Abstract:
We study four N=1 SU(N)^6 gauge theories, with bi-
fundamental chiral matter and a superpotential. In the
infrared, these gauge theories all realize the low-energy
world-volume description of N coincident D3-branes
transverse to the complex cone over a del Pezzo surface
dP_3 which is the blowup of P^2 at three generic points.
Therefore, the four gauge theories are expected to fall
into the same universality class--an example of a
phenomenon that has been termed "toric duality." However,
little independent evidence has been given that such
theories are infrared-equivalent.
In fact, we show that the four gauge theories are related
by the N=1 duality of Seiberg, vindicating this
expectation. We also study holographic aspects of these
gauge theories. In particular we relate the spectrum of
chiral operators in the gauge theories to wrapped D3-brane
states in the AdS dual description. We finally demonstrate
that the other known examples of toric duality are related
by N=1 duality, a fact which we conjecture holds generally.