Supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric Seiberg-like dualities for gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten theories, realised on branes

Abstract

In this work we extend the results of previous derivations of Seiberg-like dualities (level-rank duality) between gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten theories. The arguments in use to identify a potential dual for the supersymmetric WZW theory based on the coset $\frac{U(N+M)_k}{U(N)_k}$ can be extended to be applied to a wider variety of gauge groups, notably $\frac{USp(2N+2M)_{2k}}{USp(2N)_{2k}}$ and $\frac{SO(2N+2M)_{2k}}{SO(2N)_{2k}}$, which will be dealt with briefly. Most interestingly, non-supersymmetric versions of the latter theories can also be shown to have duals in a similar fashion. These results are supported by several pieces of evidence, string phenomenological interpretations of Seiberg duality, even in non-supersymmetric backgrounds, is helpful to justify the formulation, then, from field theory, quantities such as central charges or Witten indices are shown to match exactly. The stability of these non-supersymmetric models is also discussed and shown to be consistent.