Valley views: instantons, large order behaviors, and supersymmetry

Abstract

The elucidation of the properties of the instantons in the topologically trivial sector has been a long-standing puzzle. Here we claim that the properties can be summarized in terms of the geometrical structure in the configuration space, the valley. Evidence for this claim is presented in various ways. The conventional perturbation theory and the non-perturbatioe calculation are unified, and the ambiguity of the Borel transform of the perturbation series is removed. A ‘proof’ of Bogomolny's “trick” is presented, which enables us to go beyond the dilute-gas approximation. The prediction of the large order behavior of perturbation theory is confirmed by explicit calculations, in some cases to the 478th order. A new type of supersymmetry is found as a by-product, and our result is shown to be consistent with the non-renormalization theorem. The prediction of the energy levels is confirmed with numerical solutions of the Schrödinger equation.