  This paper is devoted to a systematic discussion of the supersymmetric index
Tr (-1)^F for the minimal supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory -- with any simple
gauge group G -- primarily in four spacetime dimensions. The index has
refinements that probe confinement and oblique confinement and the possible
spontaneous breaking of chiral symmetry and of global symmetries, such as
charge conjugation, that are derived from outer automorphisms of the gauge
group. Predictions for the index and its refinements are obtained on the basis
of standard hypotheses about the infrared behavior of gauge theories. The
predictions are confirmed via microscopic calculations which involve a
Born-Oppenheimer computation of the spectrum as well as mathematical formulas
involving triples of commuting elements of G and the Chern-Simons invariants of
flat bundles on the three-torus.
