Seiberg-Witten and "Polyakov-like" magnetic bion confinements are continuously connected (1105.3969v1)

Abstract: We study four-dimensional N=2 supersymmetric pure-gauge (Seiberg-Witten) theory and its N=1 mass perturbation by using compactification S*1 x R3. It is well known that on R4 (or at large S1) the perturbed theory realizes confinement through monopole or dyon condensation. At small S*1, we demonstrate that confinement is induced by a generalization of Polyakov's three-dimensional instanton mechanism to a locally four-dimensional theory - the magnetic bion mechanism - which also applies to a large class of nonsupersymmetric theories. Using a large- vs. small-L Poisson duality, we show that the two mechanisms of confinement, previously thought to be distinct, are in fact continuously connected.