Signals of a new phase in N=2 gauge theory with a magnetic field on the three-sphere

Abstract

We study the effect of a magnetic field on N=2 super-Yang-Mills on S^3 at strong coupling using the gauge/gravity correspondence. As in previous work that dealt with the theory in infinite volume, we find that increasing the magnetic field pushes the system into the confined phase. However, we in addition also find that, within the class of configurations with the same symmetry as those which describe the ground state at vanishing magnetic field, a mass gap appears in the spectrum. This suggests the existence of a new phase with so far unexplored symmetry structure. We provide suggestions for the physical properties of this phase.