Instanton sums and five-dimensional gauge theories

Abstract

We analyze the vector multiplet prepotential of d=4, N=2 type IIA compactifications. We find that the worldsheet instanton corrections have a natural interpretation as one-loop corrections in five dimensions, with the extra dimension being compactified on a circle of radius $g_{s}\ell_{s}$. We argue that the relation between spacetime and worldsheet instantons is natural from this point of view. We also discuss the map between the type IIA worldsheet instantons and the spacetime instantons in the heterotic dual.Comment: 33 pages, uses harvmac.tex; four-dimensional limit in sec. 3.2 corrected, correct hyphenation in titl