| dc.description.abstract | Using the chiral algebra bootstrap, we revisit the simplest Argyres-Douglas (AD) generalization of Argyres-Seiberg S-duality. We argue that the exotic AD superconformal field theory (SCFT), T_{3, 3/2}, emerging in this duality splits into a free piece and an interacting piece, T_{X}, even though this factorization seems invisible in the Seiberg-Witten (SW) curve derived from the corresponding M5-brane construction. Without a Lagrangian, an associated topological field theory, a BPS spectrum, or even an SW curve, we nonetheless obtain exact information about TX by bootstrapping its chiral algebra, χ(T_{X}), and finding the corresponding vacuum character in terms of Affine Kac-Moody characters. By a standard 4D/2D correspondence, this result gives us the Schur index for T_{X} and, by studying this quantity in the limit of small S_{1}, we make contact with a proposed S_{1} reduction. Along the way, we discuss various properties of T_{X} : as an N = 1 theory, it has flavor symmetry SU(3) × SU(2) × U(1), the central charge of χ(T_{X}) matches the central charge of the bc ghosts in bosonic string theory, and its global SU(2) symmetry has a Witten anomaly. This anomaly does not prevent us from building conformal manifolds out of arbitrary numbers of T_{X} theories (giving us a surprisingly close AD relative of Gaiotto’s TN theories), but it does lead to some open questions in the context of the chiral algebra / 4D N = 2 SCFT correspondence. | en_US |
