Domain walls in 4d $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 1 SYM

Abstract

Abstract 4d$$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 1 super Yang-Mills (SYM) with simply connected gauge group G has h gapped vacua arising from the spontaneously broken discrete R-symmetry, where h is the dual Coxeter number of G. Therefore, the theory admits stable domain walls interpolating between any two vacua, but it is a nonperturbative problem to determine the low energy theory on the domain wall. We put forward an explicit answer to this question for all the domain walls for G = SU(N), Sp(N), Spin(N) and G2, and for the minimal domain wall connecting neighboring vacua for arbitrary G. We propose that the domain wall theories support specific nontrivial topological quantum field theories (TQFTs), which include the Chern-Simons theory proposed long ago by Acharya-Vafa for SU(N). We provide nontrivial evidence for our proposals by exactly matching renormalization group invariant partition functions twisted by global symmetries of SYM computed in the ultraviolet with those computed in our proposed infrared TQFTs. A crucial element in this matching is constructing the Hilbert space of spin TQFTs, that is, theories that depend on the spin structure of spacetime and admit fermionic states — a subject we delve into in some detail.