Black Holes, the Bethe Ansatz, and Elliptic Calogero--Moser Systems

Abstract

We define a map from solutions of the Bethe Ansatz equations (BAEs) of four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=4$ super-Yang--Mills with arbitrary semisimple gauge algebra $\mathfrak{g}$ to extrema and poles of the potential of the untwisted elliptic Calogero--Moser system of type $\mathfrak{g}$. We conjecture the map to be a bijection on the preimage of the Calogero--Moser extrema, and show that it intertwines the symmetries of the two systems, both the gauge ones (torus, Weyl and center invariance) and a $\mathrm{PSL}(2,\mathbb{Z})$ action, so that solutions on both sides organize into orbits, each BAE orbit mapping onto a single orbit of Calogero--Moser extrema or poles. That the system produced is the untwisted one has a consequence: the conjectured correspondence between BAE solutions and vacua of the $\mathcal{N}=1^\ast$ deformation of $\mathcal{N}=4$ on $\mathbb{R}^{3,1}$, which are extrema of the twisted system, cannot extend to non-simply-laced $\mathfrak{g}$. It also fails within the simply-laced cases, though not for $\mathfrak{su}(N)$: we exhibit an $\mathfrak{so}(8)$ solution that flows to a pole of the Calogero--Moser potential rather than to an extremum, and so has no $\mathcal{N}=1^\ast$ counterpart. We illustrate the map in detail for every rank-two $\mathfrak{g}$, classical and exceptional alike, and use these cases as evidence for the conjecture.