A NEW DERIVATION OF THE PICARD-FUCHS EQUATIONS FOR EFFECTIVE N=2 SUPER YANG-MILLS THEORIES

A new method to obtain the Picard-Fuchs equations of effective, N=2 su persymmetric gauge theories in 4 dimensions is developed. It includes both pure super Yang-Mills and supersymmetric gauge theories with mass less matter hypermultiplets. It applies to all classical gauge groups, and directly produces a decoupled set of second-order, partial differ ential equations satisfied by the period integrals of the Seiberg-Witt en differential along the 1-cycles of the algebraic curves describing the vacuum structure of the corresponding N=2 theory. (C) 1997 Elsevie r Science B.V.