Splitting of surface defect partition functions and integrable systems

Abstract

We study Bethe/gauge correspondence at the special locus of Coulomb moduli where the integrable system exhibits the splitting of degenerate levels. For this investigation, we consider the four-dimensional pure $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric $U(N)$ gauge theory, with a half-BPS surface defect constructed with the help of an orbifold or a degenerate gauge vertex. We show that the non-perturbative Dyson-Schwinger equations imply the Schr\"odinger-type and the Baxter-type differential equations satisfied by the respective surface defect partition functions. At the special locus of Coulomb moduli the surface defect partition function splits into parts. We recover the Bethe/gauge dictionary for each summand.