Instantons, Hypermultiplets and the Heterotic String

Abstract

Hypermultiplet couplings in type IIA string theory on a Calabi-Yau space can be quantum corrected by D2-brane instantons wrapping special Lagrangian cycles. On the other hand, hypermultiplet couplings in the heterotic string on a K3 surface are corrected by world-sheet instantons wrapping curves. In a class of examples, we relate these two sets of instanton corrections. We first present an analogue of the c-map for the heterotic string via a dual flux compactification of M-theory. Using this duality, we propose two ways of capturing quantum corrections to hypermultiplets. We then use the orientifold limit of certain F-theory compactifications to relate curves in K3 to special Lagrangians in dual type IIA compactifications. We conclude with some results from perturbative string theory for hypermultiplet F-terms and a conjecture about the topology of brane instantons.

52 pages, LaTeX; references, some corrections and clarifications added to the published version