Brane Dimers and Quiver Gauge Theories

Brane tilings provide the most general framework in string and M-theory for matching toric Calabi-Yau singularities probed by branes with superconformal fixed points of quiver gauge theories. The brane tiling data consists of a bipartite tiling of the torus which encodes both the classical superpotential and gauge-matter couplings for the quiver gauge theory. We consider the class of tilings which contain only tiles bounded by exactly four edges and present a method for gener...

Recently, a new way of deriving the moduli space of quiver gauge theories that arise on the world-volume of D3-branes probing singular toric Calabi-Yau cones was conjectured. According to the proposal, the gauge group, matter content and tree-level superpotential of the gauge theory is encoded in a periodic tiling, the dimer graph. The conjecture provides a simple procedure for determining the moduli space of the gauge theory in terms of perfect matchings. For gauge theorie...

In this article we explore the duality between the low energy effective theory of five-dimensional N=1 SU(N)^{M-1} and SU(M)^{N-1} linear quiver gauge theories compactified on S^1. The theories we study are the five-dimensional uplifts of four-dimensional superconformal linear quivers. We study this duality by comparing the Seiberg-Witten curves and the Nekrasov partition functions of the two dual theories. The Seiberg-Witten curves are obtained by minimizing the worldvolume ...

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 initiate a systematic investigation of the space of 2+1 dimensional quiver gauge theories, emphasising a succinct "forward algorithm". Few "order parametres" are introduced such as the number of terms in the superpotential and the number of gauge groups. Starting with two terms in the superpotential, we find a generating function, with interesting geometric interpretation, which counts the number of inequivalent theories for a given number of gauge groups and fields. We de...

We develop tools for determining the gauge theory resulting from a configuration of Type IIB D3-branes probing a non-compact, toric Calabi-Yau 3-fold, in the presence of additional flavor D7-branes with general embeddings. Two main ingredients of our approach are dimer models and mirror symmetry. D7-branes with general embeddings are obtained by recombination of elementary D7-brane constituents. These tools are then used to engineer a large set of Bipartite Field Theories, a ...

The gauge theory on a set of D3-branes at a toric Calabi-Yau singularity can be encoded in a tiling of the 2-torus denoted dimer diagram (or brane tiling). We use these techniques to describe the effect on the gauge theory of geometric operations partially smoothing the singularity at which D3-branes sit, namely partial resolutions and complex deformations. More specifically, we describe the effect of arbitrary partial resolutions, including those which split the original sin...

We apply dimer diagram techniques to uncover discrete global symmetries in the fields theories on D3-branes at singularities given by general orbifolds of general toric Calabi-Yau threefold singularities. The discrete symmetries are discrete Heisenberg groups, with two $\mathbf{Z}_N$ generators $A$, $B$ with commutation $AB=CBA$, with $C$ a central element. This fully generalizes earlier observations in particular orbifolds of $\mathbf{C}^3$, the conifold and $Y_{p,q}$. The s...

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 study 2d $\mathcal{N}=(0,2)$ supersymmetric quiver gauge theories that describe the low-energy dynamics of D1-branes at Calabi-Yau fourfold (CY$_4$) singularities. On general grounds, the holomorphic sector of these theories---matter content and (classical) superpotential interactions---should be fully captured by the topological $B$-model on the CY$_4$. By studying a number of examples, we confirm this expectation and flesh out the dictionary between B-brane category and ...