Type IIB 7-branes in warped AdS6: partition functions, brane webs and probe limit

Abstract We study Type IIB supergravity solutions with spacetime of the form AdS 6×S 2 warped over a Riemann surface Σ, where Σ includes punctures around which the super-gravity fields have non-trivial SL(2, R) monodromy. Solutions without monodromy have a compelling interpretation as near-horizon limits of (p, q) 5-brane webs, and the punctures have been interpreted as additional 7-branes in the web. In this work we provide further support for this interpretation and clarify several aspects of the identification of the supergravity solutions with brane webs. To further support the identification of the punctures with 7-branes, we show that punctures with infinitesimal monodromy match a probe 7-brane analysis using κ-symmetry. We then construct families of solutions with fixed 5-brane charges and punctures with finite monodromy, corresponding to fully back-reacted 7-branes. We compute the sphere partition functions of the dual 5d SCFTs and use the results to discuss concrete brane web interpretations of the supergravity solutions