Related papers: Rigid string instantons are pseudo-holomorphic cur…

We develop a new approach to extracting the physical consequences of S-duality of four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills (SYM) and its string theory dual, based on $SL(2,\mathbb{Z})$ spectral theory. We observe that CFT…

We consider Penrose limits of the Klebanov-Strassler and Maldacena-Nunez holographic duals to N =1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills. By focusing in on the IR region we obtain exactly solvable string theory models. These represent the…

We construct examples of deformed Hermitian Yang-Mills connections and deformed Spin(7)-instantons (also called Spin(7) deformed Donaldson-Thomas connections) on the cotangent bundle of $\mathbb{C}\mathbb{P}^2$ endowed with the Calabi…

For two nearby disjoint coassociative submanifolds C and C' in a G_2-manifold, we construct thin instantons with boundaries lying on C and C' from regular J-holomorphic curves in C. We explain their relationship with the Seiberg-Witten…

The geometrical structure and the quantum properties of the recently proposed harmonic space action describing self-dual Yang-Mills (SDYM) theory are analyzed. The geometrical structure that is revealed is closely related to the twistor…

During the last ten years, intriguing dualities between gauge and string theory have been found and explored. They provide a novel window on strongly coupled gauge physics, including QCD-like models. Based on a short historical review of…

Topological string theory with twistor space as the target makes visible some otherwise difficult to see properties of perturbative Yang-Mills theory. But left-right symmetry, which is obvious in the standard formalism, is highly unclear…

We calculate a sheaf line in CP^3 which is the real line supporting sheaf points on CP^3 of SL(2,C) Yang-Mills instanton (or SU(2) complex Yang-Mills instanton) sheaves for some given ADHM data we obtained previously. We found that this…

It is known that monopoles can be confined by vortex-strings in d=3+1 while vortices can be confined by domain-lines in d=2+1. Here, as a higher dimensional generalization of these, we show that Yang-Mills instantons can be confined by…

We discuss the soft behaviour of open string amplitudes with gluons and massive states in any dimension. Notwithstanding non-minimal couplings of massive higher spin states to gluons, relying on OPE and factorization, we argue that the…

We construct the half-supersymmetric instanton solutions that are electric-magnetically dual to the recently discussed half-supersymmetric Q7-branes. We call these instantons `Q-instantons'. Whereas the D-instanton is most conveniently…

We construct an obstruction for the existence of embeddings of homology $3$-sphere into homology $S^3\times S^1$ under some cohomological condition. The obstruction is defined as an element in the filtered version of the instanton Floer…

We consider cones over manifolds admitting real Killing spinors and instanton equations on connections on vector bundles over these manifolds. Such cones are manifolds with special (reduced) holonomy. We generalize the scalar ansatz for a…

We present a general procedure to construct 6-dimensional manifolds with SU(3)-structure from SU(2)-structure 5-manifolds. We thereby obtain half-flat cylinders and sine-cones over 5-manifolds with Sasaki-Einstein SU(2)-structure. They are…

We introduce a string diagram calculus for strict $4$-categories and use it to prove that given a cofinite inclusion of $4$-categorical presentations, the induced restriction functor on mapping spaces to a fixed target strict $4$-category…

We provide a systematic construction of string junctions in curved backgrounds which are relevant in computing, within the gauge/gravity correspondence, the interaction energy of heavy dyons, notably of quark-monopole pairs, in strongly…

Using an effective field theory approach and the language of SU(N)-structures, we study higher derivative corrections to the supersymmetry constraints for compactifications of string or M-theory to Minkowski space. Our analysis is done…

The worldsheet string theory dual to free 4d ${\cal N}=4$ super Yang-Mills theory was recently proposed in arXiv:2104.08263. It is described by a free field sigma model on the twistor space of ${\rm AdS}_5\times {\rm S}^5$, and is a direct…

Consequences of a strong version of the AdS/CFT correspondence for extremely stringy physics are examined. In particular, properties of N = 4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory are used to extract results about interacting tensionless strings…

The series of perturbative fluctuations around a multi-instanton contribution to a specific class of correlation functions of supercurrents in $\cal N=4$ supersymmetric SU(N) Yang-Mills theory is examined in the light of the AdS/CFT…