BPS M5-branes as Defects for the 3d-3d Correspondence
Abstract
We study supersymmetric probe M5-branes in the AdS4 solution that arises from M5-branes wrapped on a hyperbolic 3-manifold M3. This amounts to introducing internal defects within the framework of the 3d-3d correspondence. The BPS condition for a probe M5-brane extending along all of AdS4 requires it to wrap a surface embedded in an S2-fibration over M3. We find that the projection of this surface to M3 can be either a geodesic or a tubular surface around a geodesic. These configurations preserve an extra U(1) symmetry, in addition to the one corresponding to the R-symmetry of the dual 3d N=2 gauge theory. BPS M2-branes can stretch between M5-branes wrapping geodesics. We interpret the addition of probe M5-branes on a closed geodesic in terms of conformal Dehn surgery.