Probing F-theory With Branes

TL;DR

This paper explores the relationship between F-theory compactifications and brane configurations, revealing how world-volume theories of 3-branes probe the structure of quantum F-theory solutions and relate to instantons.

Contribution

It demonstrates that N=2, d=4 gauge theories on 3-branes provide a physical interpretation of F-theory structures and their symmetry enhancements.

Findings

3-brane world-volume theories correspond to F-theory gauge symmetries

Higgs branch relates to finite size instantons in 7-brane gauge theory

Probes reveal the structure of quantum F-theory solutions

Abstract

Last week, A. Sen found an explicit type I string compactification dual to the eight-dimensional F-theory construction with SO(8)^4 nonabelian gauge symmetry. He found that the perturbations around the enhanced symmetry point were described by the mathematics of the solution of N=2, d=4 SU(2) gauge theory with four flavors, and argued more generally that global symmetry enhancement in CN=2, d=4 gauge theories corresponded to gauge symmetry enhancement in F-theory. We show that these N=2, d=4 gauge theories have a physical interpretation in the theory. They are the world-volume theories of 3-branes parallel to the 7-branes. They can be used to probe the structure of the exact quantum F-theory solutions. On the Higgs branch of the moduli space, the objects are equivalent to finite size instantons in the 7-brane gauge theory.