Seiberg–Witten theory

In theoretical physics, Seiberg–Witten theory is an supersymmetric gauge theory with an exact low-energy effective action (for massless degrees of freedom), of which the kinetic part coincides with the Kähler potential of the moduli space of vacua. Before taking the low-energy effective action, the theory is known as supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory, as the field content is a single vector supermultiplet, analogous to the field content of Yang–Mills theory being a single vector gauge field (in particle theory language) or connection (in geometric language).

The theory was studied in detail by Nathan Seiberg and Edward Witten (Seiberg & Witten 1994).

Seiberg–Witten curves

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In general, effective Lagrangians of supersymmetric gauge theories are largely determined by their holomorphic (really, meromorphic) properties and their behavior near the singularities. In gauge theory with   extended supersymmetry, the moduli space of vacua is a special Kähler manifold and its Kähler potential is constrained by above conditions.

In the original approach,[1][2] by Seiberg and Witten, holomorphy and electric-magnetic duality constraints are strong enough to almost uniquely constrain the prepotential   (a holomorphic function which defines the theory), and therefore the metric of the moduli space of vacua, for theories with SU(2) gauge group.

More generally, consider the example with gauge group SU(n). The classical potential is

  (1)

where   is a scalar field appearing in an expansion of superfields in the theory. The potential must vanish on the moduli space of vacua by definition, but the   need not. The vacuum expectation value of   can be gauge rotated into the Cartan subalgebra, making it a traceless diagonal complex matrix  .

Because the fields   no longer have vanishing vacuum expectation value, other fields become massive due to the Higgs mechanism (spontaneous symmetry breaking). They are integrated out in order to find the effective   U(1) gauge theory. Its two-derivative, four-fermions low-energy action is given by a Lagrangian which can be expressed in terms of a single holomorphic function   on   superspace as follows:

  (3)

where

  (4)

and   is a chiral superfield on   superspace which fits inside the   chiral multiplet  .

The first term is a perturbative loop calculation and the second is the instanton part where   labels fixed instanton numbers. In theories whose gauge groups are products of unitary groups,   can be computed exactly using localization[3] and the limit shape techniques.[4]

The Kähler potential is the kinetic part of the low energy action, and explicitly is written in terms of   as

  (5)

From   we can get the mass of the BPS particles.

  (6)
  (7)

One way to interpret this is that these variables   and its dual can be expressed as periods of a meromorphic differential on a Riemann surface called the Seiberg–Witten curve.

N = 2 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory

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Before the low energy, or infrared, limit is taken, the action can be given in terms of a Lagrangian over   superspace with field content  , which is a single   vector/chiral superfield in the adjoint representation of the gauge group, and a holomorphic function   of   called the prepotential. Then the Lagrangian is given by   where   are coordinates for the spinor directions of superspace.[5] Once the low energy limit is taken, the   superfield   is typically labelled by   instead.

The so called minimal theory is given by a specific choice of  ,   where   is the complex coupling constant.

The minimal theory can be written on Minkowski spacetime as   with   making up the   chiral multiplet.

Geometry of the moduli space

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For this section fix the gauge group as  . A low-energy vacuum solution is an   vector superfield   solving the equations of motion of the low-energy Lagrangian, for which the scalar part   has vanishing potential, which as mentioned earlier holds if   (which exactly means   is a normal operator, and therefore diagonalizable). The scalar   transforms in the adjoint, that is, it can be identified as an element of  , the complexification of  . Thus   is traceless and diagonalizable so can be gauge rotated to (is in the conjugacy class of) a matrix of the form   (where   is the third Pauli matrix) for  . However,   and   give conjugate matrices (corresponding to the fact the Weyl group of   is  ) so both label the same vacuum. Thus the gauge invariant quantity labelling inequivalent vacua is  . The (classical) moduli space of vacua is a one-dimensional complex manifold (Riemann surface) parametrized by  , although the Kähler metric is given in terms of   as  

where  . This is not invariant under an arbitrary change of coordinates, but due to symmetry in   and  , switching to local coordinate   gives a metric similar to the final form but with a different harmonic function replacing  . The switching of the two coordinates can be interpreted as an instance of electric-magnetic duality (Seiberg & Witten 1994).

Under a minimal assumption of assuming there are only three singularities in the moduli space at   and  , with prescribed monodromy data at each point derived from quantum field theoretic arguments, the moduli space   was found to be  , where   is the hyperbolic half-plane and   is the second principal congruence subgroup, the subgroup of matrices congruent to 1 mod 2, generated by   This space is a six-fold cover of the fundamental domain of the modular group and admits an explicit description as parametrizing a space of elliptic curves   given by the vanishing of   which are the Seiberg–Witten curves. The curve becomes singular precisely when   or  .

 
Graph of metric function   on moduli space parametrized by  , with evident singularities at  . The function   is defined using the complete elliptic integral of the first kind (Hunter-Jones 2012).

Monopole condensation and confinement

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The theory exhibits physical phenomena involving and linking magnetic monopoles, confinement, an attained mass gap and strong-weak duality, described in section 5.6 of Seiberg and Witten (1994). The study of these physical phenomena also motivated the theory of Seiberg–Witten invariants.

The low-energy action is described by the   chiral multiplet   with gauge group  , the residual unbroken gauge from the original   symmetry. This description is weakly coupled for large  , but strongly coupled for small  . However, at the strongly coupled point the theory admits a dual description which is weakly coupled. The dual theory has different field content, with two   chiral superfields  , and gauge field the dual photon  , with a potential that gives equations of motion which are Witten's monopole equations, also known as the Seiberg–Witten equations at the critical points   where the monopoles become massless.

In the context of Seiberg–Witten invariants, one can view Donaldson invariants as coming from a twist of the original theory at   giving a topological field theory. On the other hand, Seiberg–Witten invariants come from twisting the dual theory at  . In theory, such invariants should receive contributions from all finite   but in fact can be localized to the two critical points, and topological invariants can be read off from solution spaces to the monopole equations.[6]

Relation to integrable systems

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The special Kähler geometry on the moduli space of vacua in Seiberg–Witten theory can be identified with the geometry of the base of complex completely integrable system. The total phase of this complex completely integrable system can be identified with the moduli space of vacua of the 4d theory compactified on a circle. The relation between Seiberg–Witten theory and integrable systems has been reviewed by Eric D'Hoker and D. H. Phong.[7] See Hitchin system.

Seiberg–Witten prepotential via instanton counting

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Using supersymmetric localisation techniques, one can explicitly determine the instanton partition function of   super Yang–Mills theory. The Seiberg–Witten prepotential can then be extracted using the localization approach[8] of Nikita Nekrasov. It arises in the flat space limit  ,  , of the partition function of the theory subject to the so-called  -background. The latter is a specific background of four dimensional   supergravity. It can be engineered, formally by lifting the super Yang–Mills theory to six dimensions, then compactifying on 2-torus, while twisting the four dimensional spacetime around the two non-contractible cycles. In addition, one twists fermions so as to produce covariantly constant spinors generating unbroken supersymmetries. The two parameters  ,   of the  -background correspond to the angles of the spacetime rotation.

In Ω-background, all the non-zero modes can be integrated out, so the path integral with the boundary condition   at   can be expressed as a sum over instanton number of the products and ratios of fermionic and bosonic determinants, producing the so-called Nekrasov partition function. In the limit where  ,   approach 0, this sum is dominated by a unique saddle point. On the other hand, when  ,   approach 0,

  (8)

holds.

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Seiberg, Nathan; Witten, Edward (1994). "Electric - magnetic duality, monopole condensation, and confinement in N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory". Nucl. Phys. B. 426 (1): 19–52. arXiv:hep-th/9407087. Bibcode:1994NuPhB.426...19S. doi:10.1016/0550-3213(94)90124-4. S2CID 14361074.
  2. ^ Seiberg, Nathan; Witten, Edward (1994). "Monopoles, duality and chiral symmetry breaking in N=2 supersymmetric QCD". Nucl. Phys. B. 431 (3): 484–550. arXiv:hep-th/9408099. Bibcode:1994NuPhB.431..484S. doi:10.1016/0550-3213(94)90214-3. S2CID 17584951.
  3. ^ Nekrasov, Nikita (2004). "Seiberg-Witten Prepotential from Instanton Counting". Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics. 7 (5): 831–864. arXiv:hep-th/0206161. doi:10.4310/ATMP.2003.v7.n5.a4. S2CID 2285041.
  4. ^ Nekrasov, Nikita; Okounkov, Andrei (2003). "Seiberg-Witten theory and random partitions". Prog. Math. Progress in Mathematics. 244: 525–596. arXiv:hep-th/0306238. Bibcode:2003hep.th....6238N. doi:10.1007/0-8176-4467-9_15. ISBN 978-0-8176-4076-7. S2CID 14329429.
  5. ^ Seiberg, Nathan (May 1988). "Supersymmetry and non-perturbative beta functions". Physics Letters B. 206 (1): 75–80. doi:10.1016/0370-2693(88)91265-8.
  6. ^ Witten, Edward (1994). "Monopoles and four-manifolds". Mathematical Research Letters. 1 (6): 769–796. arXiv:hep-th/9411102. doi:10.4310/MRL.1994.v1.n6.a13.
  7. ^ D'Hoker, Eric; Phong, D. H. (1999-12-29). "Lectures on Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theory and Integrable Systems". Theoretical Physics at the End of the Twentieth Century. pp. 1–125. arXiv:hep-th/9912271. Bibcode:1999hep.th...12271D. doi:10.1007/978-1-4757-3671-7_1. ISBN 978-1-4419-2948-8. S2CID 117202391.
  8. ^ Nekrasov, Nikita (2004). "Seiberg-Witten Prepotential from Instanton Counting". Advances in Theoretical and Mathematical Physics. 7 (5): 831–864. arXiv:hep-th/0206161. doi:10.4310/ATMP.2003.v7.n5.a4. S2CID 2285041.
  • Jost, Jürgen (2002). Riemannian Geometry and Geometric Analysis. Springer-Verlag. ISBN 3-540-42627-2. (See Section 7.2)
  • Hunter-Jones, Nicholas R. (September 2012). Seiberg–Witten Theory and Duality in N = 2 Supersymmetric Gauge Theories (Masters). Imperial College London.