A 5d perspective on the compactifications of 6d SCFTs to 4d $\mathcal{N}=1$ SCFTs

Abstract

Compactifying 6d superconformal field theories (SCFTs) to 4d N = 1 theories on two-punctured spheres (tubes) and tori with flux is realized using duality domain walls in 5d N = 1 Kaluza-Klein (KK) theories, which are usually denoted by flux domain walls. We revisit this construction and study it in detail from the 5d perspective, specifically rephrasing it using the box graph description of the extended Coulomb branch phases of 5d theories. This perspective could be helpful in understanding how to equivalently realize the 4d N = 1 models from geometric engineering in M-theory. Along the way, we show how to recover various properties of the 4d theories from the 5d perspective, such as the flux associated to the domain wall configurations and the presence of a u(1) global symmetry in the 4d theory descending from the KK symmetry on the tube, which is broken to a discrete subgroup on a flux torus. We demonstrate all of these ideas using the rank 1 E-string theory.