Summing Up Instantons in Three-Dimensional Yang-Mills Theories

Abstract

We show that the four derivative terms in the effective action of three-dimensional N=8 Yang-Mills theory are determined by supersymmetry. These terms receive both perturbative and non-perturbative corrections. Using our technique for constraining the effective action, we are able to determine the exact form of the eight fermion terms in the supersymmetric completion of the $F^4$ term, including all instanton corrections. As a consequence, we argue that the integral of the Euler density over $k$ monopole moduli space in SU(2) Yang-Mills is determined by our non-renormalization theorem for all values of $k$.