Dualities of 5d gauge theories from S-duality

A bstract We describe a general method to determine dualities between supersymmetric 5 d gauge theories. The method is based on performing local S-dualities in the geometry associated to the gauge theory. We find that often a duality can be obtained by adding matter to both sides of a more primitive duality. This allows us to define the notion of irreducible dualities which cannot be obtained from more primitive dualities. More general dualities then are obtained by adding matter to both sides of an irreducible duality. The geometric method described in this paper allows us to systematically construct irreducible dualities. As an application, we explicitly determine a special class of irreducible dualities classified by removal and addition of edges into a Dynkin diagram. This class of dualities vastly generalizes many of the known 5 d dualities in the literature.