New Perspectives on Yang-Mills Theories With Sixteen Supersymmetries
Abstract
We describe various approaches that give matrix descriptions of compactified NS five-branes. As a result, we obtain matrix models for Yang-Mills theories with sixteen supersymmetries in dimensions
2,3,4
and 5. The equivalence of the various approaches relates the Coulomb branch of certain gauge theories to the moduli space of instantons on
T
4
. We also obtain an equivalence between certain six-dimensional string theories. Further, we discuss how various perturbative and non-perturbative features of these Yang-Mills theories appear in their matrix formulations. The matrix model for four-dimensional Yang-Mills is manifestly S-dual. In this case, we describe how electric fluxes, magnetic fluxes and the interaction between vector particles are realized in the matrix model.