An N=2 gauge theory and its supergravity dual

We study flows on the scalar manifold of N = 8 gauged supergravity in five dimensions which are dual to certain mass deformations of N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory. In particular, we consider a perturbation of the gauge theory by a mass term for the adjoint hyper-multiplet, giving rise to an N = 2 theory. The exact solution of the 5-dim gauged supergravity equations of motion is found and the metric is uplifted to a ten-dimensional background of type-IIB supergravity. Using these geometric data and the AdS/CFT correspondence we analyze the spectra of certain operators as well as Wilson loops on the dual gauge theory side. The physical flows are parametrized by a single non-positive constant and describe part of the Coulomb branch of the N = 2 theory at strong coupling. We also propose a general criterion to distinguish between 'physical' and 'unphysical' curvature singularities. Applying it in many backgrounds arising within the AdS/CFT correspondence we find results that are in complete agreement with field theory expectations. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.