Related papers: Global F-theory Models: Instantons and Gauge Dynam…
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…
Non-perturbative D-brane instanton effects in 4d N = 1 string compactifications can be geometrized in terms of a backreacted generalized geometry. We extend earlier results to setups in which the D-brane instanton is charged under the 4d…
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…
We revisit type I compactifications with a Spin(32)/Z2 gauge bundle that admits no vector structure. We elucidate the relation of this Z2 obstruction to discrete B-field flux and to 't Hooft flux and clarify some subtleties in the T-duality…
We analize instanton generated superpotentials for three dimensional N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories obtained by compactifying on S^1 N=1 four dimensional theories. In the N_f=1 case, we find that the vacua in the decompactification limit…
We consider non-perturbative superpotentials from world-sheet instantons wrapped on holomorphic genus zero curves in heterotic string theory. These superpotential contributions feature prominently in moduli stabilization and large field…
Singular fiber resolution does not describe the spontaneous breaking of gauge symmetry in F-theory, as the corresponding branch of the moduli space does not exist in the theory. Accordingly, even non-abelian gauge theories have not been…
We systematically investigate instanton corrections from wrapped Euclidean D-branes to the matter field superpotential of various classes of N=1 supersymmetric D-brane models in four dimensions. Both gauge invariance and the counting of…
We study, using ADHM construction, instanton effects in an ${\CN}=2$ superconformal $Sp(N)$ gauge theory, arising as effective field theory on a system of $N$ D-3-branes near an orientifold 7-plane and 8 D-7-branes in type I' string theory.…
Deformations of the original F-theory background are proposed. These lead to multiple new dualities and physical phenomena. We concentrate on one model where we let seven-branes wrap a multi-centered Taub-NUT space instead of R4. This…
Adjusting conventional Chern-Simons theory to ${\rm G}_2$-manifolds, one describes ${\rm G}_2$-instantons on bundles over a certain class of $7$-dimensional flat tori which fiber non-trivially over $T^4$, by a pullback argument. Moreover,…
We give a direct microscopic derivation of the F-theory background that corresponds to four D7 branes of type I' theory by taking into account the D-instanton contributions to the emission of the axio-dilaton field in the directions…
We review four basic examples where string theory and/or field theory dualities predict the existence of soliton bound-states. These include the existence of threshold bound-states of D0 branes required by IIA/M duality and the…
We compute the gravitational coupling $F_1$ for IIA string theory on $K3 \times T^2$ and use string-string duality to deduce the corresponding term for heterotic string on $T^6$. The latter is an infinite sum of gravitational instanton…
We describe a new class of instanton effects in string compactifications that preserve only N=1 supersymmetry in four dimensions. As is well-known, worldsheet or brane instantons in such a background can sometimes contribute to an effective…
F-theory attempts to include all U-dualities manifestly. Unlike its T-dual manifest partner, which is based on string current algebra, F-theory is based on higher dimensional brane current algebra. Like the T-dual manifest theory, which has…
Local SU(5) F-theory models lead naturally to Yukawa couplings for the third generation of quarks and leptons, but inducing Yukawas for the lighter generations has proven elusive. Corrections coming from gauge fluxes fail to generate the…
We investigate gauge theories and matter contents in F-theory compactifications on families of genus-one fibered Calabi-Yau 4-folds lacking a global section. To construct families of genus-one fibered Calabi-Yau 4-folds that lack a global…
In this note we study the N=1 abelian gauge theory on the world volume of a single fractional D3-brane. In the limit where gravitational interactions are not completely decoupled we find that a superpotential and a fermionic bilinear…
We investigate gauge coupling unification for F-theory respectively Type IIB orientifold constructions of SU(5) GUT theories with gauge symmetry breaking via non-trivial hypercharge flux. This flux has the non-trivial effect that it splits…