QUARK POTENTIALS IN THE HIGGS PHASE OF LARGE-N SUPERSYMMETRIC YANG-MILLS THEORIES

We compute, in the large N limit, the quark potential for N = 4 supers ymmetric SU(N) Yang-Mills theory broken to SU(N-1) x SU(N-2). At short distances the quarks see only the unbroken gauge symmetry and have an attractive potential that falls off as 1/L. At longer distances the i nterquark interaction is sensitive to the symmetry breaking, and other QCD states appear. These states correspond to combinations of the qua rk-antiquark pair with some number of W-particles. If there is one or more W-particles then this state is unstable because of the Coulomb in teraction between the W-particles and between the W's and the quarks. As L is decreased the W-particles delocalize and these Coulomb branche s merge onto a branch with a linear potential. The quarks on this bran ch see the unbroken gauge group, but the flux tube is unstable to the production of W-particles.