Correlation functions of Coulomb branch operators

Abstract

We consider the correlation functions of Coulomb branch operators in four-dimensional N = 2 Superconformal Field Theories (SCFTs) involving exactly one antichiral operator. These extremal correlators are the “minimal” non-holomorphic local observables in the theory. We show that they can be expressed in terms of certain determinants of derivatives of the four-sphere partition function of an appropriate deformation of the SCFT. This relation between the extremal correlators and the deformed four-sphere partition function is non-trivial due to the presence of conformal anomalies, which lead to operator mixing on the sphere. Evaluating the deformed four-sphere partition function using supersymmetric localization, we compute the extremal correlators explicitly in many interesting examples. Additionally, the representation of the extremal correlators mentioned above leads to a system of integrable differential equations. We compare our exact results with previous perturbative computations and with the four-dimensional tt* equations. We also use our results to study some of the asymptotic properties of the perturbative series expansions we obtain in N = 2 SQCD.