For the purpose of analyzing non-perturbative dynamics of string theory, Nishimura and Sugino have applied an improved mean field approximation (IMFA) to IIB matrix model. We have extracted the essence of the IMFA and obtained a general scheme, the improved Taylor expansion, that can be applied to a wide class of series which is not necessarily convergent. This approximation scheme with the help of the 2PI free energy enables us to perform higher order calculations. We have shown that the value of the free energy is stable at higher orders, which supports the validity of the approximation. Moreover, the ratio between the extent of "our" space-time and that of the internal space is found to increase rapidly as we take the higher orders into account. Our results suggest that the four dimensional space-time emerges spontaneously in IIB matrix model.

We construct a large-N twisted reduced model of the four-dimensional super YangMills theory coupled to one adjoint matter. We first consider a non-commutative version of the four-dimensional superspace, and then give the mapping rule between matrices and functions on this space explicitly. The supersymmetry is realized as a part of the internal U (∞) gauge symmetry in this reduced model. Our reduced model can be compared with the Dijkgraaf-Vafa theory that claims the low-energy glueball superpotential of the original gauge theory is governed by a simple one-matrix model. We show that their claim can be regarded as the large-N reduction in the sense that the one-matrix model they proposed can be identified with our reduced model. The map between matrices and functions enables us to make direct identities between the free energies and correlators of the gauge theory and the matrix model. As a byproduct, we can give a natural explanation for the unconventional treatment of the one-matrix model in the Dijkgraaf-Vafa theory where eigenvalues lie around the top of the potential.

We compute various correlation functions at the planar level in a simple supersymmetric matrix model, whose scalar potential is in shape of a double-well. The model has infinitely degenerate vacua parametrized by filling fractions \nu_\pm representing the numbers of matrix eigenvalues around the two minima of the double-well. The computation is done for general filling fractions corresponding to general two-cut solutions for the eigenvalue distribution. The model is mapped to the O(n) model on a random surface with n=-2, and some sector of the model is described by two-dimensional quantum gravity with c=-2 matter or (2,1) minimal string theory. For the other sector in which such description is not possible, we find new critical behavior of powers of logarithm for correlation functions. We regard the matrix model as a supersymmetric analog of the Penner model, and discuss correspondence of the matrix model to two-dimensional type IIA superstring theory from the viewpoint of symmetry and spectrum. In particular, single-trace operators in the matrix model are naturally interpreted as vertex operators in the type IIA theory. Also, the result of the correlation functions implies that the corresponding type IIA theory has a nontrivial Ramond-Ramond background.Comment: 45 pages, no figure; (v2) some explanation added; (v3) 40 pages, appendix D moved to section 6.2, two references added, typos fixed, version to be published in Nuclear Physics

We have analyzed the IIB matrix model on the basis of the improved mean field approximation (IMFA) and have obtained evidence suggesting that the four-dimensional space-time appears as its most stable vacuum. This method is a systematic way to obtain an improved perturbation series and was first applied to the IIB matrix model by Nishimura and Sugino. In a previous paper, we reformulated this method and proposed a criterion for the convergence of the improved series, that is, the appearance of a "plateau". In this paper, we carry out higher-order calculations, and find that our improved free energy tends to have a plateau, which shows that IMFA works well in the IIB matrix model. * )

We construct a class of matrix models, where supersymmetry (SUSY) is spontaneously broken at the matrix size N infinite. The models are obtained by dimensional reduction of matrix-valued SUSY quantum mechanics. The potential of the models is slowly varying, and the large-N limit is taken with the slowly varying limit.First, we explain our formalism, introducing an external field to detect spontaneous SUSY breaking, analogously to ordinary (bosonic) symmetry breaking. It is observed that SUSY is possibly broken even in systems in less than one-dimension, for example, discretized quantum mechanics with a finite number of discretized time steps. Then, we consider spontaneous SUSY breaking in the SUSY matrix models with slowly varying potential, where the external field is turned off after the large-N and slowly varying limit, analogously to the thermodynamic limit in statistical systems. On the other hand, without taking the slowly varying limit, in the SUSY matrix model with a double-well potential whose SUSY is broken due to instantons for finite N , a number of supersymmetric behavior is explicitly seen at large N . It convinces us that the instanton effect disappears and the SUSY gets restored in the large-N limit.

Nonperturbative effects in c < 1 noncritical string theory are studied using the two-matrix model. Such effects are known to have the form fixed by the string equations but the numerical coefficients have not been known so far. Using the method proposed recently, we show that it is possible to determine the coefficients for (p, q) string theory. We find that they are indeed finite in the double scaling limit and universal in the sense that they do not depend on the detailed structure of the potential of the two-matrix model.

We explicitly compute nonperturbative effects in a supersymmetric double-well matrix model corresponding to two-dimensional type IIA superstring theory on a nontrivial Ramond-Ramond background. We analytically determine the full one-instanton contribution to the free energy and one-point function, including all perturbative fluctuations around the one-instanton background. The leading order two-instanton contribution is determined as well. We see that supersymmetry is spontaneously broken by instantons, and that the breaking persists after taking a double scaling limit which realizes the type IIA theory from the matrix model. The result implies that spontaneous supersymmetry breaking occurs by nonperturbative dynamics in the target space of the IIA theory. Furthermore, we numerically determine the full nonperturbative effects by recursive evaluation of orthogonal polynomials. The free energy of the matrix model appears well-defined and finite even in the strongly coupled limit of the corresponding type IIA theory. The result might suggest a weakly coupled theory appearing as an S-dual to the two-dimensional type IIA superstring theory.

In the previous work, it was shown that, in supersymmetric (matrix) discretized quantum mechanics, inclusion of an external field twisting the boundary condition of fermions enables us to discuss spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry (SUSY) in the path-integral formalism in a well-defined way. In the present work, we continue investigating the same systems from the points of view of localization and Nicolai mapping. The localization is studied by changing of integration variables in the path integral, which is applicable whether or not SUSY is explicitly broken. We examine in detail how the integrand of the partition function with respect to the integral over the auxiliary field behaves as the auxiliary field vanishes, which clarifies a mechanism of the localization. In SUSY matrix models, we obtain a matrix-model generalization of the localization formula. In terms of eigenvalues of matrix variables, we observe that eigenvalues' dynamics is governed by balance of attractive force from the localization and repulsive force from the Vandermonde determinant. The approach of the Nicolai mapping works even in the presence of the external field. It enables us to compute the partition function of SUSY matrix models for finite N (N is the rank of matrices) with arbitrary superpotential at least in the leading nontrivial order of an expansion with respect to the small external field. We confirm the restoration of SUSY in the large-N limit of a SUSY matrix model with a double-well scalar potential observed in the previous work.