Year: 2015
Type: preprint
Abstract: Wilson loops in gauge theories pose a fundamental challenge for dualities. Wilson loops are labeled by a representation of the gauge group and should map under duality to loop operators labeled by the same data, yet generically, dual theories have completely different gauge groups. In this paper we resolve this conundrum for three dimensional mirror symmetry. We show that Wilson loops are exchanged under mirror symmetry with Vortex loop operators, whose microscopic definition in terms of a supersymmetric quantum mechanics coupled to the theory encode in a non-trivial way a representation of the original gauge group, despite that the gauge groups of mirror theories can be radically different. Our predictions for the mirror map, which we derive guided by branes in string theory, are confirmed by the computation of the exact expectation value of Wilson and Vortex loop operators on the three-sphere.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Authors: Assel, Benjamin, Gomis, Jaume
Institutions: King's College London, Perimeter Institute
Language: English
Subfield: Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: G4773563968, G6771358743
OpenAlex ID: W2952690739