New aspects of abelian confinement

Abstract

Abelian confinement in SYM and QCD(adj) with massive or massless fermions has properties distinct from other theories with a calculable confinement mechanism, notably Seiberg-Witten theory, owing to the preservation of center symmetry. Features, argued long ago in M-theory, such as confining strings ending on domain walls, can now be seen in a field-theoretic description of confinement of electric charges and explained dynamically in SYM, QCD(adj), or deformed Yang-Mills theory at theta = pi. Furthermore, some of these nonsupersymmetric theories exhibit a (baby) version of S-duality. It emerges near their deconfinement transition and relates the low-T and |high-T dynamics of theories with distinct global structure, as in the Ising model and N=4 SYM. The global structure and transition to nonabelian confinement may also be intertwined.