BSM

Abstract

Lines of large-N conformal fixed points with and without supersymmetry are plentiful in three dimensions, thanks in part to the quantization of the Chern-Simons level k. Such theories are interesting for a variety of reasons, most importantly for their potential role as holographic dual descriptions of quantum theories of gravity in AdS4. In this talk, we will study a particularly simple and instructive non-supersymmetric example -- U(N) Chern-Simons theory coupled to fundamental fermions. As we shall illustrate by calculating the free energy of the theory on R2 at finite temperature for all values of the 't Hooft coupling lambda=N/k, this theory turns out to be surprisingly tractable in the large-N limit.