ABCD of instantons (Q850951)

We solve \(\mathcal N = 2\) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories for an arbitrary classical gauge group, i.e. SU\((N)\), SO\((N)\), Sp\((N)\). In particular, we derive the prepotential of the low-energy effective theory, and the corresponding Seiberg-Witten curves. We manage to do this without resolving singularities of the compactified instanton moduli spaces. Reviewer's addendum: The paper is organized as follows: 1. Introduction. (Notations and conventions). 2. \(N=2\) super Yang-Mills. (The field content and the action. Seiberg-Witten theory. Topological twist). 3. The prepotential. (Five dimensional perspective. Tracing over instanton moduli space. (A model example. Back to instantons). Four dimensional limit). 4. AHDM (Atiyah-Hitchin-Drinfeld-Manin) construction. SU\((N)\), SO\((N)\), Sp\((N)\) cases). 5. Derivation of the prepotential. (Five dimensional expression. (The Haar measure. The cases of \(B_n\) and \(D_n)\). Four dimensional limit. The contour integrals). 6. Seiberg-Witten data. 7. Instanton corrections. (Consistency check. Sp\((N)\) instanton corrections). 8. Conclusions. A. Seiberg-Witten geometry for Sp\((n)\) case.