Tinkertoys for the E 6 theory

Abstract

Compactifying the 6-dimensional (2,0) superconformal field theory, of type ADE, on a Riemann surface, C, with codimension-2 defect operators at points on C, yields a 4-dimensional $$ \mathcal{N}=2 $$ superconformal field theory. An outstanding problem is to classify the 4D theories one obtains, in this way, and to understand their properties. In this paper, we turn our attention to the E 6 (2,0) theory, which (unlike the A- and D-series) has no realization in terms of M5-branes. Classifying the 4D theories amounts to classifying all of the 3-punctured spheres (“fixtures”), and the cylinders that connect them, that can occur in a pants-decomposition of C. We find 904 fixtures: 19 corresponding to free hypermultiplets, 825 corresponding to isolated interacting SCFTs (with no known Lagrangian description) and 60 “mixed fixtures”, corresponding to a combination of free hypermultiplets and an interacting SCFT. Of the 825 interacting fixtures, we list only the 139 “interesting” ones. As an application, we study the strong coupling limits of the Lagrangian field theories: E 6 with 4 hypermultiplets in the 27 and F 4 with 3 hypermultiplets in the 26.