We study 6d superconformal field theories (SCFTs) compactified on a circle with arbitrary twists. The theories obtained after compactification, often referred to as 5d Kaluza-Klein (KK) theories, can be viewed as starting points for RG flows to 5d SCFTs. According to a conjecture, all 5d SCFTs can be obtained in this fashion. We compute the Coulomb branch prepotential for all 5d KK theories obtainable in this manner and associate to these theories a smooth local genus one fibered Calabi-Yau threefold in which is encoded information about all possible RG flows to 5d SCFTs. These Calabi-Yau threefolds provide hitherto unknown M-theory duals of F-theory configurations compactified on a circle with twists. For certain exceptional KK theories that do not admit a standard geometric description we propose an algebraic description that appears to retain the properties of the local Calabi-Yau threefolds necessary to determine RG flows to 5d SCFTs, along with other relevant physical data.
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On the classification of 5d SCFTs
We determine all 5d SCFTs upto rank three by studying RG flows of 5d KK theories. Our analysis reveals the existence of new rank one and rank two 5d SCFTs not captured by previous classifications. In addition to that, we provide for the first time a systematic and conjecturally complete classification of rank three 5d SCFTs. Our methods are based on a recently studied geometric description of 5d KK theories, thus demonstrating the utility of these geometric descriptions. It is straightforward, though computationally intensive, to extend this work and systematically classify 5d SCFTs of higher ranks (greater than or equal to four) by using the geometric description of 5d KK theories.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1719924
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10184474
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ArXivorg
- ISSN:
- 2331-8422
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 - 86
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2020)007
