Instantons, Wilson lines, and D-branes

Abstract

We revisit the well-studied D0-D4 system of D-branes and its relationship to the Atiyah-Drinfeld-Hitchin-Manin (ADHM) construction. It is well known that the D0-branes appear as instantons in the D4-brane worldvolume. We add a Wilson line to the D4-brane in the guise of an extended fundamental string and determine how this affects the D0-brane dynamics. As the D0-brane moves in the presence of the Wilson line, it experiences a Lorentz force, proportional to its Yang-Mills gauge connection. From the perspective of the D0-brane quantum mechanics, this force emerges through the ADHM construction of the self-dual gauge connection.