An exact and general solution is presented for a previously open problem. We show that the superconformal R-symmetry of any 4d SCFT is exactly and uniquely determined by a maximization principle: it is the R-symmetry, among all possibilities, which (locally) maximizes the combination of 't Hooft anomalies a trial (R) ≡ (9TrR 3 − 3TrR)/32. The maximal value of a trial is then, by a result of Anselmi et. al., the central charge a of the SCFT. Our a trial maximization principle almost immediately ensures that the central charge a decreases upon any RG flow, since relevant deformations force a trial to be maximized over a subset of the previously possible R-symmetries. Using a trial maximization, we find the exact superconformal R-symmetry (and thus the exact anomalous dimensions of all chiral operators) in a variety of previously mysterious 4d N = 1 SCFTs. As a check, we verify that our exact results reproduce the perturbative anomalous dimensions in all perturbatively accessible RG fixed points. Our result implies that N = 1 SCFTs are algebraic: the exact scaling dimensions of all chiral primary operators, and the central charges a and c, are always algebraic numbers.

We investigate a simple class of type II string compactifications which incorporate nongeometric "fluxes" in addition to "geometric flux" and the usual H-field and R-R fluxes. These compactifications are nongeometric analogues of the twisted torus. We develop T-duality rules for NS-NS geometric and nongeometric fluxes, which we use to construct a superpotential for the dimensionally reduced four-dimensional theory. The resulting structure is invariant under T-duality, so that the distribution of vacua in the IIA and IIB theories is identical when nongeometric fluxes are included. This gives a concrete framework in which to investigate the possibility that generic string compactifications may be nongeometric in any duality frame. The framework developed in this paper also provides some concrete hints for how mirror symmetry can be generalized to compactifications with arbitrary H-flux, whose mirrors are generically nongeometric.

We describe a technique which enables one to quickly compute an infinite number of toric geometries and their dual quiver gauge theories. The central object in this construction is a "brane tiling," which is a collection of D5-branes ending on an NS5-brane wrapping a holomorphic curve that can be represented as a periodic tiling of the plane. This construction solves the longstanding problem of computing superpotentials for D-branes probing a singular non-compact toric Calabi-Yau manifold, and overcomes many difficulties which were encountered in previous work. The brane tilings give the largest class of N = 1 quiver gauge theories yet studied. A central feature of this work is the relation of these tilings to dimer constructions previously studied in a variety of contexts. We do many examples of computations with dimers, which give new results as well as confirm previous computations. Using our methods we explicitly derive the moduli space of the entire Y p,q family of quiver theories, verifying that they correspond to the appropriate geometries. Our results may be interpreted as a generalization of the McKay correspondence to non-compact 3-dimensional toric Calabi-Yau manifolds.

We provide a general set of rules for extracting the data defining a quiver gauge theory from a given toric Calabi-Yau singularity. Our method combines information from the geometry and topology of Sasaki-Einstein manifolds, AdS/CFT, dimers, and brane tilings. We explain how the field content, quantum numbers, and superpotential of a superconformal gauge theory on D3-branes probing a toric Calabi-Yau singularity can be deduced. The infinite family of toric singularities with known horizon Sasaki-Einstein manifolds L a,b,c is used to illustrate these ideas. We construct the corresponding quiver gauge theories, which may be fully specified by giving a tiling of the plane by hexagons with certain gluing rules. As checks of this construction, we perform a-maximisation as well as Z-minimisation to compute the exact R-charges of an arbitrary such quiver. We also examine a number of examples in detail, including the infinite subfamily L a,b,a , whose smallest member is the Suspended Pinch Point.

We engineer a large new set of four-dimensional N = 1 superconformal field theories by wrapping M5-branes on complex curves. We present new supersymmetric AdS 5 M-theory backgrounds which describe these fixed points at large N , and then directly construct the dual four-dimensional CFTs for a certain subset of these solutions. Additionally, we provide a direct check of the central charges of these theories by using the M5-brane anomaly polynomial. This is a companion paper which elaborates upon results reported in [1].