Whitham prepotential and superpotential

N = 2 supersymmetric U(N) Yang-Mills theory softly broken to N = I by the superpotential of the adjoint scalar fields is discussed from the viewpoint of the Whitham deformation theory for prepotential. With proper identification of the superpotential we derive the matrix model curve from the condition that the mixed second derivatives of the Whitham prepotential have a nontrivial kernel. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.