Hidden Exceptional Global Symmetries in 4d CFTs

TL;DR

This paper explores hidden and explicit global symmetries in 4d N=1 gauge theories from D3-branes on del Pezzo surfaces, revealing their geometric origin, constructing superpotentials, and matching gauge theory operators with AdS duals.

Contribution

It uncovers hidden global symmetries in these gauge theories and relates them to the underlying geometry, providing new tools for superpotential construction and operator counting.

Findings

Identification of hidden global symmetries via geometric correspondence

Construction of superpotentials using symmetry invariants

Matching of dibaryon operator counts with AdS duals

Abstract

We study four dimensional N=1 gauge theories that arise on the worldvolume of D3-branes probing complex cones over del Pezzo surfaces. Global symmetries of the gauge theories are made explicit by using a correspondence between bifundamental fields in the quivers and divisors in the underlying geometry. These global symmetries are hidden, being unbroken when all inverse gauge couplings of the quiver theory vanish. In the broken phase, for finite gauge couplings, only the Cartan subalgebra is manifest as a global symmetry. Superpotentials for these models are constructed using global symmetry invariants as their building blocks. Higgsings connecting theories for different del Pezzos are immediately identified by performing the appropriate higgsing of the global symmetry groups. The symmetric properties of the quivers are also exploited to count the first few dibaryon operators in the gauge theories, matching their enumeration in the AdS duals.