An N=2 gauge theory and its supergravity dual

TL;DR

This paper constructs and analyzes a supergravity dual to a specific N=2 supersymmetric gauge theory, providing exact solutions, spectral data, and criteria for physical singularities within the AdS/CFT framework.

Contribution

It presents an exact supergravity solution for an N=2 gauge theory deformation and develops criteria to identify physical versus unphysical singularities in such backgrounds.

Findings

Exact supergravity solutions for N=2 deformations

Spectral analysis of operators and Wilson loops

Criteria for distinguishing physical singularities

Abstract

We study flows on the scalar manifold of N=8 gauged supergravity in five dimensions which are dual to certain mass deformations of N=4 super Yang--Mills theory. In particular, we consider a perturbation of the gauge theory by a mass term for the adjoint hyper-multiplet, giving rise to an N=2 theory. The exact solution of the 5-dim gauged supergravity equations of motion is found and the metric is uplifted to a ten-dimensional background of type-IIB supergravity. Using these geometric data and the AdS/CFT correspondence we analyze the spectra of certain operators as well as Wilson loops on the dual gauge theory side. The physical flows are parametrized by a single non-positive constant and describe part of the Coulomb branch of the N=2 theory at strong coupling. We also propose a general criterion to distinguish between `physical' and `unphysical' curvature singularities. Applying it in many backgrounds arising within the AdS/CFT correspondence we find results that are in complete agreement with field theory expectations.