Hypermultiplet effective action: N=2 superspace approach

In an earlier Letter (hep-th/0101127), we developed heat kernel techniques in N = 2 harmonic superspace for the calculation of the low-energy effectiv e action of N = 4 SYM theory, which can be considered as the most symmetric N = 2 SYM theory. Here, the results are extended to generic N = 2 SYM theo ries. This involves a prescription for computing the variation of the hyper multiplet effective action. Integrability of this variation allows the hype rmultiplet effective action to be deduced. This prescription permits a very simple superfield derivation of the perturbative holomorphic prepotential. Explicit calculations of the prepotential and the leading non-holomorphic correction are presented. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved .