Janus interface in two-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories

Abstract

Abstract We study the Janus interface, a domain wall characterized by spatially varying couplings, in two-dimensional $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = (2, 2) supersymmetric gauge theories on the two-sphere. When the variations of the couplings are small enough, SUSY localization in the Janus background gives an analytic continuation of the sphere partition function. This directly demonstrates that the interface entropy is proportional to the quantity known as Calabi’s diastasis, as originally shown by Bachas et al. When the variations are not small, we propose that an analytic continuation of the sphere partition function coincides with the Janus partition function. We give a prescription for performing such analytic continuation and computing monodromies. We also point out that the Janus partition function for the equivariant A-twist is precisely the generating function of A-model correlation functions.