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(Un)Higgsing the M2-brane

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Abstract

We study various aspects of \( \mathcal{N} = 2 \) quiver-Chern-Simons theories, conjectured to be dual to M2-branes at toric Calabi-Yau four-fold singularities, under Higgsing. In particular we study in detail the orbifold \( {{{\mathbb{C}^4}} \mathord{\left/{\vphantom {{{\mathbb{C}^4}} {\mathbb{Z}_2^3}}} \right.} {\mathbb{Z}_2^3}} \), obtaining a number of different quiver-Chern-Simons phases for this model, and all 18 toric partial resolutions thereof. In the process we develop a general un-Higgsing algorithm that allows one to construct quiver-Chern-Simons theories by blowing up, thus obtaining a plethora of new models. In addition we explain how turning on torsion G-flux non-trivially affects the supergravity dual of Higgsing, showing that the supergravity and field theory analyses precisely match in an example based on the Sasaki-Einstein manifold \( {Y^{1,2}}\left( {\mathbb{C}{\mathbb{P}^2}} \right) \).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, Oxford University, 1 Keble Road, Oxford, OX1 3NP, U.K.

    Nessi Benishti & Yang-Hui He

  2. Merton College, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 4JD, U.K.

    Yang-Hui He

  3. Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford, 24-29 St. Giles’, Oxford, OX1 3LB, U.K.

    Yang-Hui He & James Sparks

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  1. Nessi Benishti
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  2. Yang-Hui He
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Correspondence to Nessi Benishti.

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ArXiv ePrint: 0909.4557

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Benishti, N., He, YH. & Sparks, J. (Un)Higgsing the M2-brane. J. High Energ. Phys. 2010, 67 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP01(2010)067

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