UC Irvine

According to the standard lore only single monopoles contribute to the superpotential on the Coulomb branch of 3D N= 2 SUSY gauge theories. However we argue that multi-monopole configurations can also generate superpotential terms in the presence of squark VEVs on the mixed Higgs-Coulomb branch. The new ingredient is the confinement of monopoles via Nielsen-Olesen flux tubes. Such confined multi-monopoles will yield a pre-ADS superpotential which depends both on the local Coulomb moduli and matter superfields but has no fractional powers. Once the lifted moduli are integrated out the familiar ADS superpotential is obtained. Our results demonstrate the important role multi-monopoles can play in generating non-perturbative effects and also sheds light on the still somewhat mysterious dynamical origin of the general 4D ADS superpotential.