Overlooking 3d dualities from mezzanines and balconies

Abstract

We derive new 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ dualities with $\mathrm{U}(N)$ gauge groups involving pairs of two-index tensors interacting through a quartic superpotential, (anti)-fundamentals and possibly an adjoint. A strong hint for their validity follows from T-duality on brane setups with O6 planes and stacks of multiple NS fivebranes. These setups engineer two families of 4d models known in the literature as mezzanine and balcony of type $A_k$ and $D_{k+2}$. In 4d these models admit a generalization of Seiberg duality, tested also at the brane level. We study the reduction of such dualities from both the brane and the field theory perspective and we establish the matching of the three-sphere partition functions, assuming the validity of the 4d superconformal indices. The latter is achieved through a double scaling limit, whose structure is dictated by the brane picture, and it requires the validity of new 3d confining dualities for quivers with two gauge nodes. Moreover we provide a proof of these confining dualities via the tensor deconfinement technique.