D-brane instantons as gauge instantons in orientifolds of chiral quiver theories

Abstract

Journal of High Energy Physics 2015.11 (2015): 165 reproduced by permission of Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati (SISSA)

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

We would like to thank D. Galloni and A. Mariotti for collaboration at early stages of this project. We are also indebted to M. Bianchi, M. Montero, J. F. Morales and G. Zoccarato for useful discussions. S. F. would like to thank the Aspen Center for Physics (NSF grant 1066293) for hospitality during the final stages of this project. A. R. and A. U. are partially supported by the grants FPA2012-32828 from the MINECO, the ERC Advanced Grant SPLE under contract ERC-2012-ADG-20120216-320421 and the grant SEV-2012-0249 of the “Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa” Programme