Dynamics of SU(N_c) Yang--Mills theories with N_f adjoint Weyl fermions is quite different from that of SU(N_c) gauge theories with fundamental quarks. The symmetry breaking pattern is SU(N_f) --> SO(N_f). The corresponding sigma model supports Skyrmions whose microscopic identification is not immediately clear. We address this issue as well as the issue of the Skyrmion stability. The case of N_f=2 had been considered previously. Here we discuss N_f >= 3. We discuss the coupling between the massless Goldstone bosons and massive composite fermions (with mass O(N_c^0)) from the standpoint of the low-energy chiral sigma model. We derive the Wess--Zumino--Novikov--Witten term and then determine Skyrmion statistics. We also determine their fermion number (mod 2) and observe an abnormal relation between the statistics and the fermion number. This explains the Skyrmion stability. In addition, we consider another microscopic theory -- SO(N_c) Yang--Mills with N_f Weyl fermions in the vectorial representation -- which has the same chiral symmetry breaking pattern and the same chiral Lagrangian. We discuss distinctive features of these two scenarios.
This is a review of recent developments regarding the Skyrmion sector of higher representation QCD. Ordinary QCD is a SU(n) gauge theory with n_f Dirac quarks in the fundamental representation. Changing the representation of quarks leads to different and interesting theories, which are not as well studied as ordinary QCD. In order to be able to have a consistent asymptotically free large n limit, we must limit ourselves to three cases: two-index representation (symmetric or anti-symmetric) and adjoint representation. Skyrmions of the low-energy effective Lagrangian shall be the main subject of…
We consider a modification of QCD in which conventional fundamental quarks are replaced by Weyl fermions in the adjoint representation of the color SU(N). In the case of two flavors the low-energy chiral Lagrangian is that of the Skyrme-Faddeev model. The latter supports topologically stable solitons with mass scaling as N^2. Topological stability is due to the existence of a nontrivial Hopf invariant in the Skyrme-Faddeev model. Our task is to identify, at the level of the fundamental theory, adjoint QCD, an underlying reason responsible for the stability of the corresponding hadrons. We argu…
If the fundamental quarks of QCD are replaced by massless adjoint quarks, the pattern of the chiral symmetry breaking drastically changes compared to the standard one. It becomes SU(N_f) -> SO(N_f). While for N_f=2 the chiral Lagrangian describing the 'pion" dynamics is well-known, this is not the case at N_f>2. We outline a general strategy for deriving chiral Lagrangians for the coset spaces M_k=SU(k)/SO(k), and study in detail the case of N_f=k=3. We obtain two- and four-derivatives terms in the chiral Lagrangian on the coset space M_3 = SU(3)/SO(3), as well as the Wess-Zumino-Novikov-Witte…
We show that Skyrmions with massless pions in hyperbolic space provide a good approximation to Skyrmions with massive pions in Euclidean space, for a particular relationship between the pion mass and the curvature of hyperbolic space. Using this result we describe how a Skyrmion with massive pions in Euclidean space can be approximated by the holonomy along circles of a Yang-Mills instanton. This is a generalization of the approximation of Skyrmions by the holonomy along lines of an instanton, which is only applicable to massless pions.
We formulate a theory for N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills multiplet in a non-adjoint representation R of SO(N) as an important application of our recently-proposed model for N=1 supersymmetry. This system is obtained by dimensional reduction from an N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills multiplet in non-adjoint representation in ten dimensions. The consistency with supersymmetry requires that the non-adjoint representation R with the indices i, j, ... satisfy the three conditions η^{i j} = δ^{i j}, (T^I)^{i j} = - (T^I)^{j i} and (T^I)^{[ i j |} (T^I)^{| k ] l} = 0 for the metric η^{i j} and the generat…
A scalar adjoint field is introduced as a spatial average over (anti)calorons in a thermalized SU(2) Yang-Mills theory. This field is associated with the thermal ground state in the deconfining phase and acts as a background for gauge fields of trivial topology. Without invoking detailed microscopic information we study the properties of the corresponding potential, and we discuss its thermodynamical implications. We also investigate the gluon condensate at finite temperature relating it to the adjoint scalar field.
Linear recursion relations for the instanton corrections to the effective prepotential are derived for N=2 supersymmetric gauge theories with one hypermultiplet in the adjoint representation of SU(N) using the Calogero-Moser parameterization of the Seiberg-Witten spectral curves. S-duality properties of the Calogero-Moser parameterization and conjectures on the Seiberg-Witten spectral curves generalized to arbitrary simply laced classical gauge groups are also discussed.
We consider a dimensional reduction of 3+1 dimensional SU(N) Yang-Mills theory coupled to adjoint fermions to obtain a class of 1+1 dimensional matrix field theories. We derive the quantized light-cone Hamiltonian in the light-cone gauge A_- = 0 and large-N limit, and then solve for the masses, wavefunctions and structure functions of the color singlet ``meson-like'' and ``baryon-like'' boundstates. Among the states we study are many massless string-like states that can be solved for exactly.
Some time ago, Atiyah and Manton observed that computing the holonomy of Yang-Mills instantons yields good approximations to static Skyrmion solutions of the Skyrme model. This paper provides an extension and explanation of this result, by proving that instanton holonomies produce exact solutions of a BPS Skyrme model, in which the Skyrme field is coupled to a tower of vector mesons. Neglecting any (or indeed all) of the vector mesons breaks the scale invariance and removes the BPS property of the Skyrmions. However, it is shown that a truncation of the BPS Skyrme theory, in which only the fir…
We consider SU(2) Yang-Mills theory in 1+1 dimensions coupled to massless adjoint fermions. With all fields in the adjoint representation the gauge group is actually SU(2)/Z_2, which possesses nontrivial topology. In particular, there are two distinct topological sectors and the physical vacuum state has a structure analogous to a θvacuum. We show how this feature is realized in light-front quantization, using discretization of x^- as an infrared regulator. We find exact expressions for the vacuum states and construct the analog of the θvacuum. We calculate the bilinear condensate of the model…
A problem with the standard Skyrme model is that Skyrmion binding energies are around $15\%$, being much larger than the order $1\%$ binding energies of the nuclei that they aim to describe. Here we consider theories that extend the standard Skyrme model of pions by including rho mesons, via dimensional deconstruction of Yang-Mills theory with an extra dimension. We report the first results of parallel numerical computations of multi-Skyrmions in theories of this type, including a model that reduces Skyrmion energies below those of the standard Skyrme model whilst retaining exactly the same Fa…
We discuss how an approximation to the axially symmetric sphalerons in the Skyrme model can be constructed from the holonomy of a non-BPS Yang-Mills calorons. These configurations, both in the Skyrme model and in the Euclidean Yang-Mills theory, are characterized by two integers n and m, where n are the winding numbers of the constituents and the second integer m defines type of the solution, it has zero topological charge for even m and for odd values of m the corresponding chain has total topological charge n. It is found numerically that the holonomy of the chains of interpolating calorons-…
$QCD_2$ with fermions in the adjoint representation is invariant under $SU(N)/Z_N$ and thereby is endowed with a non-trivial vacuum structure (k-sectors). The static potential between adjoint charges, in the limit of infinite mass, can be therefore obtained by computing Wilson loops in the pure Yang-Mills theory with the same non-trivial structure. When the (Euclidean) space-time is compactified on a sphere $S^2$, Wilson loops can be exactly expressed in terms of an infinite series of topological excitations (instantons). The presence of k-sectors modifies the energy spectrum of the theory and…
We consider SU(2) Yang-Mills theory in 1+1 dimensions coupled to massless adjoint fermions. With all fields in the adjoint representation the gauge group is actually SU(2)/Z_2, which possesses nontrivial topology. In particular, there are two distinct topological sectors and the physical vacuum state has a structure analogous to a θvacuum. We show how this feature is realized in light-front quantization, with periodicity conditions used to regulate the infrared and treating the gauge field zero mode as a dynamical quantity. We find expressions for the degenerate vacuum states and construct the…
We revisit the next-to-leading order~(NLO) correction to the eigenvalue of the BFKL equation in the adjoint representation and investigate its properties in analogy with the singlet BFKL in planar $\mathcal{N}=4$ super Yang-Mills Theory~(SYM). We show that the adjoint NLO BFKL eigenvalue is needed to be slightly modified in order to have a property of hermitian separability present for the singlet BFKL. After this modification the adjoint NLO BFKL eigenvalue is expressed through holomorphic and antiholomophic parts of the leading order eigenvalue and their derivatives. The proposed choice of t…
In Monte Carlo simulations of N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory the mass of the unphysical adjoint pion, which is easily obtained numerically, is being used for the tuning to the limit of vanishing gluino mass. In this article we show how to define the adjoint pion in the framework of partially quenched chiral perturbation theory and we derive a relation between its mass and the mass of the gluino analogous to the Gell-Mann-Oakes-Renner relation of QCD.
Skyrme theories on S^3 and S^2, are analyzed using the generalized zero curvature in any dimensions. In the first case, new symmetries and integrable sectors, including the B =1 skyrmions, are unraveled. In S^2 the relation to QCD suggested by Faddeev is discussed
We consider the large N limit of four dimensional SU(N) Yang-Mills field coupled to adjoint fermions on a single site lattice. We use perturbative techniques to show that the Z^4_N center-symmetries are broken with naive fermions but they are not broken with overlap fermions. We use numerical techniques to support this result. Furthermore, we present evidence for a non-zero chiral condensate for one and two Majorana flavors at one value of the lattice gauge coupling.
Starting from our proposed model of the Yang-Mills vacuum based on fractional instantons, we review the intellectual itinerary which has guided part of our scientific activity up to our recent work on adjoint zero-modes for calorons.
We study four dimensional large-N SU(N) Yang-Mills theory coupled to adjoint overlap fermions on a single site lattice. Lattice simulations along with perturbation theory show that the bare quark mass has to be taken to zero as one takes the continuum limit in order to be in the physically relevant center-symmetric phase. But, it seems that it is possible to take the continuum limit with any renormalized quark mass and still be in the center-symmetric physics. We have also conducted a study of the correlations between Polyakov loop operators in different directions and obtained the range for t…
We compute the static potential in three-dimensional SU(2) Yang Mills Theory with adjoint sources using numerical simulations. By employing a variational approach involving string and gluelump operators, we obtain clear evidence for string breaking in the adjoint potential. The breaking scale r_b is computed and extrapolated to the continuum limit. The result in units of the scalar glueball mass is r_b*m_G = 10.3 +/- 1.5. We also resolve the structure of higher excitations of the flux-tube and gluelumps. Furthermore we discuss the implications of our findings for the case of the four-dimension…
We explore further the Hamiltonian formulation of Yang-Mills theory in 2+1 dimensions in terms of gauge-invariant matrix variables. Coupling to scalar matter fields is discussed in terms of gauge-invariant fields. We analyze how the screening of adjoint (and other screenable) representations can arise in this formalism. A Schrodinger equation is then derived for the gluelump states which are the daughter states when an adjoint string breaks. A variational solution of this Schrodinger equation leads to an analytic estimate of the string-breaking energy which is within 8.8% of the latest lattice…
We reduce the problem of quantization of the Yang-Mills field Hamiltonian to a problem for defining a probability measure on an infinite-dimensional space of gauge equivalence classes of connections on $\mathbb{R}^3$. We suggest a formally self-adjoint expression for the quantized Yang-Mills Hamiltonian as an operator on the corresponding Lebesgue $L^2$-space. In the case when the Yang-Mills field is associated to the Abelian group $U(1)$ we define the probability measure which depends on two real parameters $m>0$ and $c\neq 0$. This yields a non-standard quantization of the Hamiltonian of the…
We consider a U(2) Yang-Mills theory on M x S_F^2 where M is an arbitrary noncommutative manifold and S_F^2 is a fuzzy sphere spontaneously generated from a noncommutative U(N) Yang-Mills theory on M, coupled to a triplet of scalars in the adjoint of U(N). Employing the SU(2)-equivariant gauge field constructed in arXiv:0905.2338, we perform the dimensional reduction of the theory over the fuzzy sphere. The emergent model is a noncommutative U(1) gauge theory coupled adjointly to a set of scalar fields. We study this model on the Groenewald-Moyal plane and find that, in certain limits, it admi…
We study strings between static quarks in QCD with $n_f$ adjoint fermions, including $N=1$ Super Yang-Mills (SYM), in the calculable regime on $\mathbb R^3\times \mathbb S^1$. We find that they have many qualitatively new features not previously known. The difference from other realizations of abelian confinement is due to the composite nature of magnetic bions, whose Dirac quantum with fundamental quarks is two, and to the unbroken part of the Weyl group. In particular we show that strings are composed of two domain walls, that quarks are not confined on domain walls, that strings can end on …
We consider a dimensional reduction of 3+1 dimensional SU(N) Yang-Mills theory coupled to adjoint fermions to obtain a class of 1+1 dimensional gauge theories. We derive the quantized light-cone Hamiltonian in the light-cone gauge A^+ = 0$ and large-N limit, then solve for the masses, wavefunctions and of the color singlet boson and fermion boundstates. We find that the theory has many exact massless state that are similar to the t'Hooft pion.
The Seiberg-Witten curves and differentials for $\N=2$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories with one hypermultiplet of mass $m$ in the adjoint representation of the gauge algebra $\G$, are constructed for arbitrary classical or exceptional $\G$ (except $G_2$). The curves are obtained from the recently established Lax pairs with spectral parameter for the (twisted) elliptic Calogero-Moser integrable systems associated with the algebra $\G$. Curves and differentials are shown to have the proper group theoretic and complex analytic structure, and to behave as expected when $m$ tends either to 0 or …
In this paper we study a phase structure of $5D$ ${\cal N}=1$ super Yang-Mills theory with massive matter multiplets and $SU(N)$ gauge group. In particular, we are interested in two cases: theory with $N_f$ massive hypermultiplets in the fundamental representation and theory with one adjoint massive hypermultiplet. If these theories are considered on $S^5$ their partition functions can be localized to matrix integrals, which can be approximated by their values at saddle points in the large-$N$ limit. We solve saddle point equations corresponding to the decompactification limit of both theories…
We compute the static potential of adjoint sources in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory in four dimensions by numerical Monte Carlo simulations. Following a recent calculation in 2+1 dimensions, we employ a variational approach involving string and gluelump operators and obtain clear evidence for string breaking and the saturation of the potential at large distances. For the string breaking scale we find $r_b \approx 1.25{\rm fm}, 2.3 r_0$, or in units of the lightest glueball, $r_b m_{0++} \approx 9.7$. We furthermore resolve the first excitation of the flux-tube and observe its breaking as well. The r…
In this paper we discuss a class of 1+1 dimensional matrix field theories in the light-cone Hamiltonian approach that are obtained from a dimensional reduction of 3+1 dimensional Yang-Mills theory. We present exact massless solutions of the boundstate integral equations in the large N limit. These massless states have constant wavefunctions in momentum space and are therefore fundamental excitations of the theory.
Using superspace techniques, the complete and most general action of D=10 super-Yang--Mills theory is constructed at the alpha'^2 level. No other approximations, e.g., keeping only a subset of the allowed derivative terms, are used. The Lorentz structure of the alpha'^2 corrections is completely determined, while (depending on the gauge group) there is some freedom in the adjoint structure, which is given by a totally symmetric four-index tensor. We examine the second, non-linearly realised supersymmetry that may be present when the gauge group has a U(1) factor, and find that the constraints …
We study SU(N) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with massless adjoint matter defined on $M^3\otimes S^1$. The SU(N) gauge symmetry is broken maximally to $U(1)^{N-1}$, independent of the number of flavor and the boundary conditions of the fields associated with the Scherk-Schwarz mechanism of supersymmetry breaking. The mass of the Higgs scalar is generated through quantum corrections in the extra dimensions. The quantum correction can become manifest by a finite Higgs boson mass at low energies even in the limit of small extra dimensions thanks to the supersymmetry breaking parameter of the S…
We compute the 2-loop thermal partition function of Yang-Mills theory on a small 3-sphere, in the large N limit with weak 't Hooft coupling. We include N_s scalars and N_f chiral fermions in the adjoint representation of the gauge group (S)U(N), with arbitrary Yukawa and quartic scalar couplings, assuming only commutator interactions. From this computation one can extract information on the perturbative corrections to the spectrum of the theory, and the correction to its Hagedorn temperature. Furthermore, the computation of the 2-loop partition function is a necessary step towards determining …
Explicit computations of the partition function and correlation functions of Wilson and Polyakov loop operators in theta-sectors of two dimensional Yang-Mills theory on the line cylinder and torus are presented. Several observations about the correspondence of two dimensional Yang-Mills theory with unitary matrix quantum mechanics are presented. The incorporation of the theta-angle which characterizes the states of two dimensional adjoint QCD is discussed.
The possible condensation of the time-component of Yang-Mills field at finite temperature is discussed in the presence of Dirac fermions. We show that the condensation forms regardless of the number of fundamental and adjoint fermion species coupled to the Yang-Mills field. The effect of finite density of fermions is also investigated and it is shown that the magnitude of the condensation is also independent of the densities.
In recent work, we demonstrated that the confined-phase spectrum of non-supersymmetric pure Yang-Mills theory coincides with the spectrum of the chiral sector of a two-dimensional conformal field theory in the large-$N$ limit. This was done within the tractable setting in which the gauge theory is compactified on a three-sphere whose radius is small compared to the strong length scale. In this paper, we generalize these observations by demonstrating that similar results continue to hold even when massless adjoint matter fields are introduced. These results hold for both thermal and $(-1)^F$-tw…
We investigate the spectral flows of the hermitian Wilson-Dirac operator in the fundamental and adjoint representations on two ensembles of pure SU(2) gauge field configurations at the same physical volume. We find several background gauge field configurations where the index of the hermitian Wilson-Dirac operator in the adjoint representation is not four times the index in the fundamental representation. This could imply a topological basis for the gluino condensate in supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories.
Phase and modulus of an energy- and pressure-free, composite and adjoint field in an SU(2) Yang-Mills theory are computed. This field is generated by trivial holonomy calorons of topological charge one. It possesses nontrivial $S_1$-winding on the group manifold. The two-loop contribution to the thermodynamical pressure of an SU(2) Yang-Mills theory in the electric (deconfining) phase is computed in the real time formalism of finite temperature field theory. The result supports the picture of only very weakly interacting quasiparticles.
In this paper, we demonstrate that using differential operators one can construct the complete unified web for expansions of amplitudes for a wide range of theories. We first re-derive the expansion of multi-trace Einstein-Yang-Mills amplitudes to Kleiss-Kuijf basis of color-ordered Yang-Mills amplitudes, by applying proper differential operators which modify the coefficients in the recursive expansion of single-trace Einstein-Yang-Mills amplitudes. Next, through differential operators which act on amplitudes only, we obtain expansions of amplitudes of Yang-Mills theory, Yang-Mills-scalar theo…
We consider minimally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with a Chern-Simons term on a flat spatial two-torus in the limit when the torus becomes small. The zero-modes of the fields then decouple from the non-zero modes and give rise to a spectrum of states with energies that are given by multiples of the square of the coupling constant. We discuss the determination of this low-energy spectrum, both for simply connected gauge groups and for gauge groups of adjoint type, with a few examples worked out in detail.
We show that dyon and magnetic monopole can be constructed in the gauge-independent way for the $SU(2)$ Yang--Mills theory even in the absence of the scalar field. This result is derived from the recent proposal for obtaining non-trivial topological configurations responsible for quark confinement in the Yang-Mills theory based on the Confinement-Higgs complementary relationship between the pure Yang-Mills theory and the gauge-scalar model with an adjoint scalar field of the fixed length. We discuss how such configurations have the implications for quark confinement.
After a brief review of matrix theory compactification leading to noncommutative supersymmetric Yang-Mills gauge theory, we present solutions for the fundamental and adjoint sections on a two-dimensional twisted quantum torus in two different gauges. We also give explicit transformations connecting different representations which have appeared in the literature. Finally we discuss the more mathematical concept of Morita equivalence of C*-algebras as it applies to our specific case.
We use recent results of Intriligator and Wecht [hep-th/0304128] to study the phase structure of $\NN=1$ super Yang-Mills theory with gauge group $SU(N_c)$, a chiral superfield in the adjoint, and $N_f$ chiral superfields in the fundamental representation of the gauge group. Our discussion sheds new light on [hep-th/0304128] and supports the conjecture that the central charge $a$ decreases under RG flows and is non-negative in unitary four dimensional conformal field theories.
We demonstrate that the tree level amplitudes and the explicit formulas of soft factors can be uniquely determined by soft theorems and the universality of soft factors. By imposing the soft theorems and the universality, as well as the assumption of double copy, we reconstruct single trace Yang-Millsscalar amplitudes and pure Yang-Mills amplitudes, in the expanded formulas. The explicit formulas of soft factors for the bi-adjoint scalar and gluon are also determined. The expansions of Yang-Mills-scalar and Yang-Mills amplitudes can be extended to Einstein-Yang-Mills and gravitational amplitud…
Large-N QCD with heavy adjoint fermions emulates pure Yang-Mills theory at long distances. We study this theory on a four- and three-torus, and analytically argue the existence of a large-small volume equivalence. For any finite mass, center symmetry unbroken phase exists at sufficiently small volume and this phase can be used to study the large-volume limit through the Eguchi-Kawai equivalence. A finite temperature version of volume independence implies that thermodynamics on R^3 x S^1 can be studied via a unitary matrix quantum mechanics on S^1, by varying the temperature. To confirm this no…
We show that ${\cal N} = 4$ supersymmetric-Yang-Mills (SYM) theory on $\mathbb{R} \times S^3$ with gauge group $\text{SU}(N)$ is described in a near-BPS limit by a simple lower-dimensional nonrelativistic field theory with $\text{SU}(1,1) \times \text{U}(1)$ invariant interactions. In this limit, a single complex adjoint scalar field survives, and part of its interaction is obtained by exactly integrating out the gauge boson of the SYM theory. Taking into account normal ordering, the interactions match the one-loop dilatation operator of the $\text{SU}(1,1)$ sector, establishing the consistenc…
To formulate two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory with adjoint matter fields in the large-N limit as classical mechanics, we derive a Poisson algebra for the color-invariant observables involving adjoint matter fields. We showed rigorously in J. Math. Phys. 40, 1870 (1999) that different quantum orderings of the observables produce essentially the same Poisson algebra. Here we explain, in a less precise but more pedagogical manner, the crucial topological graphical observations underlying the formal proof.
I consider N=1 U(N) gauge theory with matter in the adjoint, fundamental and anti-fundamental representations. Focusing on the equations defining the Riemann surface that describes the quantum theory, the gaugino condensates (and related superpotentials) are calculated in the limit of SU(N) gauge group, both in the pure theory and in the presence of matter. In the case without fundamental matter it is investigated the structure of the space of vacua. In particular it is discussed how different vacua can be related, in a way which finally helps to count them.
Lattice simulations of Yang-Mills theories coupled with $N_f$ flavours of fermions in the adjoint representation provide a way to probe the non-perturbative regime of a plethora of different physical scenarios, such as Supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory to BSM models. We are interested in the large-$N_c$ limit of these theories, for which standard lattice techniques are limited by high-computational costs. Our approach makes use of the well-established twisted volume reduction, which allows one to simulate these theories on a $1^4$ lattice. In this talk, we are going to present a detailed study …
Adding a gluino mass term to N=1 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory breaks supersymmetry softly. In order to approach the supersymmetric continuum limit in numerical simulations with the Wilson action, the bare gluino mass has to be tuned to the limit of vanishing renormalised gluino mass. This can be done efficiently by means of the mass of the adjoint pion, which is, however, an unphysical particle. We discuss how the adjoint pion can be defined in the framework of partially quenched chiral perturbation theory. A relation between its mass and the mass of the gluino, analogous to the Gell-Mann-…
We introduce some techniques for making a more global analysis of the existence of geodesics on a Seiberg-Witten Riemann surface with metric $ds^2 = |λ_{SW}|^2$. Because the existence of such geodesics implies the existence of BPS states in N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory, one can use these methods to study the BPS spectrum in various phases of the Yang-Mills theory. By way of illustration, we show how, using our new methods, one can easily recover the known results for the N=2 supersymmetric SU(2) pure gauge theory, and we show in detail how it also works for the N=2, SU(2) theory couple…
We consider Euclidean SU(N) Yang-Mills theory on the space GxR, where G is a compact semisimple Lie group, and introduce first-order BPS-type equations which imply the full Yang-Mills equations. For gauge fields invariant under the adjoint G-action these BPS equations reduce to first-order matrix equations, to which we give instanton solutions. In the case of G=SU(2)=S^3, our matrix equations are recast as Nahm equations, and a further algebraic reduction to the Toda chain equations is presented and solved for the SU(3) example. Finally, we change the metric on GxR to Minkowski and construct f…