Light Nonabelian Monopoles and Generalized r-Vacua in Supersymmetric Gauge Theories

TL;DR

This paper explores vacua in N=1 supersymmetric U(N) gauge theories where the low-energy effective gauge group includes multiple nonabelian factors supported by light monopoles, extending known r-vacua concepts.

Contribution

It introduces a class of vacua with multiple nonabelian gauge factors supported by light monopoles, generalizing the r-vacua in N=2 supersymmetric QCD and providing insights into nonabelian duality.

Findings

Existence of vacua with multiple nonabelian gauge factors

Light monopoles carrying nonabelian charges support these vacua

Hints towards nonabelian duality in supersymmetric gauge theories

Abstract

We study a class of N=1 supersymmetric U(N) gauge theories and find that there exist vacua in which the low-energy magnetic effective gauge group contains multiple nonabelian factors, \prod_i SU(r_i), supported by light monopoles carrying the associated nonabelian charges. These nontrivially generalize the physics of the so-called r-vacua found in softly broken N=2 supersymmetric SU(N) QCD, with an effective low-energy gauge group SU(r) \times U(1)^{N-r}. The matching between classical and quantum (r_{1}, r_{2},...) vacua gives an interesting hint about the nonabelian duality.