On Phases of Gauge Theories and the Role of Non-BPS Solitons in Field Theory

TL;DR

This paper explores the role of non-BPS solitons in gauge theories, demonstrating their importance in duality transformations, phase characterization, and confinement mechanisms in supersymmetric SO(N) gauge theories.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the role of non-BPS solitons in dualities, phase structure, and confinement, including explicit tests and a non-abelian dual Meissner effect.

Findings

Non-BPS solitons are crucial in duality transformations.

The free magnetic phase is confirmed as non-confining.

A non-abelian dual Meissner effect with monopole confinement is demonstrated.

Abstract

As shown in hep-th/9709081, non-BPS saturated solitons play an important role in the duality transformations of N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories. In particular, a massive spinor in an SO(N) gauge theory with massless matter in the vector representation appears in the dual description as a magnetic monopole with a Z_2 charge. This claim is supported by numerous tests, including detailed matching of flavor quantum numbers. This fact makes it possible to test the phase of an SO(N) gauge theory using massive spinors as a probe. It is thereby shown explicitly that the free magnetic phase which appears in supersymmetric theories is a non-confining phase. A fully non-abelian version of the Dual Meissner effect is also exhibited, in which the monopoles are confined by non-BPS string solitons with Z_2 charges.