Transmutation of N=2 fractional D3 branes into twisted sector fluxes

Abstract

We study the prototype of fractional D3 branes at non-isolated singularities in gauge/gravity duality at the nonperturbative level. We embed the quantum moduli space of N=2 SU(M) pure SYM, the gauge theory on fractional D3 branes at the A_1 singularity, into that of the cascading quiver gauge theory on regular and fractional D3 branes at the same singularity, for which a gravity dual description exists. We deduce a simple analytic expression for the exact twisted sector fields in the type IIB string dual, which encodes the full quantum dynamics of the gauge theory. Nonperturbative effects in the gauge theory translate into the transmutation of fractional D3 branes into twisted sector fluxes.