N = 1 N=1 deformations and RG flows of N = 2 N=2 SCFTs

We study certain N=1 preserving deformations of four-dimensional N=2 superconformal field theories (SCFTs) with non-abelian flavor symmetry. The deformation is described by adding an N=1 chiral multiplet transforming in the adjoint representation of the flavor symmetry with a superpotential coupling, and giving a nilpotent vacuum expectation value to the chiral multiplet which breaks the flavor symmetry. This triggers a renormalization group flow to an infrared SCFT. Remarkably, we find classes of theories flow to enhanced N=2 supersymmetric fixed points in the infrared under the deformation. They include generalized Argyres-Douglas theories and rank-one SCFTs with non-abelian flavor symmetries. Most notably, we find renormalization group flows from the deformed conformal SQCDs to the (A 1, A n) Argyres-Douglas theories. From these “Lagrangian descriptions, ” we compute the full superconformal indices of the (A 1, A n) theories and find agreements with the previous results. Furthermore, we study the cases, including the T N and R 0, N theories of class S and some of rank-one SCFTs, where the deformation gives genuine N=1 fixed points.