Gauging and Decoupling in 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ dualities

Abstract

One interesting feature of 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ theories is that gauge-invariant operators can decouple by strong-coupling effects, leading to emergent flavor symmetries in the IR. The details of such decoupling, however, depends very delicately on the gauge group and matter content of the theory. We here systematically study the IR behavior of 3d $\mathcal{N}=2$ SQCD with $N_f$ flavors, for gauge groups $\mathrm{SU}(N_c), \mathrm{USp}(2N_c)$ and $\mathrm{SO}(N_c)$. We apply a combination of analytical and numerical methods, both to small values of $N_c, N_f$ and also to the Veneziano limit, where $N_c$ and $N_f$ are taken to be large with their ratio $N_f/N_c$ fixed. We highlight the role of the monopole operators and the interplay with Aharony-type dualities. We also discuss the effect of gauging continuous as well as discrete flavor symmetries, and the implications of our analysis to the classification of $1/4$--BPS co-dimension 2 defects of 6d $(2,0)$ theories.