Search

M5-branes on an ADE singularity are described by certain six-dimensional "conformal matter" superconformal field theories. Their Higgs moduli spaces contain information about various dynamical processes for the M5s; however, they are not directly accessible due to the lack of a Lagrangian formulation. Using anomaly matching, we compute their dimensions. The result implies that M5 fractions can recombine in several different ways, where the M5s are leaving behind frozen versions of the singularity. The anomaly polynomial gives hints about the nature of the freezing. We also check the Higgs dimension formula by comparing it with various existing conjectures for the CFTs one obtains by torus compactifications down to four and three dimensions. Aided by our results, we also extend those conjectures to compactifications of theories not previously considered. These involve class S theories with twisted punctures in four dimensions, and affine-Dynkin-shaped quivers in three dimensions., 39 pages, 1 figure; v2 published in JHEP

We classify Minkowski$_4$ solutions in type IIA supergravity, with N=2 supersymmetry and an SU(2) R-symmetry of a certain type. Many subcases can be reduced to relatively simple PDEs, among which we recover various intersecting brane systems, and AdS$_d$ solutions, $d=5,6,7$, and in particular the recently found general massive AdS$_7$ solutions. Imposing compactness of the internal six-manifold we obtain promising solutions with localized D-branes and O-planes., Comment: v2: Result slightly strengthened, typos corrected. v3: Published Version

We find new classes of AdS_4 solutions with localized branes and orientifolds, both analytic and numerical. We start with an Ansatz for the pure spinors inspired by a recently found class of AdS_7 x M_3 solutions in massive IIA; we replace the AdS_7 by AdS_4 x Sigma_3, and we fibre M_3 over Sigma_3 in a way inspired by a field theory SU(2) twist. We are able to reduce the problem to a system of five ODEs; a further Ansatz reduces them to three. Their solutions can be bijectively mapped to the AdS_7 solutions via a simple universal map. This also allows to find a simple analytic form for these solutions. They are naturally interpreted as twisted compactifications of the (1,0) CFT_6's dual to the AdS_7 solutions. The larger system of five ODEs also admits more general numerical solutions, again with localized branes; regularity is achieved via an attractor mechanism., Comment: 47 pages