N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories and quantum integrable systems

Abstract: We study N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories on the product of a two-sphere and a cylinder. We show that the low-energy dynamics of a BPS sector of such a theory is described by a quantum integrable system, with the Planck constant set by the inverse of the radius of the sphere. If the sphere is replaced with a hemisphere, then our system reduces to an integrable system of the type studied by Nekrasov and Shatashvili. In this case we establish a correspondence between the effective prepotential of the gauge theory and the Yang-Yang function of the integrable system.