{
  "abstract": "We consider $\\mathcal{N}=4$ supersymmetric Yang--Mills theory with gauge group SU$(N)$, which admits families of conformal surface defects defined by singular boundary conditions for scalar fields that completely break supersymmetry. At large $N$ and strong coupling, these defects are holographically dual either to a probe D5-brane or to one of two new D7-brane embeddings that we introduce in this work. We also construct embeddings of both D5- and D7-branes describing defect renormalisation group (RG) flows, for which the ultraviolet and infrared fixed points are both dual to the same D$p$-brane, with different values of a parameter. Our embeddings dual to RG flows are mostly constructed numerically, but we find a regime in which we can derive approximate analytic embeddings using a controlled perturbative expansion. We demonstrate that the $b$-theorem is satisfied by all of the RG flows that we study.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2610.31189",
  "author_total": 4,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "José Manuel Penín"
    },
    {
      "name": "James Ratcliffe"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ronnie Rodgers"
    },
    {
      "name": "Dimitrios Zoakos"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/b648bjmd7gr1k.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2610.31189",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "b648bjmd7gr1k",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.31189",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "hep-th"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3106|Black Holes and Theoretical Physics"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223381170",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2610.31189",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-22",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/b648bjmd7gr1k.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:34:34Z",
      "native_id": "2610.31189",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.31189"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:hep-th",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Holographic surface defect RG flows without supersymmetry",
  "title_text": "Holographic surface defect RG flows without supersymmetry",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:34:34Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/b648bjmd7gr1k",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}