Related papers: Probing M-theory with tetrahedron instantons
Instantons and W-bosons in 5d maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory arise from a circle compactification of the 6d (2,0) theory as Kaluza-Klein modes and winding self-dual strings, respectively. We study an index which counts BPS…
We construct noncommutative Donaldson-Thomas invariants associated with abelian orbifold singularities by analysing the instanton contributions to a six-dimensional topological gauge theory. The noncommutative deformation of this gauge…
On the world-volume of an $M$-theory five-brane propagates a two-form with self-dual field strength. As this field is non-Lagrangian, there is no obvious framework for determining its partition function. An analogous problem exists in Type…
We study the combined effect of world-volume and background fluxes on Euclidean D3-brane instantons in F-theory compactifications. We derive an appropriate form of the fermionic effective action, in which the fermions are topologically…
Extending previous work that involved D3-branes ending on a fivebrane with $\theta_{\mathrm{YM}}\not=0$, we consider a similar two-sided problem. This construction, in case the fivebrane is of NS type, is associated to the three-dimensional…
We investigate the Kaluza-Klein reductions to ten dimensions of the purely gravitational half-BPS M-theory backgrounds: the M-wave and the Kaluza-Klein monopole. We determine the moduli space of smooth (supersymmetric) Kaluza-Klein…
We study D-brane instantons in systems of D3-branes at toric CY 3-fold singularities. The instanton effect can be described as a backreaction modifying the geometry of the mirror configuration, in which the breaking of $U(1)$ symmetries by…
We describe a duality relation between configurations of M5-branes in M-theory and type IIB theory on Taub-NUT geometries with NSNS and RR 3-form field strength fluxes. The flux parameters are controlled by the angles between the M5-brane…
We consider SO(4) x SO(6) invariant type IIB string solution describing D3-branes superposed with D-instantons homogeneously distributed over D3-brane world-volume. In the near D3-brane horizon limit this background interpolates between…
We interpret a class of 4k-dimensional instanton solutions found by Ward, Corrigan, Goddard and Kent as four-dimensional instantons at angles. The superposition of each pair of four-dimensional instantons is associated with four angles…
We consider the effective topological field theory on Euclidean D-strings wrapping on a 2-cycle in the internal space. We evaluate the vev of a suitable operator corresponding to the chemical potential of vortices bounded to the D-strings,…
We study in detail the system of D6 branes and euclidean D2-brane instantons intersecting at angles in type IIA string theory. We find that in the absence of orientifolds the system does not contribute to the low energy superpotential, in…
In four-dimensional F-theory compactifications with N=1 supersymmetry the fields describing the dynamics of space-time filling 7-branes are part of the complex structure moduli space of the internal Calabi-Yau fourfold. We explicitly…
We analyze the quantum-corrected moduli space of D7-brane position moduli with special emphasis on inflationary model building. D7-brane deformation moduli are key players in two recently proposed inflationary scenarios: The first, D7-brane…
We study fractional D-branes in the Type-IIA theory on a non-compact orientifold of the orbifold C^3/Z_3 in the boundary state formalism. We find that the fractional D0-branes of the orbifold theory become unstable due to the presence of a…
We study self-dual instantons of topological charge $Q=r/N$, for any natural $r$, in $SU(N)$ Yang-Mills theory on a four torus with 't Hooft twists, by embedding them into worldvolume theories of $D$-branes. To study their moduli, we…
In the light of the duality between physics in the bulk of anti-de Sitter space and a conformal field theory on the boundary, we review the M2, D3 and M5 branes and how their near-horizon geometry yields the compactification of D=11…
This note is the written version of a talk which was presented at the Cargese 2002 summer school. It gives a brief introduction to the paper hep-th/0205281, written in collaboration with R. Dijkgraaf and E. Verlinde. In this paper, we…
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 analysis of the worldvolume effective actions of the M-theory Kaluza-Klein monopole and 9-brane suggests that it should be possible to describe non-abelian configurations of M2-branes or M5-branes if the M2-branes are transverse to the…