String Theory Seminars

Argyres-Douglas theories, M5 branes and hypersurface singularities

by Mr. Yifan Wang (MIT)

Tuesday, January 12, 2016 from to (Asia/Kolkata)
at A304
Description
Argyres-Douglas theories are ubiquitous 4d N=2 superconformal field theories first discovered as nontrivial IR fixed points of 4d N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories. They have mutually non-local massless BPS states and in general do not have a weak coupling expansion. In this talk, I will discuss the string/M theory constructions of Argyres-Douglas theories, in particular from M5 branes and IIB hypersurface singularities. We shall also see a curious mathematical equivalence between certain singular Hitchin systems (governing the configuration of M5 branes) and cDV (compound Du Val) singularities (probed by type IIB string), established via Argyres-Douglas theories.