Aspects of Confinement and Screening in M theory

TL;DR

This paper explores confinement and screening phenomena in supersymmetric gauge theories using M-theory, identifying flux tubes as M2 branes and confirming theoretical expectations through geometric and topological analysis.

Contribution

It extends previous M-theory approaches to analyze confinement and screening in various SUSY gauge theories, providing a topological characterization of flux tubes.

Findings

Flux tubes are identified as M2 branes ending on M5 branes.

The conserved charge of flux tubes is topologically characterized.

Results match field theory expectations, including screening effects.

Abstract

Confinement and Screening are investigated in SUSY gauge theories, realized by an M5 brane configuration, extending an approach applied previously to N=1 SYM theory, to other models. The electric flux tubes are identified as M2 branes ending on the M5 branes and the conserved charge they carry is identified as a topological property. The group of charges carried by the flux tubes is calculated and the results agree in all cases considered with the field theoretical expectations. In particular, whenever the dynamical matter is expected to screen the confining force, this is reproduced correctly in the M theory realization.