A Master Superspace Action for 3D S-Duality

Adi Armoni; Ricardo Stuardo; Mark Thomas

Paper

A Master Superspace Action for 3D S-Duality

Abstract

We formulate a `master' partition function in three-dimensional

superspace that realises, upon integrating out complementary superfields, both the electric Maxwell--Chern--Simons (MCS) theory and its magnetic

-dual: a non-gauge Deser--Jackiw self-dual massive vector times a decoupled level-

Chern--Simons term. The two descriptions share the topological mass

and obey an exact partition-function identity

with

, mapping a weakly coupled MCS theory to a strongly coupled Deser--Jackiw CS theory. Special limits reproduce pure Chern--Simons/Gaiotto--Witten (

) and Maxwell/compact-scalar duality (

). We extend the construction to a non-Abelian U

gauge group obtaining

Yang--Mills--Chern--Simons on the electric side and a massive non-gauge vector coupled to level-

Chern--Simons on the magnetic side; the interaction terms between the massive vector and the Chern-Simons term vanish in the Abelian case. Decomposing the

vector into an

vector and a real-linear multiplet factorises the master action and yields the

counterparts. This uplifts the bosonic duality formulated recently to

and clarifies its non-Abelian and

reductions.