Spontaneous Breaking of Extended Supersymmetry in Global and Local Theories

We review the "no-go" theorems that severely constrain the breaking of N=2 supersymmetry to N=1 (both in rigid supersymmetry and supergravity), and we exhibit some models that evade them.Comment: Contribution to the proceedings of the Spring School and Workshop on String Theory, Gauge Theory and Quantum Gravity, ICTP, Trieste, Italy, March 18-29,1996. Latex file, uses espcrc2.sty and epsf.st

Grassmannian Sigma Models and Topological-Antitopological Fusion

We study the topological-antitopological fusion equations for supersymmetric sigma models on Grassmannian manifolds G(k,N). We find a basis in which the metric becomes diagonal and the $tt^*$ equations become tractable. The solution for the metric of G(k,N) can then be described in terms of the metric for the $CP^{N-1}$ models. The IR expansion helps clarify the picture of the vacua and gives the soliton numbers and masses. We also show that the $tt^*$ equation for G(k,N) in the large N limit is solvable, for any k.Comment: 20 pages (LaTeX), OUTP-94-22

Differential Equations for Periods and Flat Coordinates in Two Dimensionsional Topological Matter Theories

We derive directly from the N=2 LG superpotential the differential equations that determine the flat coordinates of arbitrary topological CFT's.Comment: 34

Massive Orbifold

We study some aspects of 2d supersymmetric sigma models on orbifolds. It turns out that independently of whether the 2d QFT is conformal the operator products of twist operators are non-singular, suggesting that massive (non-conformal) orbifolds also `resolve singularities' just as in the conformal case. Moreover we recover the OPE of twist operators for conformal theories by considering the UV limit of the massive orbifold correlation functions. Alternatively, we can use the OPE of twist fields at the conformal point to derive conditions for the existence of non-singular solutions to special non-linear differential equations (such as Painleve III).Comment: 12 page

Dynamics of SU(N)SU(N) Supersymmetric Gauge Theory

We study the physics of the Seiberg-Witten and Argyres-Faraggi-Klemm-Lerche-Theisen-Yankielowicz solutions of $D=4$, $\mathcal{N}=2$ and $\mathcal{N}=1$ $SU(N)$ supersymmetric gauge theory. The $\mathcal{N}=1$ theory is confining and its effective Lagrangian is a spontaneously broken $U(1)^{N-1}$ abelian gauge theory. We identify some features of its physics which see this internal structure, including a spectrum of different string tensions. We discuss the limit $N\rightarrow\infty$, identify a scaling regime in which instanton and monopole effects survive, and give exact results for the crossover from weak to strong coupling along a scaling trajectory. We find a large hierarchy of mass scales in the scaling regime, including very light $W$ bosons, and the absence of weak coupling. The light $W$'s leave a novel imprint on the effective dual magnetic theory. The effective Lagrangian appears to be inadequate to understand the conventional large $N$ limit of the confining $\mathcal{N}=1$ theory.Comment: 28 pages, harvmac, 4 eps figures in separate uuencoded file. We have extended this paper considerably, adding new results, discussion and figures. In particular, we give exact formulas for masses and couplings along a scaling trajectory appropriate to the large $N$ limit. These formulas display a novel effect due to light electric $W$ bosons down to energy scales $\sim e^{-N}$, deep in the weak coupling magnetic regim