Deformations, defects and a noncommutative spectral curve

Abstract

The fluxtrap is an exact string theory background that has been originally introduced as a string realization of the $\Omega$ deformation. The background can be completely captured, via a Seiberg-Witten map, by a noncommutative deformation of flat spacetime. I will show how probing this string theory with different brane setups gives rise to other gauge theory deformations such as Wilson lines and higher-dimensional defects. This allows us to write very explicit expressions for supersymmetric gauge theories in presence of extended defects.