Modular symmetry and fractional charges in N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills and the quantum Hall effect

DOI10.3842/SIGMA.2007.010MaRDI QIDQ2473401zbMATH OpenFDO

Authors Brian P. Dolan

Publication date 27 February 2008

Published in SIGMA. Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0611282, https://eudml.org/doc/54171, http://www.emis.de/journals/SIGMA/2007/010/

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zbMATH Keywords

dualitymodular symmetryquantum Hall effectsupersymmetry

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Holomorphic modular forms of integral weight (11F11) Finite-dimensional groups and algebras motivated by physics and their representations (81R05) Supersymmetric field theories in quantum mechanics (81T60) Many-body theory; quantum Hall effect (81V70)

Abstract: The parallel roles of modular symmetry in $calN=2$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills and in the quantum Hall effect are reviewed. In supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories modular symmetry emerges as a version of Dirac's electric -- magnetic duality. It has significant consequences for the vacuum structure of these theories, leading to a fractal vacuum which has an infinite hierarchy of related phases. In the case of $calN=2$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills in 3+1 dimensions, scaling functions can be defined which are modular forms of a subgroup of the full modular group and which interpolate between vacua. Infra-red fixed points at strong coupling correspond to $heta$-vacua with $heta$ a rational number that, in the case of pure SUSY Yang-Mills, has odd denominator. There is a mass gap for electrically charged particles which can carry fractional electric charge. A similar structure applies to the 2+1 dimensional quantum Hall effect where the hierarchy of Hall plateaux can be understood in terms of an action of the modular group and the stability of Hall plateaux is due to the fact that odd denominator Hall conductivities are attractive infra-red fixed points. There is a mass gap for electrically charged excitations which, in the case of the fractional quantum Hall effect, carry fractional electric charge.

Review text

The modular symmetry is reviewed in the frame of the quantum Hall effect and of the 3+1 dimensional \(\mathcal N=2\) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. Indeed, \(\mathcal N=2\) supersymmetric SU(2) Yang-Mills theory and the quantum Hall effect are connected mathematically in the sense that modular symmetry places on the scaling flow of the two theories. The modular symmetry has significant consequences for the vacuum structures of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories leading to a fractal vacuum which has an infinite hierarchy of related phases. In the case of \(\mathcal N=2\) supersymmetric Yang-Mills \(3+1\) dimensions, scaling functions are modular forms of a subgroup of the full modular group. A mass gap appears for electrically charged particles carrying fractional electric charges. A similar structure applies to the \(2+1\) dimensional quantum Hall effect where the hierarchy of the Hall plateaux can be understood by means of an action of the modular group and the stability of the Hall plateaux is due to the fact that odd denominator Hall conductivities are attractive infrared fixed points.

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Cited in

(5)

• A holographic model for the fractional quantum Hall effect
• Holography of dyonic dilaton black branes
• Duality in strongly interacting systems: N= 2 SUSY Yang-Mills and the quantum Hall effect
• DUALITY IN SUPERSYMMETRIC YANG–MILLS AND THE QUANTUM HALL EFFECT
• The global phase diagram of a modular invariant two-dimensional statistical model

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