Moduli spaces of SO(8) instantons on smooth ALE spaces as Higgs branches of 4d N=2 supersymmetric theories

Abstract

The worldvolume theory of D3-branes probing four D7-branes and an O7-plane on ${\mathbb{C}}^2/{\mathbb{Z}}_2$ is given by a supersymmetric USp x USp gauge theory. We demonstrate that, at least for a particular choice of the holonomy at infinity, we can go to a dual description of the gauge theory, where we can add a Fayet-Iliopoulos term describing the blowing-up of the orbifold to the smooth ALE space. This allows us to express the moduli space of SO(8) instantons on the smooth ALE space as a hyperkähler quotient of a flat space times the Higgs branch of a class S theory. We also discuss a generalization to ${\mathbb{C}}^2/{\mathbb{Z}}_{2n}$, and speculate how to extend the analysis to bigger SO groups and to ALE spaces of other types.

18 pages, 10 figures; v2: additional references and minor changes; published version