N = 1 $$ \mathcal{N}=1 $$ deformations and RG flows of N = 2 $$ \mathcal{N}=2 $$ SCFTs

We study certain $$ \mathcal{N}=1 $$ preserving deformations of four-dimensional $$ \mathcal{N}=2 $$ superconformal field theories (SCFTs) with non-abelian flavor symmetry. The deformation is described by adding an $$ \mathcal{N}=1 $$ chiral multiplet transforming in the adjoint representation of the flavor symmetry with a superpotential coupling, and giving a nilpotent vacuum expectation value to the chiral multiplet which breaks the flavor symmetry. This triggers a renormalization group flow to an infrared SCFT. Remarkably, we find classes of theories flow to enhanced $$ \mathcal{N}=2 $$ supersymmetric fixed points in the infrared under the deformation. They include generalized Argyres-Douglas theories and rank-one SCFTs with non-abelian flavor symmetries. Most notably, we find renormalization group flows from the deformed conformal SQCDs to the (A 1 , A n ) Argyres-Douglas theories. From these “Lagrangian descriptions,” we compute the full superconformal indices of the (A 1 , A n ) theories and find agreements with the previous results. Furthermore, we study the cases, including the T N and R 0,N theories of class $$ \mathcal{S} $$ and some of rank-one SCFTs, where the deformation gives genuine $$ \mathcal{N}=1 $$ fixed points.