GP Seminar: A tour of 6d UV-complete Field Theories and their Protected Sector

Abstract: In the absence of gravity, field theories in six dimensions can be UV-completed to either Superconformal Field Theories (SCFTs) or Little String Theories (LSTs) and can be geometrically engineered from string theory. Large classes of these theories can furthermore be understood as deformations of a few "parents" through a network of Renormalisation Group flows. After reviewing some of their properties, I will show that certain protected quantities can be obtained solely in terms of group theory, without ever needing to refer to the geometric construction. In turn, this result has a very simple and purely field-theoretic interpretation as a consequence of Goldstone's theorem. For LSTs, I will then show how dualities can be used to find new consistency conditions leading to bounds on the allowed symmetries.

This is a seminar in the Centre of Geometry and Physics seminar series.