Color superconductivity, BPS strings and monopole confinement in N=2 and N=4 super Yang-Mills theories

We review some recent developments on BPS string solutions and monopole confinement in the Higgs or (color) superconducting phase of deformed N=2 and N=4 super Yang-Mills theories. In particular, the monopole magnetic fluxes are shown to be always integer linear combinations of string fluxes. Moreover, a bound for the threshold length of the string breaking is obtained. When the gauge group SU(N) is broken to Z_N, the BPS string tension satisfies the Casimir scaling law. Furthermore in the SU(3) case the string solutions are such that they allow the formation of a confining system with three monopoles.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures, invited talk given at 24th Brazilian National Meeting on Particles and Field

Generalised Abelian Chern-Simons Theories and their Connection to Conformal Field Theories

We discuss the generalization of Abelian Chern-Simons theories when $\theta$-angles and magnetic monopoles are included. We map sectors of two dimensional Conformal Field Theories into these three dimensional theories.Comment: 9 page

BPS Z_k strings, string tensions and confinement in non-Abelian Theories

In this talk we review some generalizations of 't Hooft and Mandelstam ideas on confinement for theories with non-Abelian unbroken gauge groups. In order to do that, we consider N=2 super Yang-Mills with one flavor and a mass breaking term. One of the spontaneous symmetry breaking is accomplished by a scalar that can be in particular in the representation of the diquark condensate and therefore it can be thought as being itself the condensate. We analyze the phases of the theory. In the superconducting phase, we show the existence of BPS Z_k-strings and calculate exactly their string tension in a straightforward way. We also find that magnetic fluxes of the monopole and Z_k-strings are proportional to one another allowing for monopole confinement in a phase transition. We further show that some of the resulting confining theories can be obtained by adding a deformation term to N=2 or N=4 superconformal theories.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX (JHEP3), talk given at the Workshop on Integrable Theories, Solitons and Duality, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1-6 Jul 2002, (v2) minor text improvement, (v3) minor text improvemen

Dark Monopoles in Grand Unified Theories

We consider a Yang-Mills-Higgs theory with gauge group $G=SU(n)$ broken to $G_{v} = [SU(p)\times SU(n-p)\times U(1)]/Z$ by a Higgs field in the adjoint representation. We obtain monopole solutions whose magnetic field is not in the Cartan Subalgebra. Since their magnetic field vanishes in the direction of the generator of the electromagnetic group $U(1)_{em}$, we call them Dark Monopoles. These Dark Monopoles must exist in some Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) without the need to introduce a dark sector. We analyze the particular case of $SU(5)$ GUT, where we obtain that their mass is $M = 4\pi v \widetilde{E}(\lambda/e^{2})/e$, where $\widetilde{E}(\lambda/e^{2})$ is a monotonically increasing function of $\lambda/e^{2}$ with $\widetilde{E}(0)=1.294$ and $\widetilde{E}(\infty)=3.262.$ We also give a geometrical interpretation to their non-abelian magnetic charge.Comment: 22 pages; added some comments on possible cosmological implications of Dark Monopoles in the last section and added some references. Published Versio

BPS Z(N) String Tensions, Sine Law and Casimir Scaling and Integrable Field Theories

We consider a Yang-Mills-Higgs theory with spontaneous symmetry breaking of the gauge group G -> U(1)^r -> C(G), with C(G) being the center of G. We study two vacua solutions of the theory which produce this symmetry breaking. We show that for one of these vacua, the theory in the Coulomb phase has the mass spectrum of particles and monopoles which is exactly the same as the mass spectrum of particles and solitons of two dimensional affine Toda field theory. That result holds also for N=4 Super Yang-Mills theories. On the other hand, in the Higgs phase, we show that for each of the two vacua the ratio of the tensions of the BPS Z(N) strings satisfy either the Casimir scaling or the sine law scaling for G=SU(N). These results are extended to other gauge groups: for the Casimir scaling, the ratios of the tensions are equal to the ratios of the quadratic Casimir constant of specific representations; for the sine law scaling, the tensions are proportional to the components of the left Perron-Frobenius eigenvector of Cartan matrix and the ratios of tensions are equal to the ratios of the soliton masses of affine Toda field theories.Comment: 21 pages, 10 figures. A correction on the title pag

Solitons and Vertex Operators in Twisted Affine Toda Field Theories

Affine Toda field theories in two dimensions constitute families of integrable, relativistically invariant field theories in correspondence with the affine Kac-Moody algebras. The particles which are the quantum excitations of the fields display interesting patterns in their masses and coupling and which have recently been shown to extend to the classical soliton solutions arising when the couplings are imaginary. Here these results are extended from the untwisted to the twisted algebras. The new soliton solutions and their masses are found by a folding procedure which can be applied to the affine Kac-Moody algebras themselves to provide new insights into their structures. The relevant foldings are related to inner automorphisms of the associated finite dimensional Lie group which are calculated explicitly and related to what is known as the twisted Coxeter element. The fact that the twisted affine Kac-Moody algebras possess vertex operator constructions emerges naturally and is relevant to the soliton solutions.Comment: 27 pages (harvmac) + 3 figures (LaTex) at the end of the file, Swansea SWAT/93-94/1