Special Arithmetic of Flavor

Abstract

We revisit the classification of rank-1 4d $\mathcal{N}=2$ QFTs in the spirit of Diophantine Geometry, viewing their special geometries as elliptic curves over the chiral ring (a Dedekind domain). The Kodaira-N\'eron model maps the space of non-trivial rank-1 special geometries to the well-known moduli of pairs $(\mathcal{E},F_\infty)$ where $\mathcal{E}$ is a relatively minimal, rational elliptic surface with section, and $F_\infty$ a fiber with additive reduction. Requiring enough Seiberg-Witten differentials yields a condition on $(\mathcal{E},F_\infty)$ equivalent to the "safely irrelevant conjecture". The Mordell-Weil group of $\mathcal{E}$ (with the N\'eron-Tate pairing) contains a canonical root system arising from $(-1)$-curves in special position in the N\'eron-Severi group. This canonical system is identified with the roots of the flavor group $\mathsf{F}$: the allowed flavor groups are then read from the Oguiso-Shioda table of Mordell-Weil groups. Discrete gaugings correspond to base changes. Our results are consistent with previous work by Argyres et al.