Conformal topological Yang-Mills theory and de Sitter holography

TL;DR

This paper constructs a new four-dimensional topological conformal field theory from N=4 super Yang-Mills by twisting the conformal and R-symmetry groups, with potential holographic duality to de Sitter space.

Contribution

It introduces a novel topological conformal field theory with BRST symmetries derived from N=4 super Yang-Mills, including a curved space generalisation with local Weyl invariance.

Findings

Constructed a conformally invariant topological field theory from N=4 SYM.

Extended the theory to curved Riemannian 4-folds with Weyl invariance.

Proposed a holographic dual in 5D de Sitter space.

Abstract

A new topological conformal field theory in four Euclidean dimensions is constructed from N=4 super Yang-Mills theory by twisting the whole of the conformal group with the whole of the R-symmetry group, resulting in a theory that is conformally invariant and has two conformally invariant BRST operators. A curved space generalisation is found on any Riemannian 4-fold. This formulation has local Weyl invariance and two Weyl-invariant BRST symmetries, with an action and energy-momentum tensor that are BRST-exact. This theory is expected to have a holographic dual in 5-dimensional de Sitter space.