Softly Broken N = 2 QCD

We analyze the possible soft breaking of (N = 2)-supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory with and without matter flavor preserving the analyticity properties of the Seiberg–Witten solution. For a small supersymmetry-breaking parameter with respect to the dynamical scale of the theory we obtain an exact expression for the effective potential. We describe in detail the onset of the confinement transition and some of the patterns of chiral symmetry breaking. If we extrapolate the results to the limit where supersymmetry decouples, we obtain hints indicating that perhaps a description of the QCD vacuum will require the use of Lagrangians containing simultaneously mutually nonlocal degrees of freedom (monopoles and dyons).