Chern-Simons-Trinion theories: One-form symmetries and superconformal indices

Abstract

Abstract We study 3d theories containing $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 3 Chern-Simons vector multiplets coupled to the SU(N)3 flavour symmetry of 3d TN theories with Chern-Simons levels k1, k2 and k3. It was formerly pointed out that these theories flow to infrared SCFTs with enhanced $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 4 supersymmetry when 1/k1 + 1/k2 + 1/k3 = 0. We examine superconformal indices of these theories which reveal that supersymmetry of the infrared SCFTs may get enhanced to 4 ≤ $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N ≤ 6 if such a condition is satisfied. Moreover, even if the Chern-Simons levels do not obey the aforementioned condition, we find that there is still an infinite family of theories that flows to infrared SCFTs with $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 4 supersymmetry. The ’t Hooft anomalies of the one-form symmetries of these theories are analysed. As a by-product, we observe that there is generally a decoupled topological sector in the infrared. When the infrared SCFTs have $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N ≥ 4 supersymmetry, we also study the Higgs and Coulomb branch limits of the indices which provide geometric information of the moduli space of the theories in question in terms of the Hilbert series.