Low string scale models might be tested at the LHC directly by their Regge resonances. For such models it is important to investigate the constraints of Standard Model precision measurements on the string scale. It is shown that highly suppressed FCNC processes like K0- bar K^0 oscillations or leptonic decays of the D0-meson provide non-negligible lower bounds on both the perturbatively and surprisingly also non-perturbatively induced string theory couplings. We present both the D-brane instanton formalism to compute such amplitudes and discuss various possible scenarios and their constraints on the string scale for (softly broken) supersymmetric intersecting D-brane models.
We discuss implications of Weak gravity conjecture (WGC) for exotic D-brane instantons. In particular, WGC leads to indirect stringent bounds on non-perturbative superpotentials generated by exotic instantons, with many implications for phenomenology: R-parity violating processes, neutrino mass, $μ$-problem, Neutron-Antineutron transitions and collider physics.
We review recent progress in determining the effects of D-brane instantons in N=1 supersymmetric compactifications of Type II string theory to four dimensions. We describe the abstract D-brane instanton calculus for holomorphic couplings such as the superpotential, the gauge kinetic function and higher fermionic F-terms. This includes a discussion of multi-instanton effects and the implications of background fluxes for the instanton sector. Our presentation also highlights, but is not restricted to the computation of D-brane instanton effects in quiver gauge theories on D-branes at singulariti…
We study the mu-term matrix of Higgs pairs induced by the D-brane instanton effects in intersecting D6-brane models compactified on T6. It is found that the mu-term matrix has a certain permutation symmetry and its eigenvalues have large hierarchical structure without fine tuning.
We construct the first globally consistent semi-realistic Type I string vacua on an elliptically fibered manifold where the zero modes of the Euclidean D1-instanton sector allow for the generation of non-perturbative Majorana masses of an intermediate scale. In another class of global models, a D1-brane instanton can generate a Polonyi-type superpotential breaking supersymmetry at an exponentially suppressed scale.
We systematically investigate instanton corrections from wrapped Euclidean D-branes to the matter field superpotential of various classes of N=1 supersymmetric D-brane models in four dimensions. Both gauge invariance and the counting of fermionic zero modes provide strong constraints on the allowed non-perturbative superpotential couplings. We outline how the complete instanton computation boils down to the computation of open string disc diagrams for boundary changing operators multiplied by a one-loop vacuum diagram. For concreteness we focus on E2-instanton effects in Type IIA vacua with in…
String instanton Yukawa corrections from Euclidean D-branes are investigated in an effective Standard Model theory obtained from the minimal U(3)xU(2)xU(1) D-brane configuration. In the case of the minimal chiral and Higgs spectrum, it is found that superpotential contributions are induced by string instantons for the perturbatively forbidden entries of the up and down quark mass matrices. Analogous non-perturbative effects generate heavy Majorana neutrino masses and a Dirac neutrino texture with factorizable Yukawa couplings. For this latter case, a specific example is worked out where it is …
We show that when sterile Majorana neutrino masses are generated non-perturbatively through instantonic interactions in certain classes of string compactifications (e.g. Type IIA orientifold models with intersecting D-branes), then the eigenvalue spectrum for the tree-level mass term $M_p$ can be within the preferred range of the Neutrino Option resolution to the electroweak (EW) hierarchy and neutrino mass problems of the Standard Model, i.e. $M_p \sim$ PeV. This mechanism holds without tuning for a broad range of string scales, thereby motivating a novel class of string-completed Neutrino Op…
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 study Majorana neutrino masses induced by D-brane instanton effects in magnetized orbifold models. We classify possible cases, where neutrino masses can be induced. Three and four generations are favored in order to generate neutrino masses by D-brane instantons. Explicit mass matrices have specific features. Their diagonalizing matrices correspond to the bimaximal mixing matrix in the case with even magnetic fluxes, independently of the modulus value $τ$. On the other hand, for odd magnetic fluxes, diagonalizing matrices correspond nearly to the tri-bimaximal mixing matrix near $τ=i$, whil…
We perform a detailed conformal field theory analysis of D2-brane instanton effects in four-dimensional type IIA string vacua with intersecting D6-branes. In particular, we explicitly compute instanton induced fermion two-point couplings which play the role of perturbatively forbidden Majorana mass terms for right-handed neutrinos or MSSM mu-terms. These results can readily be extended to higher-dimensional operators. In concrete realizations of such non-perturbative effects, the Euclidean D2-brane has to wrap a rigid, supersymmetric cycle with strong constraints on the zero mode structure. Th…
We discuss the physics of D-branes and D-brane instantons intersecting at angles, focusing on the (non)generation of a superpotential in the worldvolume theory of the branes. This is a short review of the results in arXiv:0905.1694, where we further emphasize both the macroscopic and microscopic structure of the manifestly supersymmetric instanton action. We also comment on the lift of O(1) instantons to F-theory.
Non-perturbative D-brane instanton effects in 4d N = 1 string compactifications can be geometrized in terms of a backreacted generalized geometry. We extend earlier results to setups in which the D-brane instanton is charged under the 4d gauge symmetries, and show that the backreacted topology yields the correct charged field theory operators in the 4d effective action. In type IIA models with D6-branes, the backreaction of D2-brane instantons forces the recombination of D6-branes, such that the 4d charged field theory operators arise from basic worldsheet instantons in the backreacted geometr…
We use the approach used by Eguchi-Hanson in constructing four-dimensional instanton metrics and construct a class of regular six-dimensional instantons which are nothing but $S^2\times S^2$ resolved conifolds. We then also obtain D3-brane solutions on these EH-resolved conifolds.
According to the covariant open superstring description of 1/2-BPS D-branes in the AdS$_5\times$S$^5$ background, there are two kinds of purely instantonic D-branes. One is the well known D(-1)-brane or D-instanton, and another is the D1-brane spanning a two dimensional subspace inside S$^5$. We identify the actual 1/2-BPS instantonic D1-brane configurations and their supersymmetry structures. From the results, it is concluded that any spherical D1-instanton with the radius equal to that of S$^5$ is 1/2-BPS. After evaluating the 1/2-BPS D1-instanton action, we discuss the relation of D1-instan…
Non-perturbative D-brane instantons can generate perturbatively absent though phenomenologically relevant couplings for Type II orientifold compactifications with D-branes. We discuss the generation of the perturbatively vanishing SU(5) GUT Yukawa coupling of type 10 10 5_H. Moreover, for a simple globally consistent intersecting D6-brane model, we discuss the generation of mass terms for matter fields. This can serve as a mechanism for decoupling exotic matter.
We point out that in some situations it is possible to use matrix model techniques a la Dijkgraaf-Vafa to perturbatively compute D-brane instanton effects. This provides an explanation in terms of stringy instantons of the results in hep-th/0311181. We check this proposal in some simple scenarios. We point out some interesting consequences of this observation, such as the fact that it gives a perturbative way of computing stringy multi-instanton effects. It also provides a further interpretation of D-brane instantons as residual instantons of higgsed supergroups.
We study monopole-instantons in M2-brane theories, focussing on the ABJM class of Chern-Simons gauge theories coupled to matter. We calculate calculate explicitly the 8-fermion term in the effective action induced by these monopole-instantons, and discuss their role in resolving a classical singularity in the moduli space. The results are compared with monopole-instantons in N=8 3d SYM and D-brane theories, as well the dual supergravity description as a membrane scattering process.
We show that non-Spin cycles in type IIB Calabi-Yau orientifold compactifications with vanishing B field naturally support orientifold-invariant D-brane instantons. These instantons, associated to the holomorphic cotangent bundle of the non-Spin cycle, can lead to non-perturbative corrections to the superpotential.
In this note, we study D-brane instantons which intersect N=1 supersymmetric configurations of space-filling D-branes in general Calabi-Yau compactifications of type IIB string theory. Our focus is on rigid ``stringy instantons'' -- those which cannot be interpreted as Yang-Mills instantons in a non-Abelian gauge group on any stack of space-filling D-branes. We show that their contributions to the space-time superpotential can be determined by a topological B-model computation of the tree-level superpotential for a related auxiliary brane system. This computation is very tractable, as it is go…
We investigate all the brane instanton solutions--an Einstein brane inhabiting at different positions in 5-dimensional negative curvature Einstein bulk. We construct a brane instanton model consisting of a brane with asymmetric bulk along two sides of the brane. And the junction condition of the resulting space-time is analyzed in the frame of induced gravity. In spirits of quantum gravity of path integral formulism we calculate the Euclidean actions on three canonical paths and then compare the Euclidean actions of different instantons per unit 4-volume. We also compare the Euclidean actions …
We investigate the instanton effects of non-BPS D0-brane in type I string theory. We argue the general properties of these instanton effects and consider these on $R^9\times S^1$ as a simple example using the effective action of D0-brane.
We compute instantonic effects in globally consistent T^6/Z2xZ2 orientifold models with discrete torsion and magnetised D-branes. We consider fractional branes and instantons wrapping the same rigid cycles. We clarify and analyse in detail the low-energy effective action on D-branes in these models. We provide explicit examples where instantons induce linear terms in the charged fields, or non-perturbative mass terms are generated. We also find examples where the gauge theory on fractional branes has conformal symmetry at one-loop, broken by instantonic mass terms at a hierarchically small ene…
We study worldsheet instanton corrections to the exotic 522-brane geometry in type II string theory. The BPS vortices in the N=(4,4) gauged linear sigma model modify the geometry of the 522-brane. We find that the modification of the geometry is understood by the localization in the T-dualized winding direction.
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 give a pedagogical introduction to D-brane instanton effects in vacuum configurations with open and unoriented strings. We focus on quiver gauge theories for unoriented D-branes at orbifold singularities and describe in some detail the Z_3 case, where both `gauge' and `exotic' instantons can generate non-perturbative super potentials, and the Z_5 case, where supersymmetry breaking may arise from the combined effect of `gauge' instantons and a FI D-term.
We refine a previous proposal for obtaining the multi-instanton partition function from the supersymmetric index of the 1d supersymmetric gauge theory on the worldline of D0-branes. We provide examples where the refinements are crucial for obtaining the correct result.
We study non-perturbative effects due to a heterotic M-theory five-brane wrapped on Calabi-Yau threefold. We show that such instantons contribute to derivative F-terms described recently by Beasley and Witten rather than to the superpotential.
We consider in more detail the role of D0-branes as instantons in the construction of SU(N) Super Yang-Mills and Super QCD theories in four space-time dimensions with D4, D6 and NS-branes. In particular, we show how the D0-branes describe both the exact and constrained instantons and reproduce the correct pattern of lifting of zero modes on the various branches of these models.
The moduli space of spiked instantons that arises in the context of the BPS/CFT correspondence is realised as the moduli space of classical vacua, i.e. low-energy open string field configurations, of a certain stack of intersecting D1-branes and D5-branes in Type IIB string theory. The presence of a constant B-field induces an interesting dynamics involving the tachyon condensation.
We discuss some physical issues related to the K-theoretic classification of D-brane charges, putting an emphasis on the role of D-brane instantons. The relation to D-instantons provides a physical interpretation to the mathematical algorithm for computing K-theory known as the ``Atiyah-Hirzebruch spectral sequence.'' Conjecturally, a formulation in terms of D-instantons leads to a computationally useful formulation of K-homology in general. As an application and illustration of this viewpoint we discuss some issues connected with D-brane charges associated with branes in WZW models. We discus…
We present a simple mechanism by which supersymmetry can be dynamically broken in intersecting brane models, naturally generating an exponentially small scale. Rather than utilize either non-Abelian gauge dynamics or D-instantons, our mechanism uses worldsheet instantons to generate the small scale in a hidden sector.
In the first lecture, we discuss basic aspects of worldsheet and penta-brane instantons as well as (unoriented) D-brane instantons, which is our main focus here, and threshold corrections to BPS-saturated couplings. The second lecture is devoted to non-perturbative superpotentials generated by `gauge' and `exotic' instantons living on D3-branes at orientifold singularities. In the third lecture we discuss the interplay between worldsheet and D-string instantons on $T^4/Z_2$. We focus on a 4-fermi amplitude, give Heterotic and perturbative Type I descriptions, and offer a multi D-string instant…
D-instantons are considered as a probe of coinciding $N$ D3-branes. They can feel an external metric via the commutator terms in their effective action. We show that when the D-instantons are separated from the D3-branes, the metric which is probed at the one loop level, {\it exactly} coincides with that of the BPS R-R 3-brane. Interesting connection of this result to the possible explanation of the AdS/CFT correspondence within IKKT M-atrix theory is discussed.
We study dyonic instantons in (4+1) dimensional Yang-Mills theory. Especially we consider the most general two instanton solution given by the Jackiw-Nohl-Rebbi ansatz and find its dyonic version. By exploring the zeros of the Higgs field, we rederive the porism structure of triangles in this solution and also find the magnetic monopole string loop. This leads to the identification of dyonic instanton with the supertube inserted between D4 branes.
It is shown that magnetic seven-branes previously considered as different objects are members of a one-parametric family of supersymmetric seven branes. We enlarge the class of seven-branes by constructing new magnetically and also electrically charged seven branes. The solutions display a kink-like behavior. We also construct a solution that naturally generalizes the D-instanton.
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 string are supported by the instantons. The instanton moduli are parameterised by the sizes and locations of the instantons. We exhibit two kinds of phase transition in which, for suitable choices of the instanton moduli, a 5-brane and/or a string can be created. One kind of phase transition occurs when the size of an instanton vanishes, while the other occu…
We apply a U-duality based solution-generating technique to construct supergravity solutions which describe nonextremal D5-branes and fluxbranes on various gravitational instantons. This includes an F7-brane wrapped on a sphere, which remains weakly-coupled in the asymptotic region. We construct various superpositions of nonextremal D5-branes and fluxbranes that have angular momentum fixed by the parameters associated with their mass and two magnetic charges.
We study the superpotential induced by Euclidean D3-brane instantons carrying instanton flux, with special emphasis on its significance for the stabilisation of Kahler moduli and Neveu-Schwarz axions in Type IIB orientifolds. Quite generally, once a chiral observable sector is included in the compactification, arising on intersecting D7-branes with world-volume flux, resulting charged instanton zero modes prevent a class of instantons from participating in moduli stabilisation. We show that instanton flux on Euclidean D3-branes can remove these extra zero modes and helps in reinstating full mo…
We present analytic solutions for membrane metric function based on transverse $k$-center instanton geometries. The membrane metric functions depend on more than two transverse coordinates and the solutions provide realizations of fully localized type IIA D2/D6 and NS5/D6 brane intersections. All solutions have partial preserved supersymmetries.
We study different aspects of the non-perturbative superpotentials induced by Euclidean E3-branes on systems of D3/D7-branes located at Abelian orbifold singularities. We discuss in detail how the induced couplings are consistent with the U(1) symmetries carried by the D3/D7-branes. We construct different compact and non-compact examples, and show phenomenologically relevant couplings like $μ$-terms or certain Yukawa couplings generated by these E3 instantons. Some other novel effects are described. We show an example where E3-instantons combine with standard gauge instantons to yield new mult…
A Dp-brane can be regarded as a configuration of infinitely many D(p-2k)-branes in bosonic string. We will show this property of D-branes in the superstring case using the hybrid formalism. It is convenient to study the boundary state for such D-branes to study such property between D-branes. We show that the boundary state for a D3-brane in a constant self-dual gauge field background can be expressed in terms of the boundary state for D-instantons in the hybrid formalism.
We consider systems of magnetized D9 branes on orbifolds supporting N=1 gauge theories. In such realizations, the matter multiplets arise from "twisted" strings connecting different stacks of branes. The introduction of Euclidean 5-branes wrapped on the six-dimensional compact space leads to instanton effects. We examine the interplay between the annuli diagrams with an E5 boundary and the holomorphicity properties of the effective low-energy supergravity action which describes the system, including its instanton corrections. Mostly based on arXiv:0709.0245.
In five-dimensional heterotic M-theory there is necessarily nonzero background flux, which leads to gauging of an isometry of the universal hypermultiplet moduli space. This isometry, however, is poised to be broken by M5-brane instanton effects. We show that, similarly to string theory, the background flux allows only brane instantons that preserve the above isometry. The zero-mode counting for the M5 instantons is related to the number of solutions of the Dirac equation on their worldvolume. We investigate that equation in the presence of generic background flux and also, in a particular cas…
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 between the instanton solutions and the non-linearly realized supersymmetries of the field theory. We demonstrate that field theories with non-linearly realized supersymmetries are coupled to supergravity backgrounds in a similar fashion as those with linearly realized supersymmetries, and provide details on how to derive such couplings from a type II perspective…
It is well known that D-brane instantons can generate contributions to the effective superpotential of gauge theories living on D-branes which are perturbatively forbidden by global U(1) symmetries. We extend this idea to theories with supersymmetry breaking, studying the effect of D-brane instantons stretched between the SUSY-breaking and visible sectors. Analogously to what happens in the SUSY case, this mechanism can give rise to perturbatively forbidden soft terms (among other effects). We introduce and discuss general properties of instanton mediation. We illustrate our ideas in simple Ty…
We study the relation between the ADHM construction of instantons in the Omega-background and the fractional D3/D(-1)-branes at the orbifold singularity of C \times C^2/Z_2 in Ramond-Ramond (R-R) 3-form field strength background. We calculate disk amplitudes of open strings connecting the D3/D(-1)-branes in certain R-R background to obtain the D(-1)-brane effective action deformed by the R-R background. We show that the deformed D(-1)-brane effective action agrees with the instanton effective action in the Omega-background.
We discuss the role of D0-branes as instantons in the construction of SU(N) Super Yang-Mills and Super QCD theories in four space-time dimensions with D4-, D6- and NS-branes. [To appear in the proceedings of the conference "Quantum Aspects of Gauge Theories, Supersymmetry and Unification", held at Neuchatel University, Neuchatel, Switzerland, 18--23 September 1997.]
We study non-perturbative effects in four-dimensional N=1 supersymmetric orientifold compactifications due to D-brane instantons which are generically not invariant under the orientifold projection. We show that they can yield superpotential contributions via a multi-instanton process at threshold. Some constituents of this configuration form bound states away from the wall of marginal stability which can decay in other regions of moduli space. A microscopic analysis reveals how contributions to the superpotential are possible when new BPS states compensate for their decay. We study this concr…
ALE and Taub-NUT (or ALF) hyper-Kahler four-manifolds can be naturally constructed as hyper-Kahler quotients. In the ALE case, this construction has long been understood in terms of D-branes; here we give a D-brane derivation in the Taub-NUT case. Likewise, instantons on ALE spaces and on Taub-NUT spaces have ADHM-like constructions related to hyper-Kahler quotients. Here we refine the analysis in the Taub-NUT case by making use of a D-brane probe, and give an application to M-theory.
A large class of equivalence relations between the moduli spaces of instantons on ALE spaces and the Higgs branches of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories, are found by means of a certain kind of duality transformation between brane configurations in superstring theories. 4d, N=2 and 5d, N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories with product gauge groups turn out to correspond to the ALE-instanton moduli of type II B and type II A superstring theories, respectively.
We give a detailed microscopic derivation of gauge and stringy instanton generated superpotentials for gauge theories living on D3-branes at Z_3-orientifold singularities. Gauge instantons are generated by D(-1)-branes and lead to Affleck, Dine and Seiberg (ADS) like superpotentials in the effective N=1 gauge theories with three generations of bifundamental and anti/symmetric matter. Stringy instanton effects are generated by Euclidean ED3-branes wrapping four-cycles on T^6/\Z_3. They give rise to Majorana masses in one case and non-renormalizable superpotentials for the other cases. Finally w…
We study in detail the system of D6 branes and euclidean D2-brane instantons intersecting at angles in type IIA string theory. We find that in the absence of orientifolds the system does not contribute to the low energy superpotential, in agreement with expectations based on effective field theory arguments. We also comment on the implications of our results for dual string theory pictures.
We consider type IIA compactification on $K3$. We show that the instanton subsectors of the worldvolume of $N$ 4-branes wrapped around $K3$ lead to a Hagedorn density of BPS states in accord with heterotic-type IIA duality in 6 dimensions. We also find evidence that the correct framework to understand the results of Nakajima on the appearance of affine Kac-Moody algebras on the cohomology of moduli space of instantons on ALE spaces is in the context of heterotic-type IIA string duality.
We consider the Hanany-Witten type brane configuration in a background of RR 4-form field strength and examine the behavior of Euclidean D0-branes propagating between two NS5-branes. We evaluate the partition function of the D0-branes and show that it coincides with the Nekrasov partition function of instantons for four-dimensional N=2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. In this analysis, the Myers effect plays a crucial role. We apply the same method to the brane configuration realizing four-dimensional N=2 theory with hypermultiplets in the fundamental representation and reproduce the correspo…
We compute long-distance interaction potentials between certain 1/2 and 1/4 supersymmetric D-brane configurations of type IIB theory, demonstrating detailed agreement between classical supergravity and one-loop instanton matrix model results. This confirms the interpretation of D-branes as described by classical matrix model backgrounds as being `populated' by large number of D-instantons, i.e. as corresponding to non-marginal bound states of branes of lower dimensions. In the process, we establish precise relation between matrix model expressions and non-abelian F^4 terms in the super Yang-Mi…
Instanton and seven-brane solutions of type IIB supergravity carrying charges in the Ramond-Ramond sector are constructed. The singular seven-brane has a quantized \RR \ \lq magnetic' charge whereas its dual is the instanton, which is non-singular in the string frame and has an associated {\it global} \lq electric' charge. The product of these charges is constrained by a Dirac quantization condition. The instanton has the form of a space-time wormhole in the string frame, and is responsible for the non-conservation of the Noether current.
String instanton effects in Higgs physics are discussed through a type IIA model based on T^{6}/(Z^{2}\times Z^{'2}) orentifold compactifaction. By inclusion of rigid E2-branes, the model exhibits a MSSM-like spectrum, as well as extra mu and quartic Higgs couplings. These extra couplings are induced via E2 instantons non-perturbatively. Setting the string scale at 10^{18} GeV, one gets interesting TeV Higgs physics. In particlular, the tree-level Higgs mass can be uplifted substantially.
In a toroidal orbifold of type IIB string theory we study instanton effects in N=2 super Yang-Mills theories engineered with systems of wrapped magnetized D9 branes and Euclidean D5 branes. We analyze the various open string sectors in this brane system and study the 1-loop amplitudes described by annulus diagrams with mixed boundary conditions, explaining their role in the stringy instanton calculus. We show in particular that the non-holomorphic terms in these annulus amplitudes precisely reconstruct the appropriate Kahler metric factors that are needed to write the instanton correlators in …
