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arXiv · 1505.03850

Higher Derivative Terms, Toroidal Compactification, and Weyl Anomalies in Six-Dimensional (2,0) Theories

Clay Cordova·Thomas T. Dumitrescu·Xi Yin
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Abstract

We systematically analyze the effective action on the moduli space of (2,0) superconformal field theories in six dimensions, as well as their toroidal compactification to maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories in five and four dimensions. We present a streamlined approach to non-renormalization theorems that constrain this effective action. The first several orders in its derivative expansion are determined by a one-loop calculation in five-dimensional Yang-Mills theory. This fixes the leading higher-derivative operators that describe the renormalization group flow into theories residing at singular points on the moduli space of the compactified (2,0) theories. This understanding allows us to compute the a-type Weyl anomaly for all (2,0) superconformal theories. We show that it decreases along every renormalization group flow that preserves (2,0) supersymmetry, thereby establishing the a-theorem for this class of theories. Along the way, we encounter various field-theoretic arguments for the ADE classification of (2,0) theories.

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Clay Cordova, Thomas T. Dumitrescu, Xi Yin. 2015-05-14. Higher Derivative Terms, Toroidal Compactification, and Weyl Anomalies in Six-Dimensional (2,0) Theories. https://arxiv.org/abs/1505.03850

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