N=1 super Yang-Mills theories and wrapped branes

We study theories with sixteen supercharges and a discrete energy spectrum. One class of theories has symmetry group $SU(2|4)$. They arise as truncations of ${\cal N}=4$ super Yang Mills. They include the plane wave matrix model, 2+1 super Yang Mills on $R \times S^2$ and ${\cal N}=4$ super Yang Mills on $R \times S^3/Z_k$. We explain how to obtain their gravity duals in a unified way. We explore the regions of the geometry that are relevant for the study of some 1/2 BPS and ...

In this series of lectures I present a review of the geometric structures of supergravity in diverse dimensions mostly relevant to p-brane physics and to pinpoint the correspondence between the macroscopic and microscopic description of branes. In particular I review duality transformations, coset manifold structures and the general steps involved by the process of gauging supergravity lagrangians both with respect to compact, non compact and non semisimple groups. I focus sp...

We study supergravity solutions corresponding to fivebranes wrapped on a three-sphere inside a G_2 holonomy manifold. By changing a parameter the solutions interpolate between a G_2 manifold X_i \cong S^3 x R^4 with flux on a three-sphere and a distinct G_2 manifold X_j \cong S^3 x R^4 with branes on another three-sphere. Therefore, these realise a G_2 geometric transition purely in the supergravity context. We can add D2 brane charge by applying a simple transformation to th...

We obtain the correct all-loop beta-function of pure N=1 super Yang-Mills theory from the supergravity solution of the warped deformed conifold, including also some nonperturbative corrections. The crucial ingredient is the gauge-gravity relation that can be inferred by taking into account the phenomenon of gaugino condensation.

We present an explicit formulation of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories from $\D=$ 5 to 10 dimensions in the familiar $\N=1,\D=4$ superspace. This provides the rules for globally supersymmetric model building with extra dimensions and in particular allows us to simply write down $\N=1$ SUSY preserving interactions between bulk fields and fields localized on branes. We present a few applications of the formalism by way of illustration, including supersymmetric ``shining'' of ...

We consider systems of Dp branes in the presence of a nonzero B field. We study the corresponding supergravity solutions in the limit where the branes worldvolume theories decouple from gravity. These provide dual descriptions of large N noncommutative field theories. We analyse the phase structure of the theories and the validity of the different description. We provide evidence that in the presence of a nonzero B field the worldvolume theory of D6 branes decouples from grav...

We construct consistent Kaluza-Klein truncations of type IIA supergravity on (i) $\Sigma_2\times S^3$ and (ii) $\Sigma_3\times S^3$, where $\Sigma_2 = S^2/\Gamma$, $\mathbb{R}^2/\Gamma$, or $\mathbb{H}^2/\Gamma$, and $\Sigma_3 = S^3/\Gamma$, $\mathbb{R}^3/\Gamma$, or $\mathbb{H}^3/\Gamma$, with $\Gamma$ a discrete group of symmetries, corresponding to NS5-branes wrapped on $\Sigma_2$ and $\Sigma_3$. The resulting theories are a $D=5$, $\mathcal{N}=4$ gauged supergravity coupl...

We propose a construction of dual pairs in four dimensional N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory using branes in type IIA string theory.

We construct ten-dimensional supergravity solutions corresponding to the near horizon limit of IIB fivebranes wrapping special Lagrangian three-cycles of constant curvature. The case of branes wrapping a three-sphere provides a gravity dual of pure N=2 super-Yang-Mills theory in D=3. The non-trivial part of the solutions are seven manifolds that admit two G_2 structures each of which is covariantly constant with respect to a different connection with torsion. We derive a form...

We discuss consistent truncations of eleven-dimensional supergravity on a six-dimensional manifold $M$, preserving minimal $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetry in five dimensions. These are based on $G_S \subseteq USp(6)$ structures for the generalised $E_{6(6)}$ tangent bundle on $M$, such that the intrinsic torsion is a constant $G_S$ singlet. We spell out the algorithm defining the full bosonic truncation ansatz and then apply this formalism to consistent truncations that contain...