Joint Theory Seminar: Konstantinos Zoubos

Title: Hidden Symmetries in N=2 Superconformal Theories

Abstract: Orbifolding the N=4 SYM theory naively breaks its SU(4) R-symmetry group to a much smaller subgroup, such as SU(2)xU(1) if N=2 supersymmetry is preserved. I will discuss how, by extending our notion of symmetry to include Lie groupoids and their twists, one can recover the broken generators, at least at the planar level. This implies that a version of the full SU(4) symmetry is still present in these N=2 theories, even after one marginally deforms away from the orbifold point. I will briefly discuss the implications of this hidden symmetry as far as the planar spectrum of the theory is concerned.