Related papers: Instantons, Fluxons and Open Gauge String Theory
We perform a lattice study of the topological susceptibility and instanton size distribution of the $\su{2}$ gauge theory with two adjoint Dirac fermions (also known as Minimal Walking Technicolor), which is known to be in the conformal…
The open Wilson lines are gauge-invariant operators made with a gauge transporter along an open path saturated at the end-points with matter fields. Here it is shown that numerical experiments on 3D Z2 Higgs model provide useful guidance in…
We study the formation of gravitating global strings through quantum mechanical tunneling. The instantons that describe the nucleation process are characterized by two parameters: the string core thickness and its gravitational backreaction…
Nontrivial topological structures of non-Abelian gauge fields were discovered in the 1970's. Instanton solutions, describing vacuum tunneling through topological barriers, have fermionic zero modes which are at the origin of $^\prime$t…
We consider specific quantum mechanical model problems for which perturbation theory fails to explain physical properties like the eigenvalue spectrum even qualitatively, even if the asymptotic perturbation series is augmented by…
We construct modular invariant partition functions for type II strings on a conifold and a singular Eguchi-Hanson instanton by means of the SL(2,R)/U(1) version of Gepner models. In the conifold case, we find an extra massless…
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 show how to do gauge theory on the octonions and other nonassociative algebras such as `fuzzy $R^4$' models proposed in string theory. We use the theory of quasialgebras obtained by cochain twist introduced previously. The gauge theory…
I show how one can use lattice methods to calculate various continuum properties of SU(N) gauge theories; in part to explore old ideas that N=3 might be close to N=infinity. I describe calculations of the low-lying `glueball' mass spectrum,…
The effects of instantons close to the cut-off is studied in four dimensional SU(2) gauge theory with higher order derivative terms in the action. It is found in the framework of the dilute instanton gas approximation that the convergence…
Recently, string theory on some specific curved backgroud spacetime geometries has been conjectured to be equivalent to certain gauge theories (AdS/CFT correspondence). This correspondence may be used to investigate the non-perturbative…
We study BPS excitations in M5-M2-brane configurations with a compact transverse direction, which are also relevant for type IIa and IIb little string theories. These configurations are dual to a class of toric elliptically fibered…
Instanton contributions in 2d string theory are known to include subtle numerical factors $\zeta_n$ closely related to a contour prescription in multi-instanton string amplitudes. Both ingredients appear to be ambiguous due to a degeneracy…
We employ the twistor approach to the construction of U(2) multi-instantons `a la 't Hooft on noncommutative R^4. The noncommutative deformation of the Corrigan-Fairlie-'t Hooft-Wilczek ansatz is derived. However, naively substituting into…
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…
This is the 13th article in the collection of reviews "Exact results in N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories", ed. J. Teschner. It discusses the relation between the instanton partition functions and the partition function of the topological…
We evaluate the Seiberg-Witten map for solitons and instantons in noncommutative gauge theories in various dimensions. We show that solitons constructed using the projection operators have delta-function supports when expressed in the…
The instanton contributions to the partition function and to homologically trivial Wilson loops for a U(N) Yang-Mills theory on a torus $T^2$ are analyzed. An exact expression for the partition function is obtained as a sum of contributions…
String theory realisations of the QCD axion are often said to belong to the anthropic window where the decay constant is around the GUT scale and the initial misalignment angle has to be tuned close to zero. In this paper we revisit this…
In these lectures I present a review of non-perturbative instanton effects in quantum theories, with a focus on large N gauge theories and matrix models. I first consider the structure of these effects in the case of ordinary differential…