Klebanov-Witten flows in M-theory

Abstract

We study renormalization group flows among three dimensional superconformal gauge theories which closely resemble the renowned Klebanov-Witten flow in four dimensions. In the large N limit, each theory appearing in the flow is holographically dual to M-theory on AdS4 times a toric Sasaki-Einstein seven-manifold. The theories are obtained through the so-called flavoring method, which adds some fundamental matter fields to the dimensionally reduced Klebanov-Witten theories. We reconfirm the matching between the gauge theories and the dual geometries by comparing the chiral ring structure. As a more refined test of the flows, we compute the three-sphere partition function of the gauge theories. The square of the free energy, inversely proportional to the volume of the seven-manifold, decreases by a universal ratio 16/27 for all flows considered in this paper.

38 pages, 8 figures; v2. references added, minor improvements