We give a manifest supersymmetric description of A and B branes on Kahler manifolds using a completely local N=2 superspace formulation of the world-sheet nonlinear sigma-model in the presence of a boundary. In particular, we show that an N=2 superspace description of type A boundaries is possible, at least when the background is Kahler. This leads to an elegant and concrete setting for studying coisotropic A branes. Here, apgesan important role is played by the boundary potential, whose precise physical meaning remains to be fully understood. Duality transformations relating A and B branes in the presence of isometries are studied as well.
By introducing the noncommutativity in the world sheet, we discuss a modification of the D-brane states in the closed string theory. In particular we show how the world sheet noncommutativity induces a nonperturbative effect to the D-brane states.
We revisit the annulus amplitude of FZZT branes with general matter sectors (r,s) using the recent development of matrix model and minimal Liouville gravity. Following the boundary description of the 1-matrix model and bulk resonance transformation between primary operators we find the consistency of the brane decomposition into (1,1)-branes. We also investigate the corresponding results obtained directly from the minimal Liouville gravity and demonstrate the perfect agreement with the matrix results.
We construct an alternative form of the M5-brane action in which the six-dimensional worldvolume is subject to a covariant split into 3+3 directions by a triplet of auxiliary fields. We consider the relation of this action to the original form of the M5-brane action and to a Nambu-Poisson 5-brane action based on the Bagger-Lambert-Gustavsson model with the gauge symmetry of volume preserving diffeomorphisms
We re-examine the classification of supersymmetric extended objects in the light of the recently discovered Type II p-branes, previously thought not to exist for p> 1. We find new points on the brane-scan only in D = 10 and then only for p = 3(Type IIB), p = 4 (Type IIA), p = 5 (Type IIA and IIB) and p = 6 (Type IIA). The case D = 10, p = 2 (Type IIA) also exists but is equivalent to the previously classified D = 11 supermembrane.
Gravitational couplings in bulk space-time include those terms which are fixed by scattering amplitude of strings and ambiguous terms that are coming from the field redefinitions. These field redefinitions can be fixed in the bulk by ghost-free condition. In this paper we have revised the effective gravitational couplings on D-branes by including the field redefinitions. We find the gravitational effective action up to $α'^2$-order.
We examine the behavior of the vortex defects, which are represented by the sine-Gordon potential, on the world-sheet when a solitonic d-5 brane is existing in the d-dimensional target space. The d-5 brane solution is obtained as an extension of 5-brane in 10d supergravity. It is shown that the vortices of any charge should be dissociated to the free gas when they approach to the brane. The meanings of this fact are addressed through the analysis of the renormalization group equations on the world sheet.
We proceed further with a study of open supermembrane on the AdS_{4/7} x S^{7/4} backgrounds. Open supermembrane can have M5-brane and 9-brane as Dirichlet branes. In AdS and pp-wave cases the configurations of Dirichlet branes are restricted. A classification of possible Dirichlet branes, which is given up to and including the fourth order of fermionic variable þin hep-th/0310035, is shown to be valid even at full order of þ. We also discuss open M5-brane on the AdS_{4/7} x S^{7/4}.
Using world-sheet parity we show that mixed D and N components of D-strings are dual to the anti-symmetric $B_{μν}$ field. The contribution of the latter is responsible for the reduction and even removal of all the interactions between two dissimilar D-branes.
We show how non-compact space-time (ZZ branes) emerges as a limit of compact space-time (FZZT branes) for specific ratios between the square of the boundary cosmological constant and the bulk cosmological constant in the (2,2m-1) minimal model coupled to two-dimensional quantum gravity.
One-loop string scattering amplitudes computed using the standard D0-brane conformal field theory (CFT) suffer from infrared divergences associated with recoil. A systematic framework to take recoil into account is the worldline formalism, where fixed boundary conditions are replaced by dynamical D0-brane worldlines. We show that, in the worldline formalism, the divergences that plague the CFT are automatically cancelled in a non-trivial way. The amplitudes derived in the worldline formalism can be reproduced by deforming the CFT with a specific "recoil operator", which is bilocal and differen…
A version of the kappa-symmetric super D-p-brane action is presented in which the tension is a dynamical variable, equal to the flux of a p-form worldvolume gauge field. The Lagrangian is shown to be invariant under all (super)isometries of the background for appropriate transformations of the worldvolume gauge fields, which determine the central charges in the symmetry algebra. We also present the Hamiltonian form of the action in a general supergravity background.
Gauge threshold corrections for intersecting D6-brane string models on toroidal orbifold backgrounds are reconsidered. Both by dimensionally regularising the appearing open string one-loop diagrams in tree-channel as well as by zeta-function regularisation of the corresponding loop-channel one-loop diagrams, we arrive at a result which takes into account the infrared divergence from the contribution of the massless states in the running of the gauge coupling constant as well as the contribution of states, which become light in certain regions of the moduli space.
We revisit the well-studied D0-D4 system of D-branes and its relationship to the ADHM construction. It is well known that the D0-branes appear as instantons in the D4-brane worldvolume. We add a Wilson line to the D4-brane in the guise of an extended fundamental string and determine how this affects the D0-brane dynamics. As the D0-brane moves in the presence of the Wilson line, it experiences a Lorentz force, proportional to its Yang-Mills gauge connection. From the perspective of the D0-brane quantum mechanics, this force emerges through the ADHM construction of the self-dual gauge connectio…
We establish that the relevant geometric data for the target space description of world sheet topological defects are submanifolds - which we call bi-branes - in the product M1 x M2 of the two target spaces involved. Very much like branes, they are equipped with a vector bundle, which in backgrounds with non-trivial B-field is actually a twisted vector bundle. We explain how to define Wess-Zumino terms in the presence of bi-branes and discuss the fusion of bi-branes. In the case of WZW theories, symmetry preserving bi-branes are shown to be biconjugacy classes. The algebra of functions on a bi…
We study D-branes with plane waves of arbitrary profiles as examples of time-dependent backgrounds in string theory. We show how to reproduce the quantum mechanical (one-to-one) open-string S-matrix starting from the closed-string boundary state for the D-branes, thereby establishing the channel duality of this calculation. The required Wick rotation to a Lorentzian worldsheet singles out as 'prefered' time coordinate the open-string light-cone time.
We present an elegant method to prove the invariance of the Chern-Simons part of the non-Abelian action for N coinciding D-branes under the R-R and NS-NS gauge transformations, by carefully defining what is meant by a background gauge transformation in the non-Abelian world volume action. We study as well the invariance under massive gauge transformations of the massive Type IIA supergravity and show that no massive dielectric couplings are necessary to achieve this invariance. We show that this result is consistent with (massive) T-duality from the non-Abelian action for N D9-branes.
Following the general formalism reviewed in 0810.5355 [hep-th] we present several examples of possible D3-brane configurations on four-dimensional generalized Kaehler geometries. We will discuss T-duality transformations in N = 2 boundary superspace and apply the duality transformations to the constructed D3-branes. The duality transformations lead to a systematic method to construct coisotropic branes, even on target spaces that are not hyper-Kaehler.
The M2-brane is studied from the perspective of superembeddings. We review the derivation of the M2-brane dynamics and the supergravity constraints from the standard superembedding constraint and we discuss explicitly the induced d=3, N=8 superconformal geometry on the worldvolume. We show that the gauged supermembrane, for a target space with a U(1) isometry, is the standard D2-brane in a type IIA supergravity background. In particular, the D2-brane action, complete with the Dirac-Born-Infeld term, arises from the gauged Wess-Zumino worldvolume 4-form via the brane action principle. The discu…
Axial and gravitational anomaly of field theories, when embedded in string theory, must be accompanied by canceling inflow. We give a self-contained overview for various world-volume theories, and clarify the role of smeared magnetic sources in I-brane/D-brane cases. The proper anomaly descent of the source, as demanded by regularity of RR field strengths H's, turns out to be an essential ingredient. We show how this allows correct inflow to be generated for all such theories, including self-dual cases, and also that the mechanism is now insensitive to the choice between the two related but in…
We present an N = 2 world-sheet superspace description of D-branes on bihermitian or generalized Kaehler manifolds. To accomplish this, D-branes are considered as boundary conditions for a nonlinear sigma-model in what we call N = 2 boundary superspace. In this note the general formalism for such an approach is presented and the resulting classification sketched. This includes some remarks regarding target spaces whose parameterization includes semi-chiral superfields which have not appeared in the literature yet. In an accompanying note we turn to some examples and applications of the general…
In the AdS/CFT correspondence, wrapped D3-branes (such as "giant gravitons") on the string theory side of the correspondence have been identified with Pfaffian, determinant and subdeterminant operators on the field theory side. We substantiate this identification by showing that the presence of pairs of such operators in a correlation function of a large N gauge theory naturally leads to a modified 't Hooft expansion including also worldsheets with boundaries. This happens independently of supersymmetry or conformal invariance.
We construct quantum effective action in spacetimes with branes (boundaries) and establish its relation to the "cosmological wave function" of the bulk -- the solution of the corresponding Wheeler-DeWitt equation which can be considered as a means of the holographic description of braneworld models. We show that for a special type of the bulk-brane gauge fixing procedure the one-loop part of the action decouples into the additive sum of brane-to-brane and bulk-to-bulk effective actions, and this decomposition proliferates in a special way in higher orders of the Feynman diagrammatic expansion.…
The behaviour of supersymmetric D-branes under deformations of the closed string background is studied using world-sheet methods. We explain how lines of marginal stability and obstructions arise from this point of view. We also show why N=2 B-type branes may be obstructed against (cc) perturbations, but why such obstructions do not occur for N=4 superconformal branes at c=6, i.e. for half-supersymmetric D-branes on K3. Our analysis is based on a field theory approach in superspace, as well as on techniques from perturbed conformal field theory.
In this note we explore the stringy interpretation of non-perturbative effects in N=1^* deformations of the A_{k-1} quiver models. For certain types of deformations we argue that the massive vacua are described by Nk fractional D3-branes at the orbifold polarizing into k concentric 5-brane spheres each carrying fractional brane charge. The polarization of the D3-branes induces a polarization of D-instantons into string world-sheets wrapped on the Myers spheres. We show that the superpotentials in these models are indeed generated by these world-sheet instantons. We point out that for certain p…
We perform a complete integration of the Einstein-dilaton-antisymmetric form action describing black p-branes in arbitrary dimensions assuming the transverse space to be homogeneous and possessing spherical, toroidal or hyperbolic topology. The generic solution contains eight parameters satisfying one constraint. Asymptotically flat solutions form a five-parametric subspace, while conditions of regularity of the non-degenerate event horizon further restrict this number to three, which can be related to the mass and the charge densities and the asymptotic value of the dilaton. In the case of a …
We further investigate the dimensional duality (D-duality) proposed in arXiv:0705.0550 by mainly focusing on the properties of D-branes in this background. We derive the world-sheet correspondence of static D-branes, and discuss the fate of non-static D-branes from the world-sheet viewpoint. The quantum string production with or without D-branes is also studied from the time-like Liouville theory. We find that the closed string production from the background is much larger than that from D-branes decaying into nothing.
It is shown that a two-brane world made of two domain walls can be seen as a noncommutative two-sheeted spacetime under certain assumptions. This equivalence implies a model-independent phenomenology: Matter swapping between the two 3-branes (or sheets) is predicted through fermionic oscillations induced by magnetic vector potentials. This phenomenon, which might be experimentally studied, could reveal the existence of extra dimensions in a new and very affordable way.
5D cosmological model with 3-brane with matter is considered. The brane divides bulk in two AdS half spaces. Geometry of the model can be described by two types of coordinates: in the first setting the metric is static and the brane is moving in the bulk, in the second approach the metric is time-dependent and the brane is located at a fixed position in the bulk. Coordinate transformation connecting two coordinate systems is constructed.
We provide a world-sheet description of Neveu-Schwarz five-branes wrapped on a complex projective space. It is an orbifold of the product of an N=2 minimal model and the IR fixed point of a certain linear sigma model. We show how the naked singularity in the supergravity description is resolved by the world-sheet CFT. Applying mirror symmetry, we show that the low-energy theory of NS5-branes wrapped on CP^1 in Eguchi-Hanson space is described by the Seiberg-Witten prepotential for N=2 super-Yang-Mills, with the gauge group given by the ADE-type of the five-brane. The world-sheet CFT is generic…
We have argued previously that black holes may be represented in a D-brane approach by monopole and vortex defects in a sine-Gordon field theory model of Liouville dynamics on the world sheet. Supersymmetrizing this sine-Gordon system, we find critical behaviour in 11 dimensions, due to defect condensation that is the world-sheet analogue of D-brane condensation around an extra space-time dimension in M theory. This supersymmetric description of Liouville dynamics has a natural embedding within a 12-dimensional framework suggestive of F theory.
We revisit phenomenological as well as string-theoretical aspects of D-brane inflation cosmological models. Phenomenologically these models stand out on par with $α$-attractors, as models with Planck-compatible values of $n_s$, moving down to the sweet spot in the data with decreasing value of $r$. On the formal side we present a new supersymmetric version of these models in the context of de Sitter supergravity with a nilpotent multiplet and volume modulus stabilization. The geometry of the nilpotent multiplet is evaluated in the framework of string theory.
Correlated stability conjecture (CSC) proposed by Gubser and Mitra [1,2] linked the thermodynamic and classical (in)stabilities of black branes. The classical instabilities, whenever occurring, were conjectured to arise as Gregory-Laflamme (GL) instabilities of translationally invariant horizons. In [3] it was shown that the thermodynamic instabilities, specifically the negative specific heat, indeed result in the instabilities in the hydrodynamic spectrum of holographically dual plasma excitations. A counter-example of CSC was presented in the context of black branes with scalar hair undergoi…
We present two derivations of the multiple D2 action from the multiple M2-brane model proposed by Bagger-Lambert and Gustavsson. The first one is to start from Lie 3-algebra associated with given (arbitrary) Lie algebra. The Lie 3-algebra metric is not positive definite but the zero-norm generators merely correspond to Lagrange multipliers. Following the work of Mukhi and Papageorgakis, we derive D2-brane action from the model by giving a variable a vacuum expectation value. The second derivation is based on the correspondence between M2 and M5. We compactify one dimension and wind M5 brane al…
First we briefly outline the general construction of Dp-brane models with dynamical tensions. We then proceed to a more detailed discussion of a modified string model where the string tension is related to the potential of (an external) world-sheet electric current. We show that cancellation of the pertinent conformal anomaly on the quantum level requires the dynamical string tension to be a square of a free massless world-sheet scalar field.
In this continuation of [L-Y1] and [L-L-S-Y], we explain how the Azumaya structure on D-branes together with a netted categorical quotient construction produces the same resolution of ADE orbifold singularities as that arises as the vacuum manifold/variety of the supersymmetric quantum field theory on the D-brane probe world-volume, given by Douglas and Moore [D-M] under the string-theory contents and constructed earlier through hyper-Kähler quotients by Kronheimer and Nakajima. This is consistent with the moral behind this project that Azumaya-type structure on D-branes themselves -- stated a…
In this paper, we revisit brane inflation models with the WMAP five-year results. The WMAP five-year data favor a red-tilted power spectrum of primordial fluctuations at the level of two standard deviations, which is the same as the WMAP three-year result qualitatively, but quantitatively the spectral index is slightly greater than the three-year value. This result can bring impacts on brane inflation models. According to the WMAP five-year data, we find that the KKLMMT model can survive at the level of one standard deviation, and the fine-tuning of the parameter $β$ can be alleviated to a cer…
In this note we reconsider the minisuperspace toy models for rolling and bouncing tachyons. We show that the theories require to choose boundary conditions at infinity since particles in an exponentially unbounded potential fall to infinity in finite world-sheet time. Using standard techniques from operator theory, we determine the possible boundary conditions and we compute the corresponding energy spectra and minisuperspace 3-point functions. Based on this analysis we argue in particular that world-sheet models of S-branes possess a discrete spectrum of conformal weights containing both posi…
We study in some detail the properties of a previously proposed new class of string and brane models whose world-sheet (world-volume) actions are built with a modified reparametrization-invariant measure of integration and which do not contain any ad hoc dimensionfull parameters. The ratio of the new and the standard Riemannian integration measure densities plays the role of a dynamically generated string/brane tension. The latter is identified as (the magnitude of) an effective (non-Abelian) electric field-strength on the world-sheet/world-volume obeying the standard Gauss-law constraint. As …
We address a few subtle issues regarding the interacting D0-D8 system. There are two existing interpretations for the counter-intuitive non-vanishing cylinder-diagram R-R potential. We improve them each by properly dealing with the divergence of potential in the R-R as well as the NS-NS sector, which has been ignored so far. We further test them by considering the D8 to carry a flux, electric or magnetic. We find that the improved interpretations continue to hold. We resolve a subtle issue regarding the regularization of fermionic zero-modes in the R-R sector when the D8 carries an electric fl…
We revisit the 5D gravity model by Dvali, Gabadadze, and Porrati (DGP). Within their framework it was shown that even in 5D non-compact Minkowski space $(x^μ,z)$, the Newtonian gravity can emerge on a brane at short distances by introducing a brane-localized 4D Einstein-Hilbert term $δ(z)M_4^2\sqrt{|\bar{g}_4|}\bar{R}_4$ in the action. Based on this idea, we construct simple setups in which graviton standing waves can arise, and we introduce brane-localized $z$ derivative terms as a correction to $δ(z)M_4^2\sqrt{|\bar{g}_4|}\bar{R}_4$. We show that the gravity potential of brane matter becomes…
Inspired by the warped Randall Sundrum scenario proposed to solve the mass scale hierarchy problem with a compactified fifth extra dimension, a similar model with no metric singularities has been elaborated. In this framework, the Kaluza-Klein reduction equations for a real massless scalar field propagating in the bulk have been studied carefully from the point of view of hermiticity so as to formulate in a mathematically rigorous way all the possible boundary conditions and corresponding mass eigenvalue towers and tachyon states. The physical masses as observable in our four-dimensional brane…
We provide a direct world-sheet derivation of the couplings of NS-NS and R-R fluxes to various types of D-branes (including instantonic ones) by evaluating disk amplitudes among two open string vertex operators at a generic brane intersection and one closed string vertex representing the background fluxes. This world-sheet approach is in full agreement with the derivation of the flux couplings in the brane effective actions based on supergravity methods, but it is applicable also to more general brane configurations involving fields with twisted boundary conditions. As an application, we consi…
In this sequel to [L-Y1], [L-L-S-Y], and [L-Y2] (respectively arXiv:0709.1515 [math.AG], arXiv:0809.2121 [math.AG], and arXiv:0901.0342 [math.AG]), we study a D-brane probe on a conifold from the viewpoint of the Azumaya structure on D-branes and toric geometry. The details of how deformations and resolutions of the standard toric conifold $Y$ can be obtained via morphisms from Azumaya points are given. This should be compared with the quantum-field-theoretic/D-brany picture of deformations and resolutions of a conifold via a D-brane probe sitting at the conifold singularity in the work of Kle…
We study T-duality transformations in canonical formalism for Nambu-Gotto action. Then we investigate the relation between world-sheet double Wick rotation and sequence of target space T-dualities and Wick rotation in case of fundamental string and D1-brane.
We discuss how to describe time-dependent phenomena in string theory like the decay of unstable D-branes with the help of the world-sheet formulation. It is shown in a nontrivial well-controlled example that the coupling of the tachyons to propagating on-shell modes which escape to infinity can lead to time-dependent relaxation into a stationary final state. The final state corresponds to a fixed point of the RG flow generated by the relevant field from which the tachyon vertex operator is constructed. On the way we set up a fairly general formalism for the description of slow time-dependent p…
This paper shows how to construct anomaly free world sheet actions in string theory with $D$-branes. Our method is to use Deligne cohomology and bundle gerbe theory to define geometric objects which are naturally associated to $D$-branes and connections on them. The holonomy of these connections can be used to cancel global anomalies in the world sheet action.
We first review the interpretation of world-sheet defects as $D$ branes described by a critical theory in 11 dimensions, that we interpret as $M$ theory. We then show that $D$-brane recoil induces dynamically an anti-de-Sitter (AdS) space-time background, with criticality restored by a twelfth time-like dimension described by a Liouville field. Local physics in the bulk of this AdS$_{11}$ may be described by an $Osp(1|32,R) \otimes Osp(1|32,R)$ topological gauge theory (TGT), with non-local boundary states in doubleton representations. We draw analogies with structures previously exhibited in …
Using a recently constructed M5-brane world-volume action, we demonstrate that wrapping the M5-brane on K3 gives the heterotic string in seven dimensions. To facilitate the comparison, a new version of the world-sheet action for the Narain-compactified heterotic string, with manifest T duality invariance, is formulated.
Supersymmetric branes in the plane wave background with additional constant magnetic fields are studied from the world-sheet point of view. It is found that in contradistinction to flat space, boundary condensates on some maximally supersymmetric branes necessarily break at least some supersymmetries. The maximally supersymmetric cases with condensates are shown to be in one to one correspondence with the previously classified class II branes.
We point out some subtleties with gauge fixings (which sometimes include the so-called ``brane bending'' effects) typically used to compute the graviton propagator on the Randall-Sundrum brane. In particular, the brane, which has non-vanishing tension, explicitly breaks some part of the diffeomorphisms, so that there are subtleties arising in going to, say, the axial gauge or the harmonic gauge in the presence of (non-conformal) matter localized on the brane. We therefore compute the graviton propagator in the gauge where only the graviphoton fluctuations are set to zero (the diffeomorphisms n…
In typical examples of the AdS/CFT correspondence, the world-sheet theory with holes in the presence of D-branes is assumed to be equivalent in a low-energy limit to a world-sheet theory without holes for a different background such as $AdS_5 \times S^5$. In the case of the bosonic string, we claim under the assumption of this equivalence that open string field theory on $N$ coincident D-branes can be used to provide a nonperturbative definition of closed string theory based on the fact that the $1/N$ expansion of correlation functions of gauge-invariant operators reproduces the world-sheet th…
The SO(32) heterotic string can be obtained from the type IIB string by gauging a discrete symmetry that acts as $(-1)^{F_L}$ on the perturbative string states and reverses the parity of the D-string. Consistency requires the presence of 32 NS 9-branes -- the S-duals of D9-branes -- which give SO(32) Chan-Paton factors to open D-strings. At finite string coupling, there are SO(32) charges tethered to the heterotic string world-sheet by open D-strings. At zero-coupling, the D-string tension becomes infinite and the SO(32) charges are pulled onto the world-sheet, and give the usual SO(32) world-…
The construction of stationary axisymmetric multiwormhole solutions to gravitating field theories admitting toroidal reductions to three-dimensional gravitating sigma models is reviewed. We show that, as in the multi-black hole case, strut singularities always appear in this construction, except for very special configurations with an odd number of centers. We also review the analytical continuation of the multicenter solution across the $n$ cuts associated with the wormhole mouths. The resulting Riemann manifold has $2^n$ sheets interconnected by $2^{n-1}n$ wormholes. We find that the maximal…
String duality suggests a fascinating juxtoposition of world-volume and target-space dynamics. This is particularly apparent in the $D$-brane description of stringy solitons that forms a major focus of this article (which is {\it not} intended to be a comprehensive review of this extensive subject). The article is divided into four sections: 1. The oligarchy of string world-sheets 2. $p$-branes and world-volumes 3. World-sheets for world-volumes 4. Boundary states, $D$-branes and space-time supersymmetry [This article is based on a talk presented at the CERN Workshop on String Duality (Decembe…
We discuss several closely related concepts in the NSR formulation of superstring theory. We demonstrated that recently proposed NSR model for superstrings on $AdS_5 \times S^5$ is described by the world-sheet logarithmic conformal field theory (LCFT). The origin of LCFT on a world-sheet is closely connected to the matter-ghost mixing in the structure of a brane-like vortex operators. We suggest a dynamical origin of M theory as a string theory with an extra dimension given by bosonised superconformal ghosts.
It is well known that space-time coordinates and corresponding Dp-brane world-volume become non-commutative, if open string ends on Dp-brane with Neveu-Schwarz background field $B_{μν}$. In this paper we extend these considerations including the dilaton field $Φ$, linear in coordinates $x^μ$. In that case the conformal part of the world-sheet metric appears as new non-commutative variable and the coordinate in direction orthogonal to the hyper plane $Φ= const$, becomes commutative.
