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1. Resolving spacetime singularities in flux compactifications & KKLT

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP08(2021)093  

   Carta, Federico ; Moritz, Jakob ( August 2021 , Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A bstract In flux compactifications of type IIB string theory with D3 and seven-branes, the negative induced D3 charge localized on seven-branes leads to an apparently pathological profile of the metric sufficiently close to the source. With the volume modulus stabilized in a KKLT de Sitter vacuum this pathological region takes over a significant part of the entire compactification, threatening to spoil the KKLT effective field theory. In this paper we employ the Seiberg-Witten solution of pure SU( N ) super Yang-Mills theory to argue that wrapped seven-branes can be thought of as bound states of more microscopic exotic branes. We argue that the low-energy worldvolume dynamics of a stack of n such exotic branes is given by the ( A 1 , A n− 1 ) Argyres-Douglas theory. Moreover, the splitting of the perturbative (in α ′) seven-brane into its constituent branes at the non-perturbative level resolves the apparently pathological region close to the seven-brane and replaces it with a region of $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (1) Einstein frame volume. While this region generically takes up an $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (1) fraction of the compactification in a KKLT de Sitter vacuum we argue that a small flux superpotentialmore »dynamically ensures that the 4d effective field theory of KKLT remains valid nevertheless.« less
2. Surface defects in holographic 5d SCFTs

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2021)134  

   Gutperle, Michael ; Uhlemann, Christoph F. ( April 2021 , Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A bstract We use holography to study codimension-2 surface defects in 5d SCFTs engineered by ( p , q ) 5-brane webs. The three-dimensional defects are realized by D3-branes ending on the brane web. We identify the holographic representation of the defects in Type IIB AdS 6 solutions as probe D3-branes, and study conformal and non-conformal defects which, respectively, preserve one half and one quarter of the supersymmetry. For a sample of 5d SCFTs, including the T N theories, we provide explicit solutions for conformal and non-conformal defects. For the conformal defects we obtain their contribution to the free energy on S 5 .
3. Discrete and higher-form symmetries in SCFTs from wrapped M5-branes

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2021)196  

   Bah, Ibrahima ; Bonetti, Federico ; Minasian, Ruben ( March 2021 , Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A bstract We analyze topological mass terms of BF type arising in supersymmetric M-theory compactifications to AdS 5 . These describe spontaneously broken higher-form gauge symmetries in the bulk. Different choices of boundary conditions for the BF terms yield dual field theories with distinct global discrete symmetries. We discuss in detail these symmetries and their ’t Hooft anomalies for 4d $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 1 SCFTs arising from M5-branes wrapped on a Riemann surface without punctures, including theories from M5-branes at a ℤ 2 orbifold singularity. The anomaly polynomial is computed via inflow and contains background fields for discrete global 0-, 1-, and 2-form symmetries and continuous 0-form symmetries, as well as axionic background fields. The latter are properly interpreted in the context of anomalies in the space of coupling constants.
4. Janus on the brane

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP07(2020)243  

   Gutperle, Michael ; Uhlemann, Christoph F. ( July 2020 , Journal of High Energy Physics)

   Abstract We present a non-supersymmetric deformation of probe branes describing conformal defects of codimension two in AdS/CFT. The worldvolume of the probe branes is deformed from AdS p × S 1 embedded in an AdS p +2 × ℳ D  −  p  − 2 background to an embedding of Janus form, which uses an AdS p− 1 slicing of AdS p and in which the brane bends along the slicing coordinate. In field theory terms this realizes conformal interfaces on codimension- two defects. We discuss these “Janus on the brane” solutions for AdS 3 × S 1 D3-branes in the AdS 5 × S 5 solution of Type IIB, realizing interfaces on surface defects in $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 4 SYM, and show that similar solutions exist for probe branes in AdS p +2 × S 9 −p vacua of M-theory and in the AdS 6 × S 4 solution of massive Type IIA.
5. Open F-branes

   https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP04(2022)073  

   Hatsuda, Machiko ; Siegel, Warren ( April 2022 , Journal of High Energy Physics)

   A bstract We include in F-theory, through open Type I F-theory branes (F-branes), string theories with N = 1 supersymmetry, both Type I and heterotic. Type I branes are distinguished from Type II by worldvolume parity projection. The same open Type I branes describe both open Type I superstrings and closed heterotic upon different sectionings from F-branes to worldsheets, while closed Type I superstrings arise from closed Type I branes. (Type II superstrings come from closed Type II branes, as described previously.) F-theory manifests the exceptional-group U-duality symmetry, with all massless bosonic fields in a single gauge coset. This coset branches to the usual bosonic supergravity fields upon sectioning. We examine in detail the simple case of D = 3 F-theory: parity projection reduces the Type II coset SL(5)/SO(3,2) to the Type I coset SO(3,3)/SO(2,1) 2 = SL(4)/SO(2,2).