S-Duality, Deconstruction and Confinement for a Marginal Deformation of N=4 SUSY Yang-Mills

TL;DR

This paper explores a marginally deformed N=4 SUSY Yang-Mills theory, revealing dual confining and Higgs branches, and proposes a novel approach to deconstruct Little String Theory through these phenomena.

Contribution

It demonstrates the existence of an S-dual confining branch in the quantum theory and links it to a six-dimensional non-commutative gauge theory, offering new insights into gauge/string dualities.

Findings

Identification of a quantum S-dual confining branch.

Low-energy theory as a six-dimensional non-commutative gauge theory.

Proposal of a new deconstruction method for Little String Theory.

Abstract

We study an exactly marginal deformation of N=4 SUSY Yang-Mills with gauge group U(N) using field theory and string theory methods. The classical theory has a Higgs branch for rational values of the deformation parameter. We argue that the quantum theory also has an S-dual confining branch which cannot be seen classically. The low-energy effective theory on these branches is a six-dimensional non-commutative gauge theory with sixteen supercharges. Confinement of magnetic and electric charges, on the Higgs and confining branches respectively, occurs due to the formation of BPS-saturated strings in the low energy theory. The results also suggest a new way of deconstructing Little String Theory as a large-N limit of a confining gauge theory in four dimensions.