Abstract
The physics of M5 branes placed near an M9 plane on an A-type ALE singularity exhibits a variety of phenomena that introduce additional massless degrees of freedom. There are tensionless strings whenever two M5 branes coincide or whenever an M5 brane approaches the M9 plane. These systems do not admit a low-energy Lagrangian description so new techniques are desirable to shed light on the physics of these phenomena. The 6-dimensional mathcal{N} = left(1,kern0.5em 0right) world-volume theory on the M5 branes is composed of massless vector, tensor, and hyper multiplets, and has two branches of the vacuum moduli space where either the scalar fields in the tensor or hyper multiplets receive vacuum expectation values. Focusing on the Higgs branch of the low-energy theory, previous works suggest the conjecture that a new Higgs branch arises whenever a BPS-string becomes tensionless. Consequently, a single theory admits a multitude of Higgs branches depending on the types of tensionless strings in the spectrum. The two main phenomena discrete gauging and small E8instanton transition can be treated in a concise and effective manner by means of Coulomb branches of 3-dimensional mathcal{N} = 4 gauge theories. In this paper, a formalism is introduced that allows to derive a novel object from a brane configuration, called the magnetic quiver. The main features are as follows: (i) the 3d Coulomb branch of the magnetic quiver yields the Higgs branch of the 6d system, (ii) all discrete gauging and E8 instanton transitions have an explicit brane realisation, and (iii) exceptional symmetries arise directly from brane configurations. The formalism facilitates the description of Higgs branches at finite and infinite gauge coupling as spaces of dressed monopole operators.
Highlights
The world-volume theories of M5 branes have led to interesting 6-dimensional theories
The main point of this paper is to argue that by taking the magnetic quiver data as input for the 3-dimensional N = 4 Coulomb branch description in terms of dressed monopole operators one can capture all phases of the 6-dimensional Higgs branches in a systematic and concise fashion
It is imperative to distinguish the moduli spaces associated with the two kinds of quivers: the electric quiver data serves as definition of a low-energy effective 6d N = (1, 0) theory and, in particular, its classical Higgs branch; whereas the magnetic quiver data defines a Coulomb branch of a 3d N = 4 gauge theory describing the Higgs branch of the strongly coupled 6d N = (1, 0) theory
Summary
The world-volume theories of M5 branes have led to interesting 6-dimensional theories. Since some BPS strings become tensionless whenever a gauge coupling is tuned to infinity, new massless degrees of freedom are expected to contribute to the Higgs branch such that it is still a hyper-Kahler space of larger dimension, but not a hyper-Kahler quotient any more Since these theories are non-Lagrangian, an alternative approach is desirable to investigate Higgs branches at infinite coupling. (ii) Deduce the magnetic quiver from this phase of the brane system by suspending D4 branes, which are the higher-dimensional analogous of the D-string As as consequence, this procedure establishes a description of 6d N = (1, 0) Higgs branches as space of dressed monopole operators as originally proposed in 3d N = 4 Coulomb branch set-up [32].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
