On mirror symmetry in three dimensional Abelian gauge theories

Abstract

We present an identity relating the partition function of N = 4 supersymmetric QED to that of its dual under mirror symmetry. The identity is a generalized Fourier transform. Many known properties of abelian theories can be derived from this formula, including the mirror transforms for more general gauge and matter content. We show that N = 3 Chern-Simons QED and N = 4 QED with BF-type couplings are conformal field theories with exactly marginal couplings. Mirror symmetry acts on these theories as strong-weak coupling duality. After identifying the mirror of the gauge coupling (sometimes called the "magnetic coupling") we construct a theory which is exactly mirror - at all scales - to N = 4 SQED. We also study vortex-creation operators in the large N-f limit.