2021/10/05 by Tony Gherghetta, Alex Pomarol
Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Boundary (topology) #Charge (physics) #Conformal map #Gauge (firearms) #Gauge theory #Geometry #Holography #Instanton #Mathematical physics #Mathematics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum mechanics #Space (punctuation) #Theoretical physics #hep-ph #hep-th
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/jhep11(2021)136
published in Journal of High Energy Physics 2021(11) (Springer Nature) · 23 pages, 8 figures
arxiv created 2021/10/05 · openalex publication_date 2021/11/01 · arxiv updated 2021/12/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
A bstract Small instantons can play an important role in Yang-Mills theories whose gauge couplings are sizeable at small distances. An interesting class of theories where this could occur is in weakly-gauged holographic models (dual to Yang-Mills theories interacting with strongly-coupled CFTs), since gauge couplings are indeed enhanced towards the UV boundary of the 5D AdS space. However, contrary to expectations, we show that small instantons in these non-asymptotically-free models are highly suppressed and ineffective. This is due to the conservation of topological charge that forbids instantons to be localized near the UV boundary. Despite this fact we find non-trivial UV localized instanton-anti-instanton solutions of the Yang-Mills equations where the topological charges annihilate in the AdS bulk. These analytic solutions arise from a 5D conformal transformation of the uplifted 4D instanton. Our analysis therefore reveals unexpected nonperturbative configurations of Yang-Mills theories when they interact with strongly-coupled CFTs.