Related papers: On Exceptional Instanton Strings
We give a general description of gauge symmetry breaking using vertical and remainder fluxes in 4D F-theory models. The fluxes can break a geometric gauge group to a smaller group and induce chiral matter, even when the larger group admits…
To do realistic model building in type IIB supergravity, it is important to understand how to fix D7-brane positions by the choice of fluxes. More generally, F-theory model building requires the understanding of how fluxes determine the…
We follow the idea of gluing theory in instanton moduli spaces and discuss the case when there is a finite group $\Gamma$ acting on the 4-manifolds $X_1, X_2$ with $x_1, x_2$ as isolated fixed points, how to glue two $\Gamma$-invariant ASD…
We construct intersecting D-brane configurations that encode the gauge groups and field content of dual N=4 supersymmetric gauge theories in three dimensions. The duality which exchanges the Coulomb and Higgs branches and the…
We study a system of fractional D3 and D(-1) branes in a Ramond-Ramond closed string background and show that it describes the gauge instantons of N=2 super Yang-Mills theory and their interactions with the graviphoton of N=2 supergravity.…
Weakly coupled regions of 4d EFTs coupled to gravity are particularly suitable to describe the backreaction of BPS fundamental axionic strings, dubbed EFT strings, in a local patch of spacetime around their core. We study the extension of…
Unlike the $\mathcal{R}^4$ and $\nabla^4\mathcal{R}^4$ couplings, whose coefficients are Langlands-Eisenstein series of the U-duality group, the coefficient $\mathcal{E}_{(0,1)}^{(d)}$ of the $\nabla^6\mathcal{R}^4$ interaction in the…
We use the F-theory realization of 6D superconformal field theories (SCFTs) to study the corresponding spectrum of stringlike, i.e. surface defects. On the tensor branch, all of the stringlike excitations pick up a finite tension, and there…
In these lecture notes duality tests and instanton effects in supersymmetric vacua of string theory are discussed. A broad overview of BPS-saturated terms in the effective actions is first given. Their role in testing the consistency of…
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…
We study a family of 2d N=(0,4) gauge theories which describes at low energy the dynamics of E-strings, the M2-branes suspended between a pair of M5 and M9 branes. The gauge theory is engineered using a duality with type IIA theory, leading…
We construct the exceptional sigma model: a two-dimensional sigma model coupled to a supergravity background in a manifestly (formally) $E_{D(D)}$-covariant manner. This formulation of the background is provided by Exceptional Field Theory…
We derive the explicit formula for fractional BPS lumps (or fractional instantons) in the $\mathbb{C}P^{N-1}$ nonlinear sigma model on a two-dimensional torus under various shift-clock twisted boundary conditions. After regularizing the…
We consider the 6d (2,0) theory on a fibration by genus g curves, and dimensionally reduce along the fiber to 4d theories with duality defects. This generalizes class S theories, for which the fibration is trivial. The non-trivial fibration…
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…
D-branes can end on orbifold planes if the action of the orbifold group includes (-1)^{F_L}. We consider configurations of D-branes ending on such orbifolds and study the low-energy theory on their worldvolume. We apply our results to gauge…
Structure group SU(4) gauge vacua of both weakly and strongly coupled heterotic superstring theory compactified on torus-fibered Calabi-Yau threefolds Z with Z_2 x Z_2 fundamental group are presented. This is accomplished by constructing…
We describe the construction of large classes of explicit string theory backgrounds corresponding to 6d and 4d chiral theories with end of the world boundaries, and describe the strong coupling phenomena involved in gapping the chiral (but…
In this paper we present a beautifully consistent web of evidence for the existence of interacting 4d rank-1 $\mathcal{N}=2$ SCFTs obtained from gauging discrete subgroups of global symmetries of other existing 4d rank-1 $\mathcal{N}=2$…
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…