Fluxed M5-instantons in F-theory Original Research Article

We analyse the non-perturbative superpotential due to M5-brane instantons in F-theory compactifications on Calabi–Yau fourfolds. The M5 partition function is obtained via holomorphic factorisation by explicitly performing the sum over chiral 3-form fluxes. Comparison with the partition function of fluxed Euclidean D3-brane instantons in Type IIB orientifolds allows us to fix the spin structure on the intermediate Jacobian of the M5-instanton. We furthermore analyse the contribution of the M5-instanton to the superpotential in the presence of image gauge flux, where the superpotential is dressed with matter fields. We explicitly evaluate the pullback of image onto the M5-brane as a measure for the presence of charged instanton zero modes. This accounts for the M5 charge both under massless images, if present, and under what corresponds in Type II language to geometrically massive images.