Instanton strings and hyper-Kähler geometry

We discuss two-dimensional sigma models on moduli spaces of instantons on K3 surfaces. These N = (4, 4) superconformal field theories describe the near-horizon dynamics of the D1-D5-brane system and are dual to string theory on AdS 3. We derive a precise map relating the moduli of the K3 type 1113 s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nuclear physics. B 1999-03, Vol.543 (3), p.545-571
Main Author: Dijkgraaf, Robbert
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:We discuss two-dimensional sigma models on moduli spaces of instantons on K3 surfaces. These N = (4, 4) superconformal field theories describe the near-horizon dynamics of the D1-D5-brane system and are dual to string theory on AdS 3. We derive a precise map relating the moduli of the K3 type 1113 string compactification to the moduli of these conformal field theories and the corresponding classical hyper-Kahler geometry. We conclude that in the absence of background gauge fields, the metric on the instanton moduli spaces degenerates exactly to the orbifold symmetric product of K3. Turning on a self-dual NS B-field deforms this symmetric product to a manifold that is diffeomorphic to the Hilbert scheme. We also comment on the mathematical applications of string duality to the global issues of deformations of hyper-Kähler manifolds.
ISSN:0550-3213
1873-1562
DOI:10.1016/S0550-3213(98)00869-4