Non-unitary TQFTs from 3D $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 4 rank 0 SCFTs

Abstract

Abstract We propose a novel procedure of assigning a pair of non-unitary topological quantum field theories (TQFTs), TFT±[$$ \mathcal{T} $$ T rank 0], to a (2+1)D interacting $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 4 superconformal field theory (SCFT) $$ \mathcal{T} $$ T rank 0 of rank 0, i.e. having no Coulomb and Higgs branches. The topological theories arise from particular degenerate limits of the SCFT. Modular data of the non-unitary TQFTs are extracted from the supersymmetric partition functions in the degenerate limits. As a non-trivial dictionary, we propose that F = maxα (− log|$$ {S}_{0\alpha}^{\left(+\right)} $$ S 0 α + |) = maxα (− log|$$ {S}_{0\alpha}^{\left(-\right)} $$ S 0 α − |), where F is the round three-sphere free energy of $$ \mathcal{T} $$ T rank 0 and $$ {S}_{0\alpha}^{\left(\pm \right)} $$ S 0 α ± is the first column in the modular S-matrix of TFT±. From the dictionary, we derive the lower bound on F, F ≥ − log $$ \left(\sqrt{\frac{5-\sqrt{5}}{10}}\right) $$ 5 − 5 10 ≃ 0.642965, which holds for any rank 0 SCFT. The bound is saturated by the minimal $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 4 SCFT proposed by Gang-Yamazaki, whose associated topological theories are both the Lee-Yang TQFT. We explicitly work out the (rank 0 SCFT)/(non-unitary TQFTs) correspondence for infinitely many examples.