Topological duality twist and brane instantons in F-theory

Abstract

A variant of the topological twist, involving SL(2,Z) dualities and hence named topological duality twist, is introduced and explicitly applied to describe a U(1) N=4 super Yang-Mills theory on a Kaehler space with holomorphically space-dependent coupling. Three-dimensional duality walls and two-dimensional chiral theories naturally enter the formulation of the duality twisted theory. Appropriately generalized, this theory is relevant for the study of Euclidean D3-brane instantons in F-theory compactifications. Some of its properties and implications are discussed.