Dynamics of N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories in three dimensions

We study the structure of the moduli spaces of vacua and superpotentials of N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories in three dimensions. By analyzing the instanton corrections, we compute the exact superpotentials and determine the quantum Coulomb and Higgs branches of the theories in the weak coupling regions. We find candidates for non-trivial N=2 superconformal field theories at the singularities of the moduli spaces. The analysis is carried out explicitly for gauge groups U(Nc) and SU(Nc) with Nf flavors. We show that the field theory results are in complete agreement with the intersecting brane picture. We also compute the exact superpotentials for arbitrary gauge groups and arbitrary matter content. (orig.)