On the N=1^∗ gauge theory on a circle and elliptic integrable systems

We continue our study of the N=1^∗ supersymmetric gauge theory on ℝ^2,1×S¹ and its relation to elliptic integrable systems. Upon compactification on a circle, we show that the semi-classical analysis of the massless and massive vacua depends on the classification of nilpotent orbits, as well as on the conjugacy classes of the component group of their centralizer. We demonstrate that semi-classically massless vacua can be lifted by Wilson lines in unbroken discrete gauge groups. The pseudo-Levi subalgebras that play a classifying role in the nilpotent orbit theory are also key in defining generalized Inozemtsev limits of (twisted) elliptic integrable systems. We illustrate our analysis in the N=1^∗ theories with gauge algebras su(3), su(4), so(5) and for the exceptional gauge algebra G₂. We map out modular duality diagrams of the massive and massless vacua. Moreover, we provide an analytic description of the branches of massless vacua in the case of the su(3) and the so(5) theory. The description of these branches in terms of the complexified Wilson lines on the circle invokes the Eichler-Zagier technique for inverting the elliptic Weierstrass function. After fine-tuning the coupling to elliptic points of order three, we identify the Argyres-Douglas singularities of the su(3)N=1^∗ theory.