetry in two dimensions, that in the massless limit can be mapped to the $\text{AdS}_4\times \mathbb{CP}^3$ solution of ABJM/ABJ. We show that in the massive case extra NS5-D8 branes, that we interpret as $\frac{1}{2}$-BPS surface defect branes within the ABJ theory, backreact in the geometry and turn one of the 3d field theory directions onto an energy scale, generating a flow towards a 2d CFT. We construct explicit quiver field theories that we propose flow in the IR to the $(0,6)$ SCFTs dual to the solutions. Finally, we show that the $\text{AdS}_3$ solutions realise geometrically, in terms of large gauge transformations, an extension to the massive case of Seiberg duality in ABJ theories proposed in the literature.