The circle compactification of the 6-dimensional (2,0) superconformal theory of $A_{N-1}$ type leads to the 5-dimensional $SU(N)$ maximally supersymmetric gauge theory. Instanton solitons embody Kaluza-Klein modes and are conjectured to be composed of partonic constituents. We realize such a parton of $1/N$ instanton topological charge at the intersection of magnetic flux sheets. After a further compactification with nontrivial Wilson-line expectation value, instantons or calorons have been shown to be split into fundamental monopoles of fractional instanton charge. In the symmetric phase with trivial Wilson-line expectation value, Bogomol’nyi–Prasad–Sommerfield instanton partons emerge more concretely as non-Abelian Bogomol’nyi–Prasad–Sommerfield monopoles of minimum charge allowed in Dirac quantization.

• Received 29 August 2011

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.84.106001