S-duality in N = 4 Yang-Mills theories with general gauge groups

Abstract 't Hooft's construction of free energy, electric and magnetic fluxes, and of the partition function with twisted boundary conditions, is extended to the case of N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories based on arbitrary compact, simple Lie groups. The transformation of the fluxes and the free energy under S-duality is presented. We consider the partition function of N = 4 for a particular choice of boundary conditions, and compute exactly its leading infrared divergence. We verify that this partition function obeys the transformation laws required by S-duality. This provides independent evidence in favor of S-duality in N = 4 theories.