Thermal Effects on the Low Energy N=2 SUSY Yang-Mills Theory

TL;DR

This paper calculates the free energy of N=2 supersymmetric SU(2) Yang-Mills theory at finite temperature, revealing stability only at specific moduli values and contrasting with the zero-temperature case.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of the thermal behavior of low energy N=2 SUSY Yang-Mills theory using effective action methods.

Findings

Free energy depends on temperature and moduli parameter.

Stability occurs only at specific moduli values.

Finite temperature effects lift the moduli space degeneracy.

Abstract

Using the low energy effective action of the N=2 supersymmetric SU(2) Yang-Mills theory we calculate the free energy at finite temperature, both in the semiclassical region and in the dual monopole/dyon theory. In all regions the free energy depends on both the temperature T and the appropriate moduli parameter, and is thus minimized only for specific values of the moduli parameter, in contrast to the T=0 case where the energy vanishes all over the moduli space. Within the validity of perturbation theory, we find that the finite temperature Yang-Mills theory is stable only at definite points in the moduli space, i.e. for a specific value of the monopole/dyon mass or when the scalar field expectation value goes to infinity.