N=2 Quantum Field Theories and Their BPS Quivers

We study the BPS spectrum of the theory on a D3-brane probe in F theory. The BPS states are realized by multi-string configurations in spacetime. Only certain configurations obeying a selection rule give rise to BPS states in the four-dimensional probe theory. Using these string configurations, we determine the spectrum of N=2 SU(2) Yang-Mills. We also explore the relation between multi-string configurations, M theory membranes and self-dual strings.

Two pictures of BPS bound states in Calabi-Yau compactifications of type II string theory exist, one as a set of particles at equilibrium separations from each other, the other as a fusion of D-branes at a single point of space. We show how quiver quantum mechanics smoothly interpolates between the two, and use this, together with recent mathematical results on the cohomology of quiver varieties, to solve some nontrivial ground state counting problems in multi-particle quantu...

BPS states of N=2, D=4 Super Yang-Mills theories with ADE flavor symmetry arise as junctions joining a D3-brane to a set of 7-branes defining the enhanced flavor algebra. We show that the familiar BPS spectrum of SU(2) theories with N_f <= 4 is simply given by the set of junctions whose self-intersection is bounded below as required by supersymmetry. This constraint, together with the relations between junction and weight lattices, is used to establish the appearance of arbit...

We study the BPS spectrum of four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with gauge group $SU(2)$ and a massive adjoint hypermultiplet, which has an extremely intricate structure with infinite spectrum in all chambers of its Coulomb moduli space, and is not well understood. We build on previous results by employing the BPS quiver description of the spectrum, and explore the qualitative features in detail using numerical techniques. We find novel and unex...

We argue how to identify supersymmetric quiver quantum mechanics description of BPS states, which arise in string theory in brane systems representing knots. This leads to a surprising relation between knots and quivers: to a given knot we associate a quiver, so that various types of knot invariants are expressed in terms of characteristics of a moduli space of representations of the corresponding quiver. This statement can be regarded as a novel type of categorification of k...

We study N=(2,2) supersymmetric abelian gauge theories in two dimensions. The exact BPS spectrum of these models is shown to coincide with the spectrum of massive hypermultiplets of certain N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories in four dimensions. A special case of these results involves a surprising connection between four-dimensional N=2 SQCD with N colours and N_{f}>N flavours at the root of the baryonic Higgs branch and the supersymmetric CP^{2N-N_{f}-1} sigma-model in two di...

We consider the realization of four-dimensional theories with N = 2 supersymmetry as M-theory configurations including a five-brane. Our emphasis is on the spectrum of massive states, that are realized as two-branes ending on the five-brane. We start with a determination of the supersymmetries that are left unbroken by the background metric and five-brane. We then show how the central charge of the N = 2 algebra arises from the central charge associated with the M-theory two-...

We study the vacuum moduli spaces of 3d N=2 supersymmetric quantum field theories by applying the formalism developed in our previous paper arXiv:1404.5527. The 3d theories can be realized by branes in type IIB string theory, which in a decoupling limit reduce to 4d N=4 super-Yang-Mills theory on an interval with BPS defects inserted. The moduli space of a given 3d theory is obtained by solving a generalization of Nahm's equations with appropriate boundary/junction conditions...

Four dimensional N=1 theories are engineered by compactifying six dimensional (2,0) theory on a Riemann surface with regular punctures. A generalized Hitchin's equation involving two Higgs fields is proposed as the BPS equation for N=1 compactification. The puncture is interpreted as the singular boundary condition of this equation, and regular puncture is shown to be labeled by a nilpotent commuting pair. In this paper, we focus on a subset of regular puncture which is descr...

We construct 3d, N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories by considering a one-parameter `R-flow' of 4d, N=2 theories, where the central charges vary while preserving their phase order. Each BPS state in 4d leads to a BPS particle in 3d, and thus each chamber of the 4d theory leads to a distinct 3d theory. Pairs of 4d chambers related by wall-crossing, R-flow to mirror pairs of 3d theories. In particular, the 2-3 wall-crossing for the A_2 Argyres-Douglas theory leads to 3d mirror sy...