D-branes in Unoriented Non-critical Strings and Duality in SO(N) and Sp(N) Gauge Theories

TL;DR

This paper constructs exact conformal field theory models of SO(N) and Sp(N) gauge theories with Seiberg duality using D-branes in unoriented non-critical superstring backgrounds, providing a string-theoretic understanding of dualities.

Contribution

It introduces a novel string theory framework with exact CFT descriptions for SO(N) and Sp(N) gauge theories exhibiting Seiberg duality, using boundary and crosscap states.

Findings

Exact CFT descriptions of SO(N) and Sp(N) gauge theories

String-theoretic interpretation of Seiberg duality

Construction of unoriented backgrounds via crosscap states

Abstract

We exhibit exact conformal field theory descriptions of SO(N) and Sp(N) pairs of Seiberg-dual gauge theories within string theory. The N=1 gauge theories with flavour are realized as low energy limits of the worldvolume theories on D-branes in unoriented non-critical superstring backgrounds. These unoriented backgrounds are obtained by constructing exact crosscap states in the SL(2,R)/U(1) coset conformal field theory using the modular bootstrap method. Seiberg duality is understood by studying the behaviour of the boundary and crosscap states under monodromy in the closed string parameter space.