The effective supergravity of little string theory

In this work we present the minimal supersymmetric extension of the five-dimensional dilaton-gravity theory that captures the main properties of the holographic dual of little string theory. It is described by a particular gauging of N = 2 supergravity coupled with one vector multiplet associated with the string dilaton, along the U(1) subgroup of SU(2) R-symmetry. The linear dilaton in the fifth coordinate solution of the equations of motion (with flat string frame metric) breaks half of the supersymmetries to N = 1 in four dimensions. Interest in the linear dilaton model has lately been revived in the context of the clockwork mechanism, which has recently been proposed as a new source of exponential scale separation in field theory. (orig.)