Sequential deconfinement and self-dualities in 4d N = 1 gauge theories

A bstract We apply the technique of sequential deconfinement to the four dimensional N N = 1 U sp (2 N ) gauge theory with an antisymmetric field and 2 F fundamentals. The fully deconfined frame is a length- N quiver. We use this deconfined frame to prove the known self-duality of U sp (2 N ) with an antisymmetric field and 8 fundamentals. Along the way we encounter a subtlety: in certain quivers with degenerate holomorphic operators, a naive application of Seiberg duality rules leads to an incorrect superpotential or chiral ring. We also consider the reduction to 3 d N N = 2 theories, recovering known fully deconfined duals of U sp (2 N ) and U( N ) gauge theories, and obtaining new ones.