D-brane Instantons as Gauge Instantons in Orientifolds of Chiral Quiver Theories

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how D-brane instanton effects in chiral quiver gauge theories can be understood as gauge instantons through a UV duality cascade, providing a robust framework for non-perturbative effects in string theory models.

Contribution

It presents the first UV duality cascade completion for chiral D3-brane theories, linking D-brane instantons to gauge theory dynamics in a topologically protected manner.

Findings

Established a UV duality cascade for chiral theories

Connected D-brane instantons to gauge instantons in chiral setups

Provided a UV completion for certain conformal field theories

Abstract

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 topologically protected, and therefore lead to more robust setups. As an application of our results, we provide a UV completion of certain D-brane orientifold systems recently claimed to produce conformal field theories with conformal invariance broken only by D-brane instantons.