The Geometry of Calorons

Abstract

Calorons (periodic instantons) are anti-self-dual (ASD) connections on S^1 \times R^3 and form an intermediate case between instantons and monopoles. The ADHM and Nahm constructions of instantons and monopoles can be regarded as generalizations of a correspondence between ASD connections on the 4-torus, often referred to as the Nahm transform. This thesis describes how the Nahm transform can be extended to the case of calorons. It is shown how calorons can be constructed from Nahm data similar to that for monopoles, but defined over the circle. The inverse transformation, from the caloron to the Nahm data, is also described.