Supersymmetric branes and instantons on curved spaces

Abstract

We discuss non-linear instantons in supersymmetric field theories on curved spaces arising from D-branes. Focusing on D3-branes and four-dimensional field theories, we derive the supersymmetry conditions and show the intimate relation between the instanton solutions and the non-linearly realized supersymmetries of the field theory. We demonstrate that field theories with non-linearly realized supersymmetries are coupled to supergravity backgrounds in a similar fashion as those with linearly realized supersymmetries, and provide details on how to derive such couplings from a type II perspective.