No Arabic abstract
The partition function of a three-dimensional $mathcal{N} =2$ theory on the manifold $mathcal{M}_{g,p}$, an $S^1$ bundle of degree $p$ over a closed Riemann surface $Sigma_g$, was recently computed via supersymmetric localization. In this paper, we compute these partition functions at large $N$ in a class of quiver gauge theories with holographic M-theory duals. We provide the supergravity bulk dual having as conformal boundary such three-dimensional circle bundles. These configurations are solutions to $mathcal{N}=2$ minimal gauged supergravity and pertain to the class of Taub-NUT-AdS and Taub-Bolt-AdS preserving $1/4$ of the supersymmetries. We discuss the conditions for the uplift of these solutions to M-theory, and compute the on-shell action via holographic renormalization. We show that the uplift condition and on-shell action for the Bolt solutions are correctly reproduced by the large $N$ limit of the partition function of the dual superconformal field theory. In particular, the $Sigma_g times S^1 cong mathcal{M}_{g,0}$ partition function, which was recently shown to match the entropy of $AdS_4$ black holes, and the $S^3 cong mathcal{M}_{0,1}$ free energy, occur as special cases of our formalism, and we comment on relations between them.
Inhomogeneous fluid flows which become supersonic are known to produce acoustic analogs of ergoregions and horizons. This leads to Hawking-like radiation of phonons with a temperature essentially given by the gradient of the velocity at the horizon. We find such acoustic dumb holes in charged conformal fluids and use the fluid-gravity correspondence to construct dual gravity solutions. A class of quasinormal modes around these gravitational backgrounds perceive a horizon. Upon quantization, this implies a thermal spectrum for these modes.
We propose a set of novel expansions of Nekrasovs instanton partition functions. Focusing on 5d supersymmetric pure Yang-Mills theory with unitary gauge group on $mathbb{C}^2_{q,t^{-1}} times mathbb{S}^1$, we show that the instanton partition function admits expansions in terms of partition functions of unitary gauge theories living on the 3d subspaces $mathbb{C}_{q} times mathbb{S}^1$, $mathbb{C}_{t^{-1}} times mathbb{S}^1$ and their intersection along $mathbb{S}^1$. These new expansions are natural from the BPS/CFT viewpoint, as they can be matched with $W_{q,t}$ correlators involving an arbitrary number of screening charges of two kinds. Our constructions generalize and interpolate existing results in the literature.
We study 3D pure Einstein quantum gravity with negative cosmological constant, in the regime where the AdS radius $l$ is of the order of the Planck scale. Specifically, when the Brown-Henneaux central charge $c=3l/2G_N$ ($G_N$ is the 3D Newton constant) equals $c=1/2$, we establish duality between 3D gravity and 2D Ising conformal field theory by matching gravity and conformal field theory partition functions for AdS spacetimes with general asymptotic boundaries. This duality was suggested by a genus-one calculation of Castro et al. [Phys. Rev. D {bf 85}, 024032 (2012)]. Extension beyond genus-one requires new mathematical results based on 3D Topological Quantum Field Theory; these turn out to uniquely select the $c=1/2$ theory among all those with $c<1$, extending the previous results of Castro et al.. Previous work suggests the reduction of the calculation of the gravity partition function to a problem of summation over the orbits of the mapping class group action on a vacuum seed. But whether or not the summation is well-defined for the general case was unknown before this work. Amongst all theories with Brown-Henneaux central charge $c<1$, the sum is finite and unique {it only} when $c=1/2$, corresponding to a dual Ising conformal field theory on the asymptotic boundary.
An exact formula for partition functions in 3d field theories was recently suggested by Jafferis, and Hama, Hosomichi, and Lee. These functions are expressed in terms of specific $q$-hypergeometric integrals whose key building block is the double sine function (or the hyperbolic gamma function). Elliptic hypergeometric integrals, discovered by the second author, define 4d superconformal indices. Using their reduction to the hyperbolic level, we describe a general scheme of reducing 4d superconformal indices to 3d partition functions which imply an efficient way of getting 3d $mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric dualities for both SYM and CS theories from the parent 4d $mathcal{N}=1$ dualities for SYM theories. As an example, we consider explicitly the duality pattern for 3d $mathcal{N}=2$ SYM and CS theories with SP(2N) gauge group with the antisymmetric tensor matter.
We observe that the partition function of the set of all free massless higher spins s=0,1,2,3,... in flat space is equal to one: the ghost determinants cancel against the physical ones or, equivalently, the (regularized) total number of degrees of freedom vanishes. This reflects large underlying gauge symmetry and suggests analogy with supersymmetric or topological theory. The Z=1 property extends also to the AdS background, i.e. the 1-loop vacuum partition function of Vasiliev theory is equal to 1 (assuming a particular regularization of the sum over spins); this was noticed earlier as a consistency requirement for the vectorial AdS/CFT duality. We find that Z=1 is also true in the conformal higher spin theory (with higher-derivative d^{2s} kinetic terms) expanded near flat or conformally flat S^4 background. We also consider the partition function of free conformal theory of symmetric traceless rank s tensor field which has 2-derivative kinetic term but only scalar gauge invariance in flat 4d space. This non-unitary theory has a Weyl-invariant action in curved background and corresponds to partially massless field in AdS_5. We discuss in detail the special case of s=2 (or conformal graviton), compute the corresponding conformal anomaly coefficients and compare them with previously found expressions for generic representations of conformal group in 4 dimensions.