Global symmetries of N=2 super Yang Mills

GASTON GIRIBET

Seminario; String Theory Seminar, Columbia University; 2012

Columbia University

After briefly reviewing the correspondence between 2d conformal field theories and 4d superconformal gauge theories, I will discuss how the global symmetry of N=2 super Yang-Mills theory with Nf=4 flavors in d=4 dimensions can be seen to emerge from the Liouville theory description via the so-called Alday-Gaiotto-Tachikawa correspondence. This represents a nontrivial check of the conjectures involved as it follows from a priori unexpected identities of Liouville theory. I will also comment on recent attempts to describe non-fundamental surfaces operators within this framework.