Supersymmetric RG flows and Janus from type II orbifold compactification

Abstract

Abstract We study holographic RG flow solutions within four-dimensional $$N=4$$ N = 4 gauged supergravity obtained from type IIA and IIB string theories compactified on $$T^6/\mathbb {Z}_2\times \mathbb {Z}_2$$ T 6 / Z 2 × Z 2 orbifold with gauge, geometric and non-geometric fluxes. In type IIB non-geometric compactifications, the resulting gauged supergravity has $$ISO(3)\times ISO(3)$$ I S O ( 3 ) × I S O ( 3 ) gauge group and admits an $$N=4$$ N = 4 $$\mathrm{AdS}_4$$ AdS 4 vacuum dual to an $$N=4$$ N = 4 superconformal field theory (SCFT) in three dimensions. We study various supersymmetric RG flows from this $$N=4$$ N = 4 SCFT to $$N=4$$ N = 4 and $$N=1$$ N = 1 non-conformal field theories in the IR. The flows preserving $$N=4$$ N = 4 supersymmetry are driven by relevant operators of dimensions $$\Delta =1,2$$ Δ = 1 , 2 or alternatively by one of these relevant operators, dual to the dilaton, and irrelevant operators of dimensions $$\Delta =4$$ Δ = 4 while the $$N=1$$ N = 1 flows in addition involve marginal deformations. Most of the flows can be obtained analytically. We also give examples of supersymmetric Janus solutions preserving $$N=4$$ N = 4 and $$N=1$$ N = 1 supersymmetries. These solutions should describe two-dimensional conformal defects within the dual $$N=4$$ N = 4 SCFT. Geometric compactifications of type IIA theory give rise to $$N=4$$ N = 4 gauged supergravity with $$ISO(3)\ltimes U(1)^6$$ I S O ( 3 ) ⋉ U ( 1 ) 6 gauge group. In this case, the resulting gauged supergravity admits an $$N=1$$ N = 1 $$\mathrm{AdS}_4$$ AdS 4 vacuum. We also numerically study possible $$N=1$$ N = 1 RG flows to non-conformal field theories in this case.