Vacua and RG flows in N=9 three dimensional gauged supergravity

Abstract: We study some vacua of N=9 three dimensional gauged supergravity. The theory contains sixteen scalar fields parametrizing the exceptional coset space ${F_{4(-20)}}{SO(9)}$. Various AdS supersymmetric and some non-supersymmetric vacua are found in both compact and non-compact gaugings with gauge groups $SO(p)\times SO(9-p)$ for $p=0, 1, 2, 3, 4$, $G_{2(-14)}\times SL(2)$ and $Sp(1,2)\times SU(2)$. We also study many RG flow solutions, both analytic and numerical, interpolating between supersymmetric critical points in this theory. All the flows considered here are driven by a relevant operator of dimension $\Delta={3}{2}$. This operator breaks conformal symmetry as well as supersymmetry and drives the CFT in the UV to another CFT in the IR with lower supersymmetries.