A class of N=1 supersymmetric RG flows from five-dimensional N=8 supergravity

We consider the holographic dual of a general class of N = 1* flows in which ail three chiral multiplets have independent masses, and in which the corresponding Yang-Mills scalars can develop particular supersymmetry-preserving vevs. We also allow the gaugino to develop a vev. This leads to a six parameter subspace of the supergravity scalar action, and we show that this is a consistent truncation, and obtain a superpotential that governs the N = 1* flows on this subspace. We analyse some of the structure of the superpotential, and check consistency with the asymptotic behaviour near the UV fixed point. We show that the dimensions of the six couplings obey a sum rule all along the N = 1* flows. We also show how our superpotential describes part of the Coulomb branch of the nontrivial N = 1 fixed point theory. (C) 2000 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.