📝 SummarXiv

Abstract

We study $SU(N)$ super Yang-Mills theory with a small gaugino mass $m$ and vacuum angle $\theta$ on the four-torus $\mathbb{T}^4$ with 't Hooft twisted boundary conditions. Introducing a detuning parameter $\Delta$, which measures the deviation from an exactly self-dual $\mathbb{T}^4$, and working in the limits $mLN \ll \Lambda LN \ll 1$ and $ \frac{(N-1) m^2 L^2}{4 \pi} \ll \Delta \ll 1$, where $L$ is the torus size and $\Lambda$ the strong-coupling scale, we compute the scalar and pseudo-scalar condensates to leading order in $m^2L^2/\Delta$. The twists generate fractional-charge instantons, and we show that summing over all such contributions is crucial for reproducing the correct physical observables in the decompactified strong-coupling regime. From a Hamiltonian perspective, the sum over twisted sectors, already at small torus size, projects in the $m=0$ limit onto a definite superselection sector of the $\mathbb{R}^4$ theory. In the massless limit, we recover the exact value of the gaugino condensate $|\langle \lambda \lambda \rangle| = 16\pi^2 \Lambda^3$, and demonstrate how a spurious $U(1)$ symmetry eliminates all $CP$-violating effects. Our results are directly testable in lattice simulations, and our method extends naturally to non-supersymmetric gauge theories.