Non-Abelian duality from vortex moduli: a dual model of color-confinement

Abstract

It is argued that the dual transformation of non-Abelian monopoles occurring in a system with gauge symmetry breaking G -> H is to be defined by setting the low-energy H system in Higgs phase, so that the dual system is in confinement phase. The transformation law of the monopoles follows from that of monopole-vortex mixed configurations in the system (with a large hierarchy of energy scales, v_1 >> v_2) G -> H -> 0, under an unbroken, exact color-flavor diagonal symmetry H_{C+F} \sim {\tilde H}. The transformation property among the regular monopoles characterized by π_2(G/H), follows from that among the non-Abelian vortices with flux quantized according to π_1(H), via the isomorphism π_1(G) \sim π_1(H) / π_2(G/H). Our idea is tested against the concrete models -- softly-broken {\cal N}=2 supersymmetric SU(N), SO(N) and USp(2N) theories, with appropriate number of flavors. The results obtained in the semiclassical regime (at v_1 >> v_2 >> Λ) of these models are consistent with those inferred from the fully quantum-mechanical low-energy effective action of the systems (at v_1, v_2 \sim Λ).

2+27 pages, 5 figures; v3, minor changes