Large N Superconformal Gauge Theories and Supergravity Orientifolds

TL;DR

This paper explores the application of Maldacena's duality to specific superconformal gauge theories with 8 supercharges, including models with exceptional symmetries, using supergravity orientifolds to analyze their properties.

Contribution

It extends the AdS/CFT correspondence to new conformal models with 8 supercharges, including those with exceptional symmetries and no perturbative descriptions.

Findings

Duality describes perturbations by marginal and relevant operators.

Models include Sp(2N) gauge theories with D3/D7-branes and orientifolds.

Provides insights into non-perturbative aspects of these theories.

Abstract

Maldacena's duality between conformal field theories and supergravity is applied to some conformal invariant models with 8 supercharges appearing in the F-theory moduli space on a locus of constant coupling. This includes Sp(2N) gauge theories describing the worldvolume dynamics of D3-branes in the presence of D7-branes and an orientifold plane. Other examples of this kind are models with exceptional global symmetries which have no perturbative field theory description. In all these cases the duality is used to describe perturbations by primary marginal and relevant operators.