Surface defects and instanton–vortex interaction

We propose a simple formula for the 4d–2d partition function of half-BPS surface defects in d=4, N=2 gauge theories: Z4d–2d=〈Z2d〉4d. Our results are applicable for any surface defect obtained by gauging a 2d flavor symmetry using a 4d gauge group. For defects obtained via the Higgsing procedure, our...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: A. Gorsky, B. Le Floch, A. Milekhin, N. Sopenko
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2017-07-01
Series:Nuclear Physics B
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0550321317301396
Description
Summary:We propose a simple formula for the 4d–2d partition function of half-BPS surface defects in d=4, N=2 gauge theories: Z4d–2d=〈Z2d〉4d. Our results are applicable for any surface defect obtained by gauging a 2d flavor symmetry using a 4d gauge group. For defects obtained via the Higgsing procedure, our formula reproduces the recent calculation by Pan and Peelaers. For Gukov–Witten defects our results reproduce the orbifold calculation by Kanno and Tachikawa. We emphasize the role of “negative vortices” which are realized as negative D0 branes.
ISSN:0550-3213
1873-1562