Quasi-Instantons and Supersymmetry Breaking

We show that supersymmetric gauge theories with a product gauge group admit quasi-instantons, which, like instantons, sit at the absolute minimum of the action in the corresponding topological sector. However, unlike ordinary instantons which preserve part of the supersymmetry, these break all supersymmetries of the action. We also provide a generalization where quasi-instantons take value in the associated Lie algebra of the recently proposed 3-algebras. When the structure constants and the metric of the algebra are covariantly constant, the gauge bundle admits new topological sectors with quasi-instantons at the minimum of the action.