Abstract In the leading order of the large-$N$ approximation, we study the renormalon ambiguity in the gluon (or, more appropriately, photon) condensate in the 2D supersymmetric $\mathbb{C}P^{N-1}$ model on $\mathbb{R}\times S^1$ with the $\mathbb{Z}_N$ twisted boundary conditions. In our large-$N$ limit, the combination $\Lambda R$, where $\Lambda$ is the dynamical scale and $R$ is the $S^1$ radius, is kept fixed (we set $\Lambda R\ll1$ so that the perturbative expansion with respect to the coupling constant at the mass scale $1/R$ is meaningful). We extract the perturbative part from the large-$N$ expression of the gluon condensate and obtain the corresponding Borel transform $B(u)$. For $\mathbb{R}\times S^1$, we find that the Borel singularity at $u=2$, which exists in the system on the uncompactified $\mathbb{R}^2$ and corresponds to twice the minimal bion action, disappears. Instead, an unfamiliar renormalon singularity emerges at $u=3/2$ for the compactified space $\mathbb{R}\times S^1$. The semi-classical interpretation of this peculiar singularity is not clear because $u=3/2$ is not dividable by the minimal bion action. It appears that our observation for the system on $\mathbb{R}\times S^1$ prompts reconsideration on the semi-classical bion picture of the infrared renormalon.

We point out that the location of renormalon singularities in theory on a circle-compactified spacetime $\mathbb{R}^{d-1} \times S^1$ (with a small radius $R \Lambda \ll 1$) can differ from that on the non-compactified spacetime $\mathbb{R}^d$. We argue this under the following assumptions, which are often realized in large-$N$ theories with twisted boundary conditions: (i) a loop integrand of a renormalon diagram is volume independent, i.e. it is not modified by the compactification, and (ii) the loop momentum variable along the $S^1$ direction is not associated with the twisted boundary conditions and takes the values $n/R$ with integer $n$. We find that the Borel singularity is generally shifted by $-1/2$ in the Borel $u$-plane, where the renormalon ambiguity of $\mathcal{O}(\Lambda^k)$ is changed to $\mathcal{O}(\Lambda^{k-1}/R)$ due to the circle compactification $\mathbb{R}^d \to \mathbb{R}^{d-1} \times S^1$. The result is general for any dimension $d$ and is independent of details of the quantities under consideration. As an example, we study the $\mathbb{C} P^{N-1}$ model on $\mathbb{R} \times S^1$ with $\mathbb{Z}_N$ twisted boundary conditions in the large-$N$ limit.

By employing the $1/N$ expansion, we compute the vacuum energy $E(\delta\epsilon)$ of the two-dimensional supersymmetric (SUSY) $\mathbb{C}P^{N-1}$ model on $\mathbb{R}\times S^1$ with $\mathbb{Z}_N$ twisted boundary conditions to the second order in a SUSY-breaking parameter $\delta\epsilon$. This quantity was vigorously studied recently by Fujimori et al. using a semi-classical approximation based on the bion, motivated by a possible semi-classical picture on the infrared renormalon. In our calculation, we find that the parameter $\delta\epsilon$ receives renormalization and, after this renormalization, the vacuum energy becomes ultraviolet finite. To the next-to-leading order of the $1/N$ expansion, we find that the vacuum energy normalized by the radius of the $S^1$, $R$, $RE(\delta\epsilon)$ behaves as inverse powers of $\Lambda R$ for $\Lambda R$ small, where $\Lambda$ is the dynamical scale. Since $\Lambda$ is related to the renormalized ’t Hooft coupling $\lambda_R$ as $\Lambda\sim e^{-2\pi/\lambda_R}$, to the order of the $1/N$ expansion we work out, the vacuum energy is a purely non-perturbative quantity and has no well-defined weak coupling expansion in $\lambda_R$.