Phases of \(\mathcal N=1\) supersymmetric gauge theories with flavors (Q1826750): Difference between revisions

The paper studies the phase structure of \(N=1\) supersymmetric \(U(N)\) gauge theories with fundamental matter, that arise as deformations of \(N=2\) SQCD by the addition of a superpotential for the adjoint chiral multiplet. The various \(N=1\) vacua lie on different branches, some of which have multiple classical limits in which the vacua are interpreted as those of a product group theory with flavors charged under various group factors. On a given branch, the vacua are all in the same phase. The authors address the question what order parameters (or indices) distinguish between vacua on different branches. Besides the obvious characterization of a branch by the global symmetry group (which in this case will be a flavor symmetry), several other quantities are mentioned, which provide necessary conditions for vacua to be on the same branch. E.g., one such index is \(r\), which characterizes the meson VEV in various vacua in the weak coupling region, and labels the root of the \(r\)-th Higgs branch in the strong coupling region. The global symmetry group must be the same on each branch. On the \(r\)-th branch, the global flavor symmetry is broken. Another fact which distinguishes the different branches is whether they are `baryonic' or `non-baryonic', differing from each other in the number of condensed monopoles, and hence having different number of \(U(1)\)'s at low energies. Moreover, a finer distinction is possible on the non-baryonic \(r\)-th branches which arise when \(N_f>N_c\), and \(r<N_f-N_c\), where there are two types of non-baryonic branch. In the strong coupling region one arises from a generic non-baryonic root, while the other is a special case arising when the non-baryonic root lies inside the baryonic root. As well, a multiplication index \(t\) in the described theory with flavorsis defined. In the absence of flavors, this index is related to a ``confinement index'' which has a physical meaning in terms of representations whose Wilson loops do not show an area law. Still, the meaning of the confinement index is not clear in the presence of massless flavors, since perfect screening prevents Wilson loops in any representation from having an area law, and the naive definition of the confinement index always yields a trivial result. Finding more useful analogs of the confinement index is a subject of further study, aiming to provide sufficient conditions to determine the phase structure completely.