Messages for QCD from the Superworld

Abstract

Recent discoveries in supersymmetric gauge theories have significant implications for our understanding for QCD and of field theory in general. The phases of N=1 supersymmetric QCD (SQCD) are discussed, and the possibility of similar phases in non-supersymmetric QCD is emphasized. It is described how duality in SQCD links many previously known duality transformations that were thought to be distinct, including Olive-Montonen duality of N=4 supersymmetric gauge theory and quark-hadron duality in (S)QCD. A link between Olive-Montonen duality and the confining strings of (S)QCD is explained, in which a picture of confinement via non-abelian monopole condensation --- a generalized dual Meissner effect --- emerges explicitly. In this picture, unlike previous ones, the confining flux tubes carry the correct Z_N discrete charges. A number of studies of these subjects, which could be carried out using lattice gauge theory, are proposed.