Frank Ferrari

It is shown that the physical ``quark number'' charges which appear in the central charge of the supersymmetry algebra of $N=2$ supersymmetric QCD can take irrational values and depend non trivially on the Higgs expectation value. This gives a physical interpretation of the constant shifts which the ``electric'' and ``magnetic'' variables $a_D$ and $a$ undergo when encircling a singularity, and show that duality in this model is truly an electric-magnetic-quark number duality. Also included is a computation of the monodromy matrices directly in the microscopic theory.

In these notes, we emphasize the r\^ole of spontaneous broken global discrete symmetries acting on the moduli space of $N=2$ susy Yang-Mills theories and show how they can be used, together with the BPS condition, as a spectrum generating symmetry. In particular, in the strong-coupling region, all BPS states come in multiplets of this broken symmetry. This played a key r\^ole in the determination of the strong-coupling spectra.

We carefully study the global structure of the solution of the $N=2$ supersymmetric pure Yang-Mills theory with gauge group $SU(2)$ obtained by Seiberg and Witten. We exploit its ${\bf Z}_2$-symmetry and describe the curve in moduli space where BPS states can become unstable, separating the strong-coupling from the weak-coupling region. This allows us to obtain the spectrum of stable BPS states in the strong-coupling region: we prove that only the two particles responsible for the singularities of the solution (the magnetic monopole and the dyon of unit electric charge) are present in this region. Our method also permits us to very easily obtain the well-known weak-coupling spectrum, without using semi-classical methods. We discuss how the BPS states disintegrate when crossing the border from the weak to the strong-coupling region.