No Arabic abstract
We investigate the IR phases of non-supersymmetric (non-SUSY) $SO(N_c)$ gauge theories with $N_F$ fermions in the vector representation obtained by perturbing the SUSY theory with anomaly mediated SUSY breaking (AMSB). We find that of the wide variety of phases appearing in the SUSY theory only two survive: for $N_F<frac{3}{2} (N_c-2)$ the theory confines, breaking the $SU(N_F)$ global symmetry to $SO(N_F)$, while for $frac{3}{2} (N_c-2)<N_F<3(N_c-2)$ the theory flows to a (super)-conformal fixed point. The abelian Coulomb and free magnetic phases do not survive and collapse to the confining phase. We also investigate the behavior of loop operators in order to provide a clear distinction between the confining and screened phases. With the choice of $Spin(N_c)$ for the global structure of the gauge group, we find that the electric Wilson loop indeed obeys an area law, providing one of the first demonstrations of true confinement with chiral symmetry breaking in a non-SUSY theory. We identify monopole condensation as the dynamics underlying confinement. These monopoles arise naturally for $N_F=N_c-2$. The case with smaller number of flavors can be obtained by integrating out flavors, and we confirm numerically that the monopole condensate persists in the presence of AMSB and mass perturbations.
We demonstrate that $SO(N_{c})$ gauge theories with matter fields in the vector representation confine due to monopole condensation and break the $SU(N_{F})$ chiral symmetry to $SO(N_{F})$ via the quark bilinear. Our results are obtained by perturbing the ${cal N}=1$ supersymmetric theory with anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking.
We study $N=1$ supersymmetric $SP(N_c)$ gauge theories with $N_f$ flavors of quarks in the fundamental representation. Depending on $N_f$ and $N_c$, we find exact, dynamically generated superpotentials, smooth quantum moduli spaces of vacua, quantum moduli spaces of vacua with additional massless composites at strong coupling, confinement without chiral symmetry breaking, non-trivial fixed points of the renormalization group, and massless magnetic quarks and gluons.
We consider M-theory on compact spaces of G_2 holonomy constructed as orbifolds of the form (CY x S^1)/Z_2 with fixed point set Sigma on the CY. This describes N=1 SU(2) gauge theories with b_1(Sigma) chiral multiplets in the adjoint. For b_1=0, it generalizes to compact manifolds the study of the phase transition from the non-Abelian to the confining phase through geometrical S^3 flops. For b_1=1, the non-Abelian and Coulomb phases are realized, where the latter arises by desingularization of the fixed point set, while an S^2 x S^1 flop occurs. In addition, an extremal transition between G_2 spaces can take place at conifold points of the CY moduli space where unoriented membranes wrapped on CP^1 and RP^2 become massless.
We compare gap equation predictions for the spontaneous breaking of global symmetries in supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory to nonperturbative results from holomorphic effective action techniques. In the theory without matter fields, both approaches describe the formation of a gluino condensate. With $N_f$ flavors of quark and squark fields, and with $N_f$ below a certain critical value, the coupled gap equations have a solution for quark and gluino condensate formation, corresponding to breaking of global symmetries and of supersymmetry. This appears to disagree with the newer nonperturbative techniques, but the reliability of gap equations in this context and whether the solution represents the ground state remain unclear.
We discuss electric-magnetic duality in two new classes of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories. The models have gauge group $Sp(2 c)$ or $SO( c)$ with matter in both the adjoint and defining representations. By perturbing these theories with various superpotentials, we find a variety of new infrared fixed points with dual descriptions. This work is complementary to that of Kutasov and Schwimmer on $SU( c)$ and of Intriligator on other models involving $Sp(2 c)$ and $SO( c)$.