On the M-theory approach to (compactified) 5D field theories

Abstract We construct M-theory curves associated with brane configurations of SU ( N ), SO ( N ) and Sp (2 N ) 5D supersymmetric gauge theories compactified on a circle. From the curves we can account for all the existing different SU ( N ) field theories with N f ≤ 2 N . This is the correct bound for N ≥ 3. We remark on the exceptional case SU (2). The bounds obtained for SO ( N ) and Sp (2 N ) are N f ≤ 2 N + 4, respectively.