Marginally deformed AdS$_5$/CFT$_4$ and spindle-like orbifolds

Abstract

In this thesis, the AdS/CFT correspondence is used as a tool to explore novel AdS$_5$ Supergravity backgrounds (containing five-dimensional Anti-de Sitter spacetime) and their dual (four dimensional) Conformal Field Theory descriptions. In order to obtain precise results, both conformal symmetry and supersymmetry play an important role. However, in order to align with experimental observation, supersymmetry must be broken at low energies. In the absence of supersymmetry, finding deformations of a CFT which are marginal in nature (preserving conformal symmetry) is currently not well understood. Nevertheless, the solutions presented in this work may offer the best evidence to date of such deformations. Multi-parameter families of non-supersymmetric type IIA and type IIB AdS$_5$ solutions are presented, promoting to $\mathcal{N} = 1$ supersymmetry in some special cases. Contained within these solutions is an existing class of $\mathcal{N} = 2$ type IIA solutions, recovered in one example when both deformation parameters are fixed to zero. The supersymmetry is studied using the method of G-structures, with the boundaries of the solutions carefully investigated -- uncovering orbifold singularities within some solutions. In the type IIA backgrounds, both the spindle and its higher dimensional analogue play an important role, giving rise to rational quantization of charge. All parameters drop out of a quantity called the holographic central charge, pointing to marginal deformations of the existing $d=4$ $\mathcal{N} = 2$ long linear quiver CFT. These marginal deformations are proposed to correspond to soft-SUSY breaking, with the Lagrangian nature of the CFT broken in some cases.