Related papers: Instantons and seven-branes in type IIB superstrin…
We discuss some topological constraints on Type IIB string theory that cannot be described by elementary characteristic classes. Anomaly cancellation of the worldvolume theory of a D3-brane requires a shifted Dirac quantization condition of…
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…
We discuss non-linear instantons in supersymmetric field theories on curved spaces arising from D-branes. Focusing on D3-branes and four-dimensional field theories, we derive the supersymmetry conditions and show the intimate relation…
We look for instanton solutions in a class of two scalar field gravity models, which includes the low energy string action in four dimensions. In models where the matter field has a potential with a false vacuum, we find that non-singular…
We provide a classification of the IIB D$p$- and NS$p$-branes in which the brane action exists due to a non-trivial class of the Chevalley-Eilenberg cohomology of free differential algebras. We then present a new geometric formulation of…
We analyze the process of string vacuum destabilization due to instanton induced superpotential couplings which depend linearly on charged fields. These non-perturbative instabilities result in potentials for the D-brane moduli and lead to…
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…
In this contribution we describe how to obtain instanton effects in four dimensional gauge theories by computing string scattering amplitudes in D3/D(-1) brane systems. In particular we study a system of fractional D3/D(-1) branes in a Z_2…
We obtain new intersecting 5-brane, string and pp-wave solutions in the heterotic string on a torus and on a K3 manifold. In the former case the 5-brane is supported by Yang-Mills instantons, and in the latter case both the 5-brane and the…
D-instantons are used to probe the near-horizon geometry of D3-branes systems on orbifold spaces. For fractional D3-branes, D-instanton calculus correctly reproduces the gauge beta-function and U(1)_R anomaly of the corresponding N=2…
We analyze the large N supergravity descriptions of the class of type IIB models T-dual to elliptic type IIA brane configurations containing two orientifold 6-planes and up to two NS 5-branes. The T-dual IIB configurations contain N…
We present a candidate supergravity solution for a stacked configuration of stable non-BPS D-branes in Type II string theory compactified on T^4/Z_2. This gives a supergravity description of nonabelian tachyon condensation on the brane…
We discuss a generalized form of IIA/IIB supergravity depending on all R-R potentials C^(p) (p=0,1,...,9) as the effective field theory of Type IIA/IIB superstring theory. For the IIA case we explicitly break this R-R democracy to either…
A naive dimensional reduction of the $N=1, D=10$ supergravity theory that naturally arises in five-brane models is used to determine the r\^ole of two fields which are basic ingredients of string models: the dilaton and, among the moduli,…
We study classical solutions (ic-instantons) in N=4 SYM in 4D which, in the strong coupling limit, correspond to complex two-dimensional manifolds. Asymptotically in time the latter have boundaries represented by compact real…
Effective field theories in type I and II superstring theories for D-branes located at points in the orbifold C^2/Z_n are supersymmetric gauge theories whose field content is conveniently summarized by a `quiver diagram,' and whose…
We construct solutions of type IIB supergravity with non-trivial Ramond-Ramond 5-form in ten dimensions by replacing the transverse flat space of pp-wave backgrounds with exact $N=(4,4)$ $c=4$ superconformal field theory blocks. These…
The type IIA nonsupersymmetric meta-stable brane configuration consisting of three NS5-branes, D4-branes and anti-D4-branes where the electric gauge theory superpotential has a quartic term for the bifundamentals besides a mass term is…
The four six-dimensional ``little string'' theories are all described in the infinite momentum frame (IMF) as matrix theories by non-trivial 1+1 dimensional infra-red fixed points. We characterize these fixed points using supergravity.…
U-duality p-branes in toroidally compactified type II superstring theories in space-time dimensions $10 > D \ge 4$ can be constructed explicitly based on the conjectured U-duality symmetries and the corresponding known single-charge super…