Gluino Condensate and Magnetic Monopoles in Supersymmetric Gluodynamics

We examine supersymmetric SU(N) gauge theories on R^3S^1 with a circle of circumference beta. These theories interpolate between four-dimensional N=1 pure gauge theory for beta=infinity and three-dimensional N=2 gauge theory for beta=0. The dominant field configurations of the R^3S^1 SU(N) theories in the semi-classical regime arise from N varieties of monopole. Periodic instanton configurations correspond to mixed configurations of N single monopoles of the N different types. We semi-classically evaluate the non-perturbatively generated superpotential of the R^3*S^1 theory and hence determine its vacuum structure. We then calculate monopole contributions to the gluino condensate in these theories and take the decompactification limit beta=infinity. In this way we obtain a value for the gluino condensate in the four-dimensional N=1 supersymmetric SU(N) Yang-Mills theory, which agrees with the previously known weak coupling' expression but not with the strong coupling’ expression derived in the early literature solely from instanton considerations. Moreover, we discover that the superpotential gives a mass to the dual (magnetic) photon, which implies confinement of the original electric photon and disappearance of all the massless modes.