Degeneracy of decadent dyons

Abstract

A quarter-BPS dyon in N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory is generically 'decadent' in that it is stable only in some regions of the moduli space and decays on submanifolds in the moduli space. Using this fact, and from the degeneracy of the system close to the decay, a new derivation for the degeneracy of such dyons is given. The degeneracy obtained from these very simple physical considerations is in precise agreement with the results obtained from index computations in all known cases. Similar considerations apply to dyons in N = 2 gauge theories. The relation between the N = 4 field theory dyons and those counted by the Igusa cusp form in toroidally compactified heterotic string is elucidated.