Related papers: Exotic instanton counting and heterotic/type I' du…
We introduce and study tetrahedron instantons, which can be realized in string theory by D$1$-branes probing a configuration of intersecting D$7$-branes in flat spacetime with a proper constant $B$-field. Physically they capture instantons…
The D-instanton partition function is a fascinating quantity because in the presence of N D3-branes, and in a certain decoupling limit, it reduces to the functional integral of N=4 U(N) supersymmetric gauge theory for multi-instanton…
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 analyze a class of dual pairs of heterotic and type I models based on freely-acting $\mathbb{Z}_2 \times \mathbb{Z}_2$ orbifolds in four dimensions. Using the adiabatic argument, it is possible to calculate non-perturbative contributions…
We argue the connection of Nekrasov's partition function in the \Omega background and the moduli space of D-branes, suggested by the idea of geometric engineering and Gopakumar-Vafa invariants. In the instanton expansion of N=2 SU(2)…
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…
Duality arguments are used to determine D-instanton contributions to certain effective interaction terms of type II supergravity theories in various dimensions. This leads to exact expressions for the partition functions of the finite N…
D-instanton calculus has proved to be able to probe the AdS near horizon geometry for $N$ D-branes systems which, when decoupled from gravity, yield four dimensional superconformal gauge theories with various matter content. In this work we…
We consider two simple examples of multi-instanton configurations in type II 4d N=1 superstring compactifications. The first one involves O(1) and U(1) D2-instantons embedded in T^6/(Z_2 x Z_2') geometry with SU(4) gauge symmetry coming…
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 investigate D-brane instanton contributions to R^4 couplings in any toroidal compactification of type II theories. Starting from the 11D supergravity one-loop four-graviton amplitude computed by Green, Gutperle and Vanhove, we derive the…
We perform an exact computation of the gauged linear sigma model associated to a D1-D5 brane system on a resolved A_1 singularity. This is accomplished via supersymmetric localization on the blown-up two-sphere. We show that in the…
In a toroidal orbifold of type IIB string theory we study instanton effects in N=2 super Yang-Mills theories engineered with systems of wrapped magnetized D9 branes and Euclidean D5 branes. We analyze the various open string sectors in this…
We study non-perturbative effects in four-dimensional N=1 supersymmetric orientifold compactifications due to D-brane instantons which are generically not invariant under the orientifold projection. We show that they can yield…
We construct the effective action of certain exotic branes in the Type II theories which are not predicted by their spacetime supersymmetry algebras. We analyze in detail the case of the NS-7B brane, S-dual to the D7-brane, and connected by…
We refine a previous proposal for obtaining the multi-instanton partition function from the supersymmetric index of the 1d supersymmetric gauge theory on the worldline of D0-branes. We provide examples where the refinements are crucial for…
Inspired by Yoneya's recent work on D-brane field theory, we present the constructive definition of this theory as a new dual model based on the quantization of non-perturbative string gauged S-dualities and its spontaneous breakdown. Our…
We compute the instanton partition function for ${\cal N}=4$ U(N) gauge theories living on toric varieties, mainly of type $\R^4/\Gamma_{p,q}$ including $A_{p-1}$ or $O_{\PP_1}(-p)$ surfaces. The results provide microscopic formulas for the…
The study of the special F^4 and R^4 in the effective action for the Spin(32)/Z_2 and type II strings sheds some light on D-brane calculus and on instanton contribution counting. The D-instanton case is discussed separately.
In this paper we compute the partition function of 5D supersymmetric U(1) gauge theory with extra adjoint matter in general $\Omega$-background. It is well known that such partition functions encode very rich topological information. We…