We study domain walls in two different extensions of super Yang--Mills characterized by the absence of a logarithmic term in their effective superpotential. The models, defined by the usual gaugino condensate and an extra field Y, give different patterns of domain walls despite both leading to the same effective limit for heavy Y, i.e. the Veneziano--Yankielowicz effective Lagrangian of super Yang--Mills. We explain the origin of those differences and also give a physical motivation for introducing the field Y.
It is shown that there is no chirally symmetric vacuum state in the {cal N}=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. The values of the gluino condensate and the vacuum energy density are found out through a direct instanton calculation. A qualitative picture of domain wall properties is presented, and a new explanation of the phenomenon of strings ending on the wall is proposed.
In the (non-supersymmetric) Yang-Mills theory in the large N limit there exists an infinite set of non-degenerate vacua. The distinct vacua are separated by domain walls whose tension determines the decay rate of the false vacua. I discuss the phenomenon from a field-theoretic point of view, starting from supersymmetric gluodynamics and then breaking supersymmetry, by introducing a gluino mass. By combining previously known results, the decay rate of the excited vacua is estimated, Γ\sim \exp (-const \times N^4). The fourth power of N in the exponent is a consequence of the fact that the wall …
It is pointed out that the Parke-Taylor or maximally helicity violating amplitudes in the pure Yang-Mills can, after some specifications, be interpreted as amplitudes of scattering of massive vector bosons in the Higgs-Yang-Mills system.
We review earlier proposals for $E_8$ family unification, and discuss why recent work of Kovner and Shifman on condensates in supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories suggests the reconsideration of $E_8$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills as a family unification theory.
I discuss various situations in which perturbative expansions are used in Yang-Mills theories with asymptotic freedom and establish the limits of its applicability.
Domain walls in N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory conjecturally support topological degrees of freedom at low energy. Domain wall junctions are thus expected to support gapless degrees of freedom. We propose a natural candidate for the low-energy description of such junctions.
We study the BPS domain walls of supersymmetric Yang-Mills for arbitrary gauge group. We describe the degeneracies of domain walls interpolating between arbitrary pairs of vacua. A recently proposed large N duality sheds light on various aspects of such domain walls. In particular, for the case of G = SU(N) the domain walls correspond to wrapped D-branes giving rise to a 2+1 dimensional U(k) gauge theory on the domain wall with a Chern-Simons term of level N. This leads to a counting of BPS degeneracies of domain walls in agreement with expected results.
We investigate the vacuum structure of pure SU(N) N=1 super Yang-Mills. The theory is expected to possess N vacua with associated domain walls. We show that the newly extended version of the low energy effective Lagrangian for super Yang-Mills supports the BPS domain wall solutions associated with any two vacua aligned with the origin of the moduli space. For the two color theory the domain wall analysis is complete. We also find new non BPS domain wall solutions connecting any two vacua of the underling SU(N) super Yang-Mills theory not necessarely aligned. When two vacua are aligned with the…
We explore maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with walls of impurities respecting half of the supersymmetries. The walls carry fundamental or bifundamental matter multiplets. We employ three-dimensional N=2 superspace language to identify the Higgs branch of this theory. We find that the vacuum conditions determining the Higgs branch are exactly the bow equations yielding Yang-Mills instantons on a multi-Taub-NUT space. Under electric-magnetic duality, the super Yang-Mills theory describing the bulk is mapped to itself, while the fundamental- and bifundamental-carrying impurity walls a…
Domain walls in supersymmetric Yang-Mills are BPS configurations which preserve two supercharges of the parent theory and so their tensions are known exactly. On the other hand, they have been described as D-branes for the confining string. This leads to a description of their collective dynamics in terms of a 2+1 -dimensional gauge theory with two supersymmetries and a Chern-Simons term. We show that this open string description can capture the qualitative behaviour of the forces between the domain walls for an arbitrary configuration of n walls at leading order in 1/N, extending earlier calc…
A generalization of the two-dimensional Yang-Mills and generalized Yang-Mills theory is introduced in which the building B-F theory is nonlocal in the auxiliary field. The classical and quantum properties of this nonlocal generalization are investigated and it is shown that for large gauge groups, there exist a simple correspondence between the properties a nonlocal theory and its corresponding local theory.
We conjecture the existence of strings bounded inside walls in SU$(n)$ $\N=1$ Super Yang-Mills theory. These strings carry $\Z_{[k,n]}$ quantum number, where $[k,n]$ is the greatest common divisor between $k$, the charge of the wall, and $n$. We provide field-theoretical arguments and string-theoretical evidences, both from MQCD and from gauge-gravity correspondence. We interpret this result from the point of view of the low-energy effective action living on the $k$-wall.
Using an infinite number of fields, we construct actions for D=4 self-dual Yang-Mills with manifest Lorentz invariance and for D=10 super-Yang-Mills with manifest super-Poincaré invariance. These actions are generalizations of the covariant action for the D=2 chiral boson which was first studied by McClain, Wu, Yu and Wotzasek.
The dynamical N=1, SU(2) Super Yang-Mills theory is studied on the lattice using a new lattice fermion regulator, domain wall fermions. This formulation even at non-zero lattice spacing does not require fine-tuning, has improved chiral properties and can produce topological zero-mode phenomena. Numerical simulations of the full theory on lattices with the topology of a torus indicate the formation of a gluino condensate which is sustained at the chiral limit. The condensate is non-zero even for small volume and small supersymmetry breaking mass where zero mode effects due to gauge fields with …
The topological susceptibility is calculated within the Hamiltonian approach to Yang-Mills theory in Coulomb gauge, using the vacuum wave functional previously determined by a variational solution of the Yang-Mills Schroedinger equation. The numerical result agrees qualitatively with the predictions of lattice simulations.
We will discuss an integrable structure for weakly coupled superconformal Yang-Mills theories, describe certain equivalences for the Yangian algebra, and fill a technical gap in our previous study of this subject.
We derive a topological action that describes the confining phase of (Super-)Yang-Mills theories with gauge group $SU(N)$, similar to the work recently carried out by Seiberg and collaborators. It encodes all the Aharonov-Bohm phases of the possible non-local operators and phases generated by the intersection of flux tubes. Within this topological framework we show that the worldvolume theory of domain walls contains a Chern-Simons term at level $N$ also seen in string theory constructions. The discussion can also illuminate dynamical differences of domain walls in the supersymmetric and non-s…
The planar Yang-Mills theory in three spatial dimensions is examined in a particular representation which explicitly embodies factorization. The effective planar Yang-Mills theory Hamiltonian is constructed in this representation.
We study the multiplicity of BPS domain walls in N=1 super Yang-Mills theory, by passing to a weakly coupled Higgs phase through the addition of fundamental matter. The number of domain walls connecting two specified vacuum states is then determined via the Witten index of the induced worldvolume theory, which is invariant under the deformation to the Higgs phase. The worldvolume theory is a sigma model with a Grassmanian target space which arises as the coset associated with the global symmetries broken by the wall solution. Imposing a suitable infrared regulator, the result is found to agree…
Recent developments in the determination of the planar S-matrix of N=4 Super Yang-Mills are closely related to its Yangian symmetry. Here we provide evidence for a yet unobserved additional symmetry: the Yangian level-one helicity operator.
The BCFW recursion relation in $\mathcal{N}=4$ super-Yang-Mills theory is solved using Yang-Baxter $R$-operators in the NMHV sector. Explicit expressions for $\mathcal{R}$-invariants are obtained in terms of the chains of $R$-operators acting on an appropriate basic state.
The large-N behavior of Yang-Mills and generalized Yang-Mills theories in the double-scaling limit is investigated. By the double-scaling limit, it is meant that the area of the manifold on which the theory is defined, is itself a function of N. It is shown that phase transitions of different orders occur, depending on the functional dependence of the area on N. The finite-size scalings of the system are also investigated. Specifically, the dependence of the dominant representation on A, for large but finite N is determined.
BPS states in N=4 supersymmetric SU(N) gauge theories in four dimensions can be represented as planar string networks with ends lying on D3-branes. We introduce several protected indices which capture information on the spectrum and various quantum numbers of these states, give their wall crossing formula and describe how using the wall crossing formula we can compute all the indices at all points in the moduli space.
We present new relations for scattering amplitudes of color ordered gluons and gravitons in Einstein-Yang-Mills theory. Tree-level amplitudes of arbitrary multiplicities and polarizations involving up to three gravitons and up to two color traces are reduced to partial amplitudes of pure Yang-Mills theory. In fact, the double-trace identities apply to Einstein-Yang-Mills extended by a dilaton and a B-field. Our results generalize recent work of Stieberger and Taylor for the single graviton case with a single color trace. As the derivation is made in the dimension-agnostic Cachazo-He-Yuan forma…
We analyze in an effective Lagrangian framework the connection between Super QCD (Super Yang Mills) and QCD (Yang Mills) by highlighting the crucial role that the zero modes play in the process of decoupling gluinos and squarks.
We show that the solutions of SU(2) Yang-Mills-dilation and Einstein-Yang-Mills-dilaton theories described in a sequence of papers by Kleihaus and Kunz are not regular in the gauge field part.
The existence of a "bonus" U(1) level-one Yangian symmetry of N=4 super-Yang-Mills has recently been proposed. We provide evidence for this proposal by constructing the BRST-invariant nonlocal charge in the pure spinor sigma model corresponding to this bonus level-one symmetry. We also construct analogous charges for bonus U(1) symmetries at all odd levels of the Yangian.
We define a natural generalized symmetry of the Yang-Mills equations as an infinitesimal transformation of the Yang-Mills field, built in a local, gauge invariant, and Poincaré invariant fashion from the Yang-Mills field strength and its derivatives to any order, which maps solutions of the field equations to other solutions. On the jet bundle of Yang-Mills connections we introduce a spinorial coordinate system that is adapted to the solution subspace defined by the Yang-Mills equations. In terms of this coordinate system the complete classification of natural symmetries is carried out in a st…
For semisimple groups, possibly multiplied by U(1)'s, the number of Yang-Mills gauge fields is equal to the number of generators of the group. In this paper, it is shown that, for non-semisimple groups, the number of Yang-Mills fields can be larger. These additional Yang-Mills fields are not irrelevant because they appear in the gauge transformations of the original Yang-Mills fields. Such non-semisimple Yang-Mills theories may lead to physical consequences worth studying. The non-semisimple group with only two generators that do not commute is studied in detail.
Contour gauges are discussed in the framework of canonical formalism. We find flux operator algebras with the structure constants of underlying Yang-Mills theory.
Using the Cachazo-He-Yuan (CHY) formalism, we prove a recursive expansion of tree level single trace Einstein-Yang-Mills (EYM) amplitudes with arbitrary number of gluons and gravitons, which is valid for general spacetime dimensions and any helicity configurations. The recursion is written in terms of fewer-graviton EYM amplitudes and pure Yang-Mills (YM) amplitudes, which can be further carried out until we reach an expansion in terms of pure YM amplitudes in Kleiss-Kuijf (KK) basis. Our expansion then generates naturally a spanning tree structure rooted on gluons whose vertices are gravitons…
This article contains lecture notes of M. Shifman from the Saalburg Summer School 2004. The topic is supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, in particular the gluino condensate in pure SUSY gluodynamics.
We construct a four-parameter class of self-dual instanton solutions of the classical SU(2)-Yang-Mills equations in a closed Euclidean Robertson-Walker space-time.
Using the first order formalism (BFYM) of the Yang-Mills theory we show that it displays an embedded topological sector corresponding to the field content of the Topological Yang-Mills theory (TYM). This picture arises after a proper redefinition of the fields of BFYM and gives a clear representation of the non perturbative part of the theory in terms of the topological sector. In this setting the calculation of the $vev$ of a YM observable is translated into the calculation of a corresponding (non topological) quantity in TYM. We then compare the topological observables of TYM with a similar …
We discuss a non-minimal Einstein-Yang-Mills-Higgs model with uniaxial anisotropy in the group space associated with the Higgs field. We apply this theory to the problem of propagation of color and color-acoustic waves in the gravitational background related to the non-minimal regular Wu-Yang monopole.
The large-group behavior of the nonlocal YM$_2$'s and gYM$_2$'s on a cylinder or a disk is investigated. It is shown that this behavior is similar to that of the corresponding local theory, but with the area of the cylinder replaced by an effective area depending on the dominant representation. The critical areas for nonlocal YM$_2$'s on a cylinder with some special bounary conditions are also obtained.
Recently, Witten proposed a topological string theory in twistor space that is dual to a weakly coupled gauge theory. In this lectures we will discuss aspects of the twistor string theory. Along the way we will learn new things about Yang-Mills scattering amplitudes. The string theory sheds light on Yang-Mills perturbation theory and leads to new methods for computing Yang-Mills scattering amplitudes.
It is known that the Yangian of PSU(2,2|4) is a symmetry of the tree-level S-matrix of N=4 super Yang-Mills. On the other hand, the complete one-loop dilatation operator in the same theory commutes with the level-one Yangian generators only up to certain boundary terms found by Dolan, Nappi and Witten. Using a result by Zwiebel, we show how the Yangian symmetry of the tree-level S-matrix of N=4 super Yang-Mills implies precisely the Yangian invariance, up to boundary terms, of the one-loop dilatation operator.
We propose $N=2$ holomorphic Yang-Mills theory on compact Kähler manifolds and show that there exists a simple mapping from the $N=2$ topological Yang-Mills theory. It follows that intersection parings on the moduli space of Einstein-Hermitian connections can be determined by examining the small coupling behavior of the $N=2$ holomorphic Yang-Mills theory. This paper is a higher dimensional generalization of the Witten's work on physical Yang-Mills theory in two dimensions.
We conjecture that every rational Yangian invariant in N=4 SYM theory satisfies a recently introduced notion of cluster adjacency. We provide evidence for this conjecture by using the Sklyanin Poisson bracket on Gr(4,n) to check numerous examples.
The self-duality Yang-Mills equations in pseudoeuclidean spaces of dimensions $d\leq 8$ are investigated. New classes of solutions of the equations are found. Extended solutions to the D=10, N=1 supergravity and super Yang-Mills equations are constructed from these solutions.
Strongly self-dual Yang-Mills fields in even dimensional spaces are characterised by a set of constraints on the eigenvalues of the Yang-Mills fields $F_{μν}$. We derive a topological bound on ${\bf R}^8$, $\int_{M} ( F,F )^2 \geq k \int_{M} p_1^2$ where $p_1$ is the first Pontrjagin class of the SO(n) Yang-Mills bundle and $k$ is a constant. Strongly self-dual Yang-Mills fields realise the lower bound.
Employing the AdS/CFT correspondence, we give an explicit supergravity picture for the renormalization group flow of couplings 4-d super Yang Mills with four supercharges. The solution represents a domain wall of 5-d, N=2 supergravity, that interpolates between two (different) AdS_5 vacua and is obtained by gauging a U(1) subgroup of the SU(2) R-symmetry. On the supergravity side the domain wall couples only to scalar fields from vector mulitplets, but not to scalars from hyper multiplets. We discuss the c-theorem, the beta-functions and consider two examples: one is the sugra solution related…
We write a gravity theory with Yang-Mills type action using the biconformal gauging of the conformal group. We show that the resulting biconformal Yang-Mills gravity theories describe 4-dim, scale-invariant general relativity in the case of slowly changing fields. In addition, we systematically extend arbitrary 4-dim Yang-Mills theories to biconformal space, providing a new arena for studying flat space Yang-Mills theories. By applying the biconformal extension to a 4-dim pure Yang-Mills theory with conformal symmetry, we establish a 1-1, onto mapping between a set of gravitational gauge theor…
We investigate Yang-Mills instantons on a 7-dimensional manifold of G_2 holonomy. By proposing a spherically symmetric ansatz for the Yang-Mills connection, we have ordinary differential equations as the reduced instanton equation, and give some explicit and numerical solutions.
The analysis in previous publications of the instanton constraints required to produce a finite action of the theory is carried out also for N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory.
Non-commutative supersymmetric Yang-Mills with rational Theta is dual to an ordinary supersymmetric Yang-Mills with a 't Hooft flux. It is believed that the simplest description is via the ordinary supersymmetric Yang-Mills. We claim, however, that the two descriptions form a hierarchy. The SYM description is the proper description in the ultra violet while the non-commutative description takes over in the infra red.