Gauge Theories and Dessins d'Enfants: Beyond the Torus

Engineering quantum field theories in String Theory in terms of branes is a powerful approach for understanding their dynamics. We review recent progress in the realization of $2d$ $\mathcal{N}=(0,2)$ gauge theories in terms of branes. We discuss Brane Brick Models, a new class of Type IIA brane configurations which are T-dual to D1-branes over singular toric Calabi-Yau 4-folds. They fully encode the infinite class of $2d$ $\mathcal{N}=(0,2)$ quiver gauge theories on the worl...

We give an elementary introduction to the recent derivation of the effective low-energy gauge theories of D3-branes probing orientifolds of toric Calabi-Yau 3-fold singularities via brane tiling techniques.

We study four-dimensional N=1 gauge theories arising on D3-branes probing toric singularities. Toric dualities and flows between theories corresponding to different singularities are analyzed by encoding the geometric information into (p,q) webs. A new method for identifying global symmetries of the four-dimensional theories using the brane webs is developed. Five-dimensional theories are associated to the theories on the D3-branes by using (p,q) webs. This leads to a novel i...

We consider $M$-theory compactified on $T^4 \times T^2$ and describe the count of spinning $1/8$-BPS states. This refines the classic count of Maldacena-Moore-Strominger in the physics literature and the recent mathematical work of Bryan-Oberdieck-Pandharipande-Yin, which studied reduced Donaldson-Thomas invariants of abelian surfaces and threefolds. As in previous work on $K3 \times T^2$ compactification, we track angular momenta under both the $SU(2)_L$ and $SU(2)_R$ factor...

We study F-theory compactified on elliptic Calabi-Yau threefolds that are realised as hypersurfaces in toric varieties. The enhanced gauge group as well as the number of massless tensor multiplets has a very simple description in terms of toric geometry. We find a large number of examples where the gauge group is not a subgroup of E8xE8, but rather, is much bigger (with rank as high as 296). The largest of these groups is the group recently found by Aspinwall and Gross. Our a...

This paper tests a conjecture on discrete non-Abelian gauging of 3d $\mathcal{N} = 4$ supersymmetric quiver gauge theories. Given a parent quiver with a bouquet of $n$ nodes of rank $1$, invariant under a discrete $S_n$ global symmetry, one can construct a daughter quiver where the bouquet is substituted by a single adjoint $n$ node. Based on the main conjecture in this paper, the daughter quiver corresponds to a theory where the $S_n$ discrete global symmetry is gauged and t...

The full moduli space M of a class of N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories is studied. For gauge theories living on a stack of D3-branes at Calabi-Yau singularities X, M is a combination of the mesonic and baryonic branches, the former being the symmetric product of X. In consonance with the mathematical literature, the single brane moduli space is called the master space F. Illustrating with a host of explicit examples, we exhibit many algebro-geometric properties of the master...

The moduli space of 0-branes on $T^4$ gives a prediction for the moduli space of torons in U(n) Super Yang Mills theory which preserve 16 supersymmetries. The zero brane number corresponds to the greatest common denominator of the rank $n$, magnetic fluxes and the instanton number. This prediction is derived using U-duality. We explicitly check this prediction by analyzing U(n) bundles with non-zero first as well as second Chern classes. The argument is extended to deduce the...

We study brane configurations in the presence of orientifold six-planes. After deriving the curves for N=2 supersymmetric SU(Nc) gauge theories with one flavor in the symmetric or antisymmetric representation and Nf fundamental flavors, we rotate the brane configuration, reducing the supersymmetry to N=1. For the case of an antisymmetric flavor and less than two fundamental flavors, nonperturbative effects lead to a brane configuration that is topologically a torus. Using the...

Via partial resolution of Abelian orbifolds we present an algorithm for extracting a consistent set of gauge theory data for an arbitrary toric variety whose singularity a D-brane probes. As illustrative examples, we tabulate the matter content and superpotential for a D-brane living on the toric del Pezzo surfaces as well as the zeroth Hirzebruch surface. Moreover, we discuss the non-uniqueness of the general problem and present examples of vastly different theories whose mo...