Exact thresholds and instanton effects in D=3 string theories

Three-dimensional string theories with 16 supersymmetries are believed to possess a non-perturbative U-duality symmetry $SO(8,24,\text{Zint})$. By covariantizing the heterotic one-loop amplitude under U-duality, we propose an exact expression for the $(\mathrm{\partial }\varphi {)}^4$ amplitude, that reproduces known perturbative limits. The weak-coupling expansion in either of the heterotic, type II or type I descriptions exhibits the well-known instanton effects, plus new contributions peculiar to three-dimensional theories, including the Kaluza-Klein 5-brane, for which we extract the summation measure. This letter is a post-scriptum to hepth/0001083.