Instantons at Angles

TL;DR

This paper interprets certain 4k-dimensional instanton solutions as four-dimensional instantons at angles, revealing their supersymmetry properties and their correspondence to intersecting branes in M-theory.

Contribution

It provides a new interpretation of instanton solutions as instantons at angles and explores their supersymmetry and M-theory brane configurations.

Findings

Solutions preserve 3/16 of 10D supersymmetry

Solutions correspond to Hermitian-Einstein connections

Connection to intersecting 5-branes in M-theory

Abstract

We interpret a class of 4k-dimensional instanton solutions found by Ward, Corrigan, Goddard and Kent as four-dimensional instantons at angles. The superposition of each pair of four-dimensional instantons is associated with four angles which depend on some of the ADHM parameters. All these solutions are associated with the group $Sp(k)$ and are examples of Hermitian-Einstein connections on $\bE^{4k}$. We show that the eight-dimensional solutions preserve 3/16 of the ten-dimensional N=1 supersymmetry. We argue that under the correspondence between the BPS states of Yang-Mills theory and those of M-theory that arises in the context of Matrix models, the instantons at angles configuration corresponds to the longitudinal intersecting 5-branes on a string at angles configuration of M-theory.