Gauge theories from principally extended disconnected gauge groups
Résumé
We introduce gauge theories based on a class of disconnected gauge groups, called principal extensions. Although in this work we focus on 4d theories with SUSY, such construction is independent of spacetime dimensions and supersymmetry. These groups implement in a consistent way the discrete gauging of charge conjugation, for arbitrary rank. Focusing on the principal extension of , we explain how many of the exact methods for theories with 8 supercharges can be put into practice in that context. We then explore the physical consequences of having a disconnected gauge group: we find that the Coulomb branch is generically non-freely generated, and the global symmetry of the Higgs branch is modified in a non-trivial way.