Classifying BPS bosonic Wilson loops in 3d ${\cal N}=4$ Chern-Simons-matter theories

Abstract

We study the possible BPS Wilson loops in three-dimensional ${\cal N}=4$ Chern-Simons-matter theory which involve only the gauge field and bilinears of the scalars. Previously known examples are the analogues of the Gaiotto-Yin loops preserving four supercharges and "latitude" loops preserving two. We carry out a careful classification and find, in addition, loops preserving three supercharges, further inequivalent classes of loops preserving two supercharges and loops preserving a single supercharge. For each of the classes of loops, we present a representative example and analyse their full orbit under the broken symmetries.