Related papers: Unoriented D-brane Instantons vs Heterotic worldsh…

In the first lecture, we discuss basic aspects of worldsheet and penta-brane instantons as well as (unoriented) D-brane instantons, which is our main focus here, and threshold corrections to BPS-saturated couplings. The second lecture is…

We study heterotic/type I duality in d=8,9 uncompactified dimensions. We consider the special (``BPS saturated'') F^4 and R^4 terms in the effective one-loop heterotic action, which are expected to be non-perturbatively exact. Under the…

We review how D-brane instantons can generate open string couplings of stringy hierarchy in the superpotential which violate global abelian symmetries and are therefore perturbatively forbidden. We discuss the main ingredients of this…

Motivated by possible implications on the problem of moduli stabilization and other phenomenological aspects, we study D-brane instanton effects in flux compactifications. We focus on a local model and compute non-perturbative interactions…

We review recent progress in determining the effects of D-brane instantons in N=1 supersymmetric compactifications of Type II string theory to four dimensions. We describe the abstract D-brane instanton calculus for holomorphic couplings…

We compute instantonic effects in globally consistent T^6/Z2xZ2 orientifold models with discrete torsion and magnetised D-branes. We consider fractional branes and instantons wrapping the same rigid cycles. We clarify and analyse in detail…

We continue our study of heterotic/type-I duality in D<10 dimensions. We consider the heterotic and type-I theories compactified on tori to lower dimensions. We calculate the special (``BPS saturated'') F^4 and R^4 terms in the effective…

We give a pedagogical introduction to D-brane instanton effects in vacuum configurations with open and unoriented strings. We focus on quiver gauge theories for unoriented D-branes at orbifold singularities and describe in some detail the…

In this note, we study D-brane instantons which intersect N=1 supersymmetric configurations of space-filling D-branes in general Calabi-Yau compactifications of type IIB string theory. Our focus is on rigid ``stringy instantons'' -- those…

In this paper we begin revisiting the little string theories (LSTs) which govern the dynamics of the instantonic heterotic $E_8 \times E_8$ five-branes probing ALE singularities, building on and extending previous results on the subject by…

In this lecture we summarize some recent work on the understanding of instanton effects in string theories with 16 supersymmetries. In particular, we consider F^4 couplings using the duality between the heterotic string on T^4 and type IIA…

We discuss non-perturbative corrections to the gauge kinetic functions in a four-dimensional N=2 gauge theory realized with a system of D7/D3-branes in a compactification of type I' theory on T_4/Z_2 x Z_2. The non-perturbative…

We consider heterotic string theories compactified on a K3 surface which lead to an unbroken perturbative gauge group of Spin(32)/Z2. All solutions obtained are combinations of two types of point-like instanton --- one ``simple type'' as…

We study the effects produced by D-brane instantons on the holomorphic quantities of a D-brane gauge theory at an orbifold singularity. These effects are not limited to reproducing the well known contributions of the gauge theory instantons…

We explore contributions to the 4D effective superpotential which arise from Euclidean D3 branes (``instantons'') that intersect space-filling D-branes. These effects can perturb the effective field theory on the space-filling branes by…

In this note I review the construction of higher-dimensional instantons and heterotic NS5-branes on Ricci-flat cones from arXiv:1109.3552, as well as fractional strings from arXiv:1202.5046. The focus is on methods and interpretation. I…

We provide a direct world-sheet derivation of the couplings of NS-NS and R-R fluxes to various types of D-branes (including instantonic ones) by evaluating disk amplitudes among two open string vertex operators at a generic brane…

Supersymmetric configurations of type II D-branes with nonzero gauge field strengths in general supersymmetric backgrounds with nonzero B fields are analyzed using the kappa-symmetric worldvolume action. It is found in dimension four or…

A class of D-branes for the type IIB plane-wave background is considered that preserve half the dynamical supersymmetries of the light-cone gauge. The D-branes of this type are the euclidean (or instantonic) (0,0), (0,4) and (4,0) branes…

In this paper we show that it is possible to derive non-perturbative superpotential terms from a stringy instanton without introducing orientifold planes. The instanton is realized by a Euclidean D brane wrapping a non-trivial cycle upon…