We show how to construct the general action coupling (multi)instantons to gauge theories arising from branes probing arbitrary toric singularities. We give a general set of rules for how to construct such an action given the knowledge of the superpotential for the gauge theory. The main idea is to obtain the action by higgsing a theory whose instanton dynamics is known, namely an orbifold of N=4 super Yang-Mills. We find that the couplings of the fermionic zero-modes with the holomorphic fields are dictated by the structure of the superpotential describing the toric singularity. We present explicit examples such as the Suspended Pinch Point, the Conifold and the first three del Pezzo's. We perform various checks on these results by further higgsing to smaller orbifolds and present some applications, including both gauge theory and stringy instantons.
We construct all connected toric phases of the recently discovered $Y^{p,q}$ quivers and show their IR equivalence using Seiberg duality. We also compute the R and global U(1) charges for a generic toric phase of $Y^{p,q}$.
We discuss a class of 3-dimensional N=4 Chern-Simons (CS) quiver gauge models obtained from M-theory compactifications on singular complex 4-dimensional hyper-Kahler (HK) manifolds, which are realized explicitly as a cotangent bundle over two-Fano toric varieties V^2. The corresponding CS gauge models are encoded in quivers similar to toric diagrams of V^2. Using toric geometry, it is shown that the constraints on CS levels can be related to toric equations determining V^2.
We demonstrate a practical and efficient method for generating toric Calabi-Yau quiver theories, applicable to both D3 and M2 brane world-volume physics. A new analytic method is presented at low order parametres and an algorithm for the general case is developed which has polynomial complexity in the number of edges in the quiver. Using this algorithm, carefully implemented, we classify the quiver diagram and assign possible superpotentials for various small values of the number of edges and nodes. We examine some preliminary statistics on this space of toric quiver theories.
We discuss several examples of non-toric quiver gauge theories dual to Sasaki-Einstein manifolds with U(1)^2 or U(1) isometry. We give a general method for constructing non-toric examples by adding relevant deformations to the toric case. For all examples, we are able to make a complete comparison between the prediction for R-charges based on geometry and on quantum field theory. We also give a general discussion of the spectrum of conformal dimensions for mesonic and baryonic operators for a generic quiver theory; in the toric case we make an explicit comparison between R-charges of mesons an…
We obtain a simple expression for the triangle `t Hooft anomalies in quiver gauge theories that are dual to toric Sasaki-Einstein manifolds. We utilize the result and simplify considerably the proof concerning the equivalence of a-maximization and Z-minimization. We also resolve the ambiguity in defining the flavor charges in quiver gauge theories. We then compare coefficients of the triangle anomalies with coefficients of the current-current correlators and find perfect agreement.
D-brane instantons can perturb the quantum field theories on space-time filling D-branes by interesting operators. In some cases, these D-brane instantons are novel "stringy" effects (not interpretable directly as instanton effects in the low-energy quantum field theory), while in others the D-brane instantons can be directly interpreted as field theory effects. In this note, we describe a situation where both perspectives are available, by studying stringy instantons in quivers which arise at simple Calabi-Yau singularities. We show that a stringy instanton which wraps an unoccupied node of t…
In favourable cases the low energy dynamics of a stack of M2-branes at a toric Calabi-Yau fourfold singularity can be described by an N=2 supersymmetric Chern-Simons quiver theory, but there still does not exists an "inverse algorithm" going from the toric data of the CY_4 to the CS quiver. We make progress in that direction by deriving CS quiver theories for M2-branes probing cones over a large class of geometries Ypq(B_4), which are S^3/Z_p bundles over toric Fano varieties B_4. We rely on the type IIA understanding of CS quivers, giving a firm string theory footing to our CS theories. In pa…
We show that not all $(2+1)$ dimensional toric phases are Seiberg-like duals. Particularly, we work out superconformal indices for the toric phases of Fanos ${\cal{C}}_3$, ${\cal{C}}_5$ and ${\cal{B}}_2$. We find that the indices for the two toric phases of Fano ${\cal{B}}_2$ do not match, which implies that they are not Seiberg-like duals. We also take the route of acting Seiberg-like duality transformation on toric quiver Chern-Simons theories to obtain dual quivers. We study two examples and show that Seiberg-like dual quivers are not always toric quivers.
We obtain an integral formula for the volume of non-toric tri-Sasaki Einstein manifolds arising from nonabelian hyperkahler quotients. The derivation is based on equivariant localization and generalizes existing formulas for Abelian quotients, which lead to toric manifolds. The formula is particularly valuable in the context of AdS$_{4}\times Y_{7}$ vacua of M-theory and their field theory duals. As an application, we consider 3d $\mathcal N=3$ Chern-Simons theories with affine ADE quivers. While the $\widehat A$ series corresponds to toric $Y_{7}$, the $\widehat D$ and $\widehat E$ series are…
We compute the prepotential for gauge theories descending from ${\cal N}=4$ SYM via quiver projections and mass deformations. This accounts for gauge theories with product gauge groups and bifundamental matter. The case of massive orientifold gauge theories with gauge group SO/Sp is also described. In the case with no gravitational corrections the results are shown to be in agreement with Seiberg-Witten analysis and previous results in the literature.
Systems of D3-branes at orientifold singularities can receive non-perturbative D-brane instanton corrections, inducing field theory operators in the 4d effective theory. In certain non-chiral examples, these systems have been realized as the infrared endpoint of a Seiberg duality cascade, in which the D-brane instanton effects arise from strong gauge theory dynamics. We present the first UV duality cascade completion of chiral D3-brane theories, in which the D-brane instantons arise from gauge theory dynamics. Chiral examples are interesting because the instanton fermion zero mode sector is to…
We describe the moduli space of SU(N) instantons in the presence of a general surface operator of type N=n_1+ ... +n_M in terms of the representations of the so-called chain-saw quiver, which allows us to write down the instanton partition function as a summation over the fixed point contributions labeled by Young diagrams. We find that the instanton partition function depends on the ordering of n_I which fixes a choice of the parabolic structure. This is in accord with the fact that the Verma module of the W-algebra also depends on the ordering of n_I. By explicit calculations, we check that …
AdS/CFT predicts a precise relation between the central charge a, the scaling dimensions of some operators in the CFT on D3-branes at conical singularities and the volumes of the horizon and of certain cycles in the supergravity dual. We review how a quantitative check of this relation can be performed for all toric singularities. In addition to the results presented in hep-th/0506232, we also discuss the relation with the recently discovered map between toric singularities and tilings; in particular, we discuss how to find the precise distribution of R-charges in the quiver gauge theory using…
In this note we explore the stringy interpretation of non-perturbative effects in N=1^* deformations of the A_{k-1} quiver models. For certain types of deformations we argue that the massive vacua are described by Nk fractional D3-branes at the orbifold polarizing into k concentric 5-brane spheres each carrying fractional brane charge. The polarization of the D3-branes induces a polarization of D-instantons into string world-sheets wrapped on the Myers spheres. We show that the superpotentials in these models are indeed generated by these world-sheet instantons. We point out that for certain p…
Recent paper arXiv:1103.0553 studied the quiver gauge theories on coincident $M2$ branes on a singular toric Calabi-Yau 4-folds which are complex cone over toric Fano 3-folds. There are 18 toric Fano manifolds but only 14 toric Fano were obtained from the forward algorithm. We attempt to systematize the inverse algorithm which helps in obtaining quiver gauge theories on $M2$-branes from the toric data of the Calabi-Yau 4-folds. In particular, we obtain quiver gauge theories on coincident $M2$-branes corresponding to the remaining 4 toric Fano 3-folds. We observe that these quiver gauge theorie…
We explore contributions to the 4D effective superpotential which arise from Euclidean D3 branes (``instantons'') that intersect space-filling D-branes. These effects can perturb the effective field theory on the space-filling branes by nontrivial operators composed of charged matter fields, changing the vacuum structure in a qualitative way in some examples. Our considerations are exemplified throughout by a careful study of a fractional brane configuration on a del Pezzo surface.
We consider N=2 quiver Chern-Simons theories described by brane tilings, whose moduli spaces are toric Calabi-Yau 4-folds. Simple prescriptions to obtain toric data of the moduli space and a corresponding brane crystal from a brane tiling are proposed.
We construct explicit BPS and non-BPS solutions of the Yang-Mills equations on the noncommutative space R^{2n}_θx S^2 which have manifest spherical symmetry. Using SU(2)-equivariant dimensional reduction techniques, we show that the solutions imply an equivalence between instantons on R^{2n}_θx S^2 and nonabelian vortices on R^{2n}_θ, which can be interpreted as a blowing-up of a chain of D0-branes on R^{2n}_θinto a chain of spherical D2-branes on R^{2n} x S^2. The low-energy dynamics of these configurations is described by a quiver gauge theory which can be formulated in terms of new geometri…
The gravitational dual of $c$-extremization for a class of $(0,2)$ two-dimensional theories obtained by twisted compactifications of D3-brane gauge theories living at a toric Calabi-Yau three-fold has been recently proposed. The equivalence of this construction with $c$-extremization has been checked in various examples and holds also off-shell. In this note we prove that such equivalence holds for an arbitrary toric Calabi-Yau. We do it by generalizing the proof of the equivalence between $a$-maximization and volume minimization for four-dimensional toric quivers. By an explicit parameterizat…
The superconformal index of quiver gauge theories realized on D3-branes in toric Calabi-Yau cones is investigated. We use the AdS/CFT correspondence and study D3-branes wrapped on supersymmetric cycles. We focus on brane configurations in which a single D3-brane is wrapped on a cycle, and we do not take account of branes with multiple wrapping. We propose a formula that gives finite $N$ corrections to the index caused by such brane configurations. We compare the predictions of the formula for several examples with the results on the gauge theory side obtained by using localization for small si…
We compute the instanton partition function for ${\cal N}=4$ U(N) gauge theories living on toric varieties, mainly of type $\R^4/Γ_{p,q}$ including $A_{p-1}$ or $O_{\PP_1}(-p)$ surfaces. The results provide microscopic formulas for the partition functions of black holes made out of D4-D2-D0 bound states wrapping four-dimensional toric varieties inside a Calabi-Yau. The partition function gets contributions from regular and fractional instantons. Regular instantons are described in terms of symmetric products of the four-dimensional variety. Fractional instantons are built out of elementary sel…
We construct a new infinite family of N=1 quiver gauge theories which can be Higgsed to the Y^{p,q} quiver gauge theories. The dual geometries are toric Calabi-Yau cones for which we give the toric data. We also discuss the action of Seiberg duality on these quivers, and explore the different Seiberg dual theories. We describe the relationship of these theories to five dimensional gauge theories on (p,q) 5-branes. Using the toric data, we specify some of the properties of the corresponding dual Sasaki-Einstein manifolds. These theories generically have algebraic R-charges which are not quadrat…
We consider general 5d $SU(N)$ quiver gauge theories whose nodes form an ADE Dynkin diagram of type $G$. Each node has $SU(N_i)$ gauge group of general rank, Chern-Simons level $κ_i$ and additional $w_i$ fundamentals. When the total flavor number at each node is less than or equal to $2N_i-2|κ_i|$, we give general rules under which the symmetries associated to instanton currents are enhanced to $G \times G$ or a subgroup of it in the UV 5d superconformal theory. When the total flavor number violates that condition at some of the nodes, further enhancement of flavor symmetries occurs. In partic…
We propose a duality between quiver gauge theories and the combinatorics of dimer models. The connection is via toric diagrams together with multiplicities associated to points in the diagram (which count multiplicities of fields in the linear sigma model construction of the toric space). These multiplicities may be computed from both sides and are found to agree in all known examples. The dimer models provide new insights into the quiver gauge theories: for example they provide a closed formula for the multiplicities of arbitrary orbifolds of a toric space, and allow a new algorithmic method …
We study the $\mathcal N=2$ field theory realized by D3-branes on the ${\mathbb C}^2/{\mathbb Z}_2$ orbifold. The dual supergravity solution exhibits a repulson singularity cured by the enhancon mechanism. By comparing the open and closed string descriptions of a probe D-instanton, we can compute the exact non-perturbative profile of the supergravity twisted field, which determines the supergravity background. We then show how the non-trivial IR physics of the field theory translates into the stringy effects that give rise to the enhancon mechanism and the associated excision procedure.
We consider the couplings induced on the world-volume field theory of D3-branes at local toric Calabi-Yau singularities by euclidean D3-brane (E3-brane) instantons wrapped on (non-compact) holomorphic 4-cycles. These instantons produce insertions of BPS baryonic or mesonic operators of the four-dimensional ${\cal{N}}=1$ quiver gauge theory. We argue that these systems underlie, via the near-horizon limit, the familiar AdS/CFT map between BPS operators and D3-branes wrapped on supersymmetric 3-cycles on the 5d horizon. The relation implies that there must exist E3-brane instantons with appropri…
We study the 4d/2d AGT correspondence between four-dimensional instanton counting and two-dimensional conformal blocks for generalized SU(2) quiver gauge theories coming from punctured Gaiotto curves of arbitrary genus. We propose a conformal block description that corresponds to the elementary SU(2) trifundamental half-hypermultiplet, and check it against Sp(1)-SO(4) instanton counting.
We study the relationship between instanton counting in N=4 Yang-Mills theory on a generic four-dimensional toric orbifold and the semi-classical expansion of q-deformed Yang-Mills theory on the blowups of the minimal resolution of the orbifold singularity, with an eye to clarifying the recent proposal of using two-dimensional gauge theories to count microstates of black holes in four dimensions. We describe explicitly the instanton contributions to the counting of D-brane bound states which are captured by the two-dimensional gauge theory. We derive an intimate relationship between the two-di…
Hasse diagrams (or phase diagrams) for moduli spaces of supersymmetric field theories have been intensively studied in recent years, and many tools to compute them have been developed. The moduli space of instantons, despite being well studied, has proven difficult to deal with. In this note we explore the Hasse diagram of this moduli space from several perspectives -- using the partial Higgs mechanism, using brane systems and using quiver subtraction -- having to refine previously developed techniques. In particular we introduce the new concept of decorated quiver, which allows to deal with a…
We study phase structure of the moduli space of a D0-brane on the orbifold C^3/Z_2 \times Z_2 based on stability of quiver representations. It is known from an analysis using toric geometry that this model has multiple phases connected by flop transitions. By comparing the results of the two methods, we obtain a correspondence between quiver representations and geometry of toric resolutions of the orbifold. It is shown that a redundancy of coordinates arising in the toric description of the D-brane moduli space, which is a key ingredient of disappearance of non-geometric phases, is understood …
We study the super instanton solution in the gauge theory with U$(n_{+}| n_{-})$ gauge group. Based on the ADHM construction generalized to the supergroup theory, we derive the instanton partition function from the super instanton moduli space through the equivariant localization. We derive the Seiberg-Witten geometry and its quantization for the supergroup gauge theory from the instanton partition function, and study the connection with classical and quantum integrable systems. We also argue the brane realization of the supergroup quiver gauge theory, and possible connection to the non-superg…
In this paper, the metric on the moduli space of the k=1 SU(n) periodic instanton -or caloron- with arbitrary gauge holonomy at spatial infinity is explicitly constructed. The metric is toric hyperKaehler and of the form conjectured by Lee and Yi. The torus coordinates describe the residual U(1)^{n-1} gauge invariance and the temporal position of the caloron and can also be viewed as the phases of n monopoles that constitute the caloron. The (1,1,..,1) monopole is obtained as a limit of the caloron. The calculation is performed on the space of Nahm data, which is justified by proving the isome…
We study four dimensional quiver gauge models from F-theory compactified on fourfolds with hyper-Kähler structure. Using intersecting complex toric surfaces, we derive a class of N=1 quivers with charged fundamental matter placed on external nodes. The emphasis is on how local Calabi-Yau equations solve the corresponding physical constraints including the anomaly cancelation condition. Concretely, a linear chain of SU(N) groups with flavor symmetries has been constructed using polyvalent toric geometry.
BPS sector in $\mathcal{N}=2$, four-dimensional toric quiver gauge theories has previously been studied using crystal melting model and dimer model. We introduce the Mahler measure associated to statistical dimer model to study large $N$ limit of these quiver gauge theories. In this limit, generating function of BPS states in a general toric quiver theory is studied and entropy, growth rate of BPS states and free energy of the quiver are obtained in terms of the Mahler measure. Moreover, a possible third-order phase transition in toric quivers is discussed. Explicit computations of profile fun…
We study the interplay between mass deformations and unoriented projections of super-conformal quiver gauge theories resulting from D3-branes at (toric) Calabi-Yau singularities. We focus on simple orbifold cases ($\mathbb{C}^3/\mathbb{Z}_3$ and $\mathbb{C}^3/\mathbb{Z}_4$) and their non-orbifold descendants. This allows us to generalize the construction rules and clarify points that have been previously overlooked. In particular we spell out the conditions of anomaly cancellations as well as super-conformal invariance that typically require the introduction of flavour branes, which in turn ma…
We study Pfaffians that appear in non-perturbative superpotential terms arising from worldsheet instantons in heterotic theories. A result by Beasley and Witten shows that these instanton contributions cancel among curves within a given homology class for Calabi-Yau manifolds that can be described as hypersurfaces or complete intersections in projective or toric ambient spaces. We provide a prescription that identifies all $\mathbb{P}^1$ curves in certain homology classes of complete intersection Calabi-Yau manifolds in products of projective spaces (CICYs) and cross-check our results by a com…
We describe a simple algorithm that computes the recently discovered brane tilings for a given generic toric singular Calabi-Yau threefold. This therefore gives AdS/CFT dual quiver gauge theories for D3-branes probing the given non-compact manifold. The algorithm solves a longstanding problem by computing superpotentials for these theories directly from the toric diagram of the singularity. We study the parameter space of a-maximization; this study is made possible by identifying the R-charges of bifundamental fields as angles in the brane tiling. We also study Seiberg duality from a new persp…
The open string sector of the topological B-model on CY $(m+2)$-folds is described by $m$-graded quivers with superpotentials. This correspondence generalizes the connection between CY $(m+2)$-folds and gauge theories on the worldvolume of D$(5-2m)$-branes for $m=0,\ldots,3$ to arbitrary $m$. In this paper we introduce the Calabi-Yau product, a new algorithm that starting from the known quiver theories for a pair of toric CY$_{m+2}$ and CY$_{n+2}$ produces the quiver theory for a related CY$_{m+n+3}$. This method significantly supersedes existing ones, enabling the simple determination of quiv…
We study chiral gauge-invariant operators on moduli spaces of G instantons for any classical group G on A-type ALE spaces using Hilbert Series (HS). Moduli spaces of instantons on an ALE space can be realized as Higgs branches of certain quiver gauge theories which appear as world-volume theories on Dp branes in a Dp-D(p+4) system with the D(p+4) branes (with or without O(p+4) planes) wrapping the ALE space. We study in detail a list of quiver gauge theories which are related to G-instantons of arbitrary ranks and instanton numbers on a generic A_{n-1} ALE space and discuss the corresponding b…
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 theory localizes on noncommutative instantons which can be classified in terms of three-dimensional Young diagrams with a colouring of boxes according to the orbifold group. We construct a moduli space for these gauge field configurations which allows us to compute its virtual numbers via the counting of representations of a quiver with relations. The quiver enc…
We consider the SU(3)-equivariant dimensional reduction of gauge theories on spaces of the form $M^d \times X_{1,1}$ with d-dimensional Riemannian manifold $M^d$ and the Aloff-Wallach space $X_{1,1}$= SU(3)/U(1) endowed with its Sasaki-Einstein structure. The condition of SU(3)-equivariance of vector bundles, which has already occurred in the studies of Spin(7)-instantons on cones over Aloff-Wallach spaces, is interpreted in terms of quiver diagrams, and we construct the corresponding quiver bundles, using (parts of) the weight diagram of SU(3). We consider three examples thereof explicitly an…
We provide a general set of rules for extracting the data defining a quiver gauge theory from a given toric Calabi-Yau singularity. Our method combines information from the geometry and topology of Sasaki-Einstein manifolds, AdS/CFT, dimers, and brane tilings. We explain how the field content, quantum numbers, and superpotential of a superconformal gauge theory on D3-branes probing a toric Calabi-Yau singularity can be deduced. The infinite family of toric singularities with known horizon Sasaki-Einstein manifolds L^{a,b,c} is used to illustrate these ideas. We construct the corresponding quiv…
We consider the 6d superconformal field theory realized on M5-branes probing the $E_8$ end-of-the-world brane on the deformed and resolved $\mathbb{C}^2/\mathbb{Z}_k$ singularity. We give an explicit algorithm which determines, for arbitrary holonomy at infinity, the 6d quiver gauge theory on the tensor branch, the type-A class S description of the $T^2$ compactification, and the star-shaped quiver obtained as the mirror of the $T^3$ compactification.
We extend the stringy derivation of N=2 AdS4/CFT3 dualities to cases where the M-theory circle degenerates at complex codimension-two submanifolds of a toric conical CY4. The type IIA backgrounds include D6-branes, and the dual N=2 quiver gauge theories contain chiral flavors. We provide a general recipe to derive the geometric moduli space of flavored versions of Abelian toric quiver gauge theories. The CY4 cone is reproduced thanks to a non-trivial quantum F-term relation between diagonal monopole operators and bifundamental fields. We find new field theory duals to many geometries, includin…
The conjecture about the correspondence between instanton partition functions in the N=2 SUSY Yang-Mills theory and conformal blocks of two-dimensional conformal field theories is extended to the case of the N=1 supersymmetric conformal blocks. We find that the necessary modification of the moduli space of instantons requires additional restriction of Z(2)-symmetry. This leads to an explicit form of the N=1 superconformal blocks in terms of Young diagrams with two sorts of cells.
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 Lagrangian includes non-metric couplings to the orbifold moduli: in particular, twisted sector moduli couple as Fayet-Iliopoulos terms in the gauge theory. These theories describe D-branes on resolved ALE spaces. Their spaces of vacua are moduli spaces of smooth ALE metrics and Yang-Mills instantons, whose metrics are explicitly computable. For U(N) instantons, the …
Toric Duality arises as an ambiguity in computing the quiver gauge theory living on a D3-brane which probes a toric singularity. It is reviewed how, in simple cases Toric Duality is Seiberg Duality. The set of all Seiberg Dualities on a single node in the quiver forms a group which is contained in a larger group given by a set of Picard-Lefschetz transformations. This leads to elements in the group (sometimes called fractional Seiberg Duals) which are not Seiberg Duality on a single node, thus providing a new set of gauge theories which flow to the same universality class in the Infra Red.
We describe a technique which enables one to quickly compute an infinite number of toric geometries and their dual quiver gauge theories. The central object in this construction is a ``brane tiling,'' which is a collection of D5-branes ending on an NS5-brane wrapping a holomorphic curve that can be represented as a periodic tiling of the plane. This construction solves the longstanding problem of computing superpotentials for D-branes probing a singular non-compact toric Calabi-Yau manifold, and overcomes many difficulties which were encountered in previous work. The brane tilings give the lar…
The BPS bound states of D4-D2-D0 branes on the non-compact divisors of Calabi-Yau threefolds and the instantons in the dual quiver gauge theories are previously studied using two-dimensional crystal melting model and dimer model. Using the tropical geometry associated with the toric quiver, we study the asymptotic of the quiver gauge theory to compute some of their thermodynamic observables and extract the phase structure. We obtain that the thermodynamic observables such as free energy, entropy and growth rate are explicitly obtained from the limit shape of the crystal model, the boundary of …
We consider D4-branes on toric Calabi-Yau spaces. The quiver gauge theory that describes several D4-branes on the Calabi-Yau has a Higgs branch, that describes configurations of a single large D4-brane with the same charges. We propose that the world volume of such a D4-brane is described by a determinantal variety. We discuss a description of the Higgs branch of the moduli space in terms of a quiver with twice as many nodes and only bifundamental fields, arising from a $D6-\bar{D}6$ system. We recast the tachyon condensation of the $D6-\bar{D}6$ system in the language of open string gauge lin…
Noncommutative Donaldson-Thomas invariants for abelian orbifold singularities can be studied via the enumeration of instanton solutions in a six-dimensional noncommutative N=2 gauge theory; this construction is based on the generalized McKay correspondence and identifies the instanton counting with the counting of framed representations of a quiver which is naturally associated to the geometry of the singularity. We extend these constructions to compute BPS partition functions for higher-rank refined and motivic noncommutative Donaldson-Thomas invariants in the Coulomb branch in terms of gauge…
We apply the instanton counting method to study a class of four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=2$ supersymmetric quiver gauge theories with alternating $\mathrm{SO}$ and $\mathrm{USp}$ gauge groups. We compute the partition function in the $Ω$-background and express it as functional integrals over density functions. Applying the saddle point method, we derive the limit shape equations which determine the dominant instanton configurations in the flat space limit. The solution to the limit shape equations gives the Seiberg-Witten geometry of the low energy effective theory. As an illustrating example,…
