Flux interactions on D-branes and instantons

TL;DR

This paper derives how background fluxes interact with various D-branes, including instantons, using a world-sheet approach, and explores implications for supersymmetry breaking and non-perturbative effects in string theory models.

Contribution

It provides a direct world-sheet derivation of flux-brane couplings applicable to general configurations, confirming supergravity results and revealing new relations between fluxes, supersymmetry breaking, and instanton zero-modes.

Findings

Fluxes induce fermionic mass terms on D-branes and instantons.

A relation between supersymmetry breaking and lifting of instanton zero-modes is established.

Potential for new non-perturbative couplings in brane-world models.

Abstract

We provide a direct world-sheet derivation of the couplings of NS-NS and R-R fluxes to various types of D-branes (including instantonic ones) by evaluating disk amplitudes among two open string vertex operators at a generic brane intersection and one closed string vertex representing the background fluxes. This world-sheet approach is in full agreement with the derivation of the flux couplings in the brane effective actions based on supergravity methods, but it is applicable also to more general brane configurations involving fields with twisted boundary conditions. As an application, we consider an orbifold compactification of Type IIB string theory with fractional D-branes preserving N=1 supersymmetry and study the flux-induced fermionic mass terms both on space-filling branes and on instantonic ones. Our results show the existence of a relation between the soft supersymmetry breaking and the lifting of some instanton fermionic zero-modes, which may lead to new types of non-perturbative couplings in brane-world models.