Closed Strings from SO(8) Yang-Mills Instantons

TL;DR

This paper explores how shrinking eight-dimensional Yang-Mills instantons lead to string-like objects in ten dimensions, revealing connections to D-strings and fundamental strings with specific supersymmetry properties.

Contribution

It demonstrates that zero-size instantons in 8D Yang-Mills produce string objects in 10D, linking instanton configurations to D-strings and fundamental strings with distinct worldsheet supersymmetry.

Findings

D-string arises from the single-trace F^4 term

Fundamental string emerges from the double-trace F^4 term

Conjecture of a correlation between instanton conformal factor and tachyon field

Abstract

When eight-dimensional instantons, satisfying F \wedge F = \pm \star_8 (F\wedge F), shrink to zero size, we find stringy objects in higher order ten-dimensional Yang-Mills (viewed as a low-energy limit of open string theory). The associated F^4 action is a combination of two independent parts having a single-trace and a double-trace structure. As a result we get a D-string from the single-trace term and a fundamental string from the double-trace. The latter has (8,0) supersymmetry on the worldsheet and couplings to the background gauge fields of a heterotic string. A correlation between the conformal factor of the instanton and the tachyon field is conjectured.