N=1 RG flows, product groups, and a-maximization

We explore new IR phenomena and dualities, arising for product groups, in the context of N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories. The RG running of the multiple couplings can radically affect each other. For example, an otherwise IR interacting coupling can be driven to be instead IR free by an arbitrarily small, but nonzero, initial value of another coupling. Or an otherwise IR free coupling can be driven to be instead IR interacting by an arbitrarily small non-zero initial value of another coupling. We explore these and other phenomena in N=1 examples, where exact results can be obtained using a-maximization. We also explore the various possible dual gauge theories, e.g., by dualizing one gauge group with the other treated as a weakly gauged flavor symmetry, along with previously proposed duals for the theories deformed by Ak-type Landau-Ginzburg superpotentials. We note that this latter duality, and all similar duality examples, always have nonempty superconformal windows within which both the electric and dual Ak superpotentials are relevant.