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Stringy instanton effects in \( \mathcal{N} = 2 \) gauge theories

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Abstract

We study the non-perturbative effects induced by stringy instantons on \( \mathcal{N} = 2 \) SU(N) gauge theories in four dimensions, realized on fractional D3 branes in a \( {{{{\mathbb{C}^3}}} \left/ {{{\mathbb{Z}_3}}} \right.} \) orientifold. The stringy instantons, corresponding to D(–1) branes that occupy a node of the orientifold quiver diagram where no D3 brane is present, have the right content of zero-modes to produce non-perturbative terms in the four-dimensional effective action. In the SU(2) theory these terms have the same structure for all instanton numbers and yield a series of non-perturbative corrections to the prepotential. We explicitly compute these corrections up to instanton number k = 5 using localization methods.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Fisica Teorica, Università di Torino and I.N.F.N., sezione di Torino, Via P. Giuria 1, I-10125, Torino, Italy

    Hossein Ghorbani & Daniele Musso

  2. Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Avanzate, Università del Piemonte Orientale and I.N.F.N., Gruppo Collegato di Alessandria, sezione di Torino, Viale T. Michel 11, I-15121, Alessandria, Italy

    Alberto Lerda

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  1. Hossein Ghorbani
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Ghorbani, H., Musso, D. & Lerda, A. Stringy instanton effects in \( \mathcal{N} = 2 \) gauge theories. J. High Energ. Phys. 2011, 52 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP03(2011)052

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