We propose a natural generalisation of the BLG multiple M2-brane action to membranes in curved plane wave backgrounds, and verify in two different ways that the action correctly captures the non-trivial space-time geometry. We show that the M2 to D2 reduction of the theory along a non-trivial direction in field space is equivalent to the D2-brane world-volume Yang-Mills theory with a non-trivial (null-time dependent) dilaton in the corresponding IIA background geometry. As another consistency check of this proposal we show that the properties of metric 3-algebras ensure the equivalence of the Rosen coordinate version of this action (time-dependent metric on the space of 3-algebra valued scalar fields, no mass terms) and its Brinkmann counterpart (constant couplings but time-dependent mass terms). We also establish an analogous result for deformed Yang-Mills theories in any dimension which, in particular, demonstrates the equivalence of the Rosen and Brinkmann forms of the plane wave matrix string action.
We study brane embeddings in M-theory plane-waves and their supersymmetry. The relation with branes in AdS backgrounds via the Penrose limit is also explored. Longitudinal planar branes are originated from AdS branes while giant gravitons of AdS spaces become spherical branes which are realized as fuzzy spheres in the massive matrix theory.
In hep-th/0703135, they have found the type IIA intersecting brane configuration where there exist three NS5-branes, D4-branes and anti-D4-branes. By analyzing the gravitational interaction for the D4-branes in the background of the NS5-branes, the phase structures in different regions of the parameter space were studied in the context of classical string theory. In this paper, by adding the orientifold 4-plane and 6-plane to the above brane configuration, we describe the intersecting brane configurations of type IIA string theory corresponding to the meta-stable nonsupersymmetric vacua of the…
We extend the study on D-branes in the type IIB plane wave background to less supersymmetric configurations. We show that many new supersymmetric D-branes can be found by turning on electric as well as magnetic background fluxes, or constantly boosting D-branes.
By using the Dirac-Born-Infeld action we study the dynamics of Dp-brane propagating in the NS5-near horizon plane wave background. We study systematically D-brane embedding in this pp-wave background, and analyze the equations of motion for various auxiliary fields. We further discuss the motion of the probe Dq-brane in the presence of source Dp-branes in this plane wave background.
There is a longstanding puzzle concerned with the existence of Op~-planes with p>=6, which are orientifold p-planes of negative charge with stuck Dp-branes. We study the consistency of configurations with various orientifold planes and propose a resolution to this puzzle. It is argued that O6~-planes are possible in massive IIA theory with odd cosmological constant, while O7~-planes and O8~-planes are not allowed. Various relations between orientifold planes and non-BPS D-branes are also addressed.
Continuing the study in hep-th/0004092 and hep-th/0004092, we investigate a non-trivial string dynamical process related to orientifold planes, i.e., the splitting of physical NS-branes and D(p+2)-branes on orientifold Op-planes. Creation or annihilation of physical Dp-branes usually accompanies the splitting process. In the particular case p=4, we use Seiberg-Witten curves as an independent method to check the results.
An explicit calculation is performed to check all the tangent bundle gravitational couplings of Dirichlet branes and Orientifold planes by scattering $q$ gravitons with a $p+1$ form Ramond-Ramond potential in the world-volume of a $D(p+2q)$-brane. The structure of the D-brane Wess-Zumino term in the world-volume action is confirmed, while a different O-plane Wess-Zumino action is obtained.
We present classical solutions of Dp-branes $(p \ge 5)$ in plane wave spacetime with nonconstant R-R 3-form flux. We also show the existence of a system of D3-branes in this background. We further analyze the supersymmetric properties of these branes by solving type II Killing spinor equations explicitly.
We present the intersecting brane configuration of type IIA string theory corresponding to the meta-stable nonsupersymmetric vacua in four dimensional N=1 supersymmetric SU(N_c) gauge theory with a symmetric flavor, a conjugate symmetric flavor and fundamental flavors. By studying the previously known supersymmetric M5-brane curve, the M-theory lift for this type IIA brane configuration, which consists of NS5-branes, D4-branes, D6-branes and an orientifold 6-plane, is analyzed.
We study intersecting D-branes in a type IIB plane wave background using Green-Schwarz worldsheet formulation. We consider all possible $D_\pm$-branes intersecting at angles in the plane wave background and identify their residual supersymmetries. We find, in particular, that $D_\mp - D_\pm$ brane intersections preserve no supersymmetry. We also present the explicit worldsheet expressions of conserved supercharges and their supersymmetry algebras.
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 consider the Higgs branch of 5d fixed points engineered using brane webs with an O7$^+$-plane. We use the brane construction to propose a set of rules to extract the corresponding magnetic quivers. Such magnetic quivers are generically framed non-simply-laced quivers containing unitary as well as special unitary gauge nodes. We compute the Coulomb branch Hilbert series of the proposed magnetic quivers. In some specific cases, an alternative magnetic quiver can be obtained either using an ordinary brane web or a brane web with an O5-plane. In these cases, we find a match at the level of the …
In this short note we review the construction and role of Wess-Zumino couplings of Dirichlet branes and Orientifold planes, and show how these combine to give the Green-Schwarz anomaly cancelling terms.
The direct string computation of anomalous D-brane and orientifold plane couplings is extended to include the curvature of the normal bundle. The normalization of these terms is fixed unambiguously. New, non-anomalous gravitational couplings are found.
We derive the general form of the anomaly for chiral spinors and self-dual antisymmetric tensors living on D-brane and O-plane interesections, using both path-integral and index theorem methods. We then show that the anomalous couplings to RR forms of D-branes and O-planes in a general background are precisely those required to cancel these anomalies through the inflow mechanism. This allows, for instance, for local anomaly cancellation in generic orientifold models, the relevant Green-Schwarz term being given by the sum of the anomalous couplings of all the D-branes and O-planes in the model.
We systematically analyze supersymmetric D-branes in the type IIB plane wave background using Green-Schwarz superstring theory. We find several new supersymmetric oblique and curved D-branes. The supersymmetries preserved by various configurations of these D-branes including their intersections are also identified. In particular, we show that $D_+$-branes of type (+,-,n,n) for n=1,2,3,4 preserve 4 dynamical supersymmetries by introducing gauge field excitations and newly discovered oblique D5- and D7-branes also preserve four or two dynamical supersymmetries with gauge field condensates. Furth…
We compute the D-brane tensions in the type IIA plane-wave background by comparing the interaction potential between widely separated D-branes in string theory with the supergravity mode exchange between the D-branes. We found that the D-brane tensions and RR charges in the plane-wave background are the same as those in the flat space. Also we work out the stringy halo behavior of the $DpD\bar{p}$ spacelike branes and find the explicit dependence on the light cone separation $r^+$. This suggests that the detailed tachyon dynamics for the spacelike $DpD\bar{p}$ branes are different from those i…
We review orientifold constructions in the presence of magnetic backgrounds both in the open and closed sectors. Generically, the resulting orientifold models have a nice geometric description in terms of rotated D-branes and/or O-planes. In the case of multiple magnetic backgrounds, some amount of supersymmetry is recovered if the magnetic fields are suitably chosen and part of the original D-branes and/or O-planes are transmuted into new ones.
We study BPS monopoles in 4 dimensional N=4 SO(N) and $Sp(N)$ super Yang-Mills theories realized as the low energy effective theory of $N$ (physical and its mirror) parallel D3 branes and an {\it Orientifold 3 plane} with D1 branes stretched between them in type IIB string theory. Monopoles on D3 branes give the natural understanding by embedding in SU(N) through the constraints on both the asymptotic Higgs field (corresponding to the horizontal positions of D3 branes) and the magnetic charges (corresponding to the number of D1 branes) imposed by the O3 plane. The compatibility conditions of N…
Oblique Dp-branes in the maximally supersymmetric type IIB plane-wave background are constructed in terms of boundary states, as well as from the open string point of view. These Dp-branes, whose existence was anticipated by Hikida and Yamaguchi from general supersymmetry arguments, have an isometry that is a subgroup of the diagonal SO(4) symmetry of the background. The oblique D3-brane is found to preserve four dynamical and four kinematical supersymmetries while the oblique D5-brane preserves one half of both the dynamical and kinematical supersymmetries. We also discuss the open-string bou…
We study anomalous Wess-Zumino couplings of D-branes and O-planes in a general background and derive them from a direct string computation by factorizing in the RR channel various one-loop amplitudes. In particular, we find that Op-planes present gravitational anomalous couplings involving the Hirzebruch polynomial L, similarly to the roof genus A encoding Dp-brane anomalous couplings. We determine, in each case, the precise dependence of these couplings on the curvature of the tangent and normal bundles.
We study brane configurations in the presence of orientifold six-planes. After deriving the curves for N=2 supersymmetric SU(Nc) gauge theories with one flavor in the symmetric or antisymmetric representation and Nf fundamental flavors, we rotate the brane configuration, reducing the supersymmetry to N=1. For the case of an antisymmetric flavor and less than two fundamental flavors, nonperturbative effects lead to a brane configuration that is topologically a torus. Using the description of the orientifold six-planes as Dn singularities we discuss the Higgs branches for N=2 brane configuration…
We study different Penrose limits of supergravity solution of NS5-brane in the presence of RR field. Although in the case of NS5-brane we get a 4-dimensional plane wave, in the case with RR field we will get two different plane waves; a 4-dimensional and a 3-dimensional one. These plane wave solutions are the backgrounds that a particular string solution feels at one loop approximation. Using the one loop correction one can identify a particular subsector of LST/deformed LST which is dual to type II string theories on these plane waves.
We investigate orientifold of brane tilings. We clarify how the cancellations of gauge anomaly and Witten's anomaly are guaranteed by the conservation of the D5-brane charge. We also discuss the relation between brane tilings and the dual Calabi-Yau cones realized as the moduli spaces of gauge theories. Two types of flavor D5-branes in brane tilings and corresponding superpotentials of fundamental quark fields are proposed, and it is shown that the massless loci of these quarks in the moduli space correctly reproduce the worldvolume of flavor D7-branes in the Calabi-Yau cone dual to the fivebr…
Giveon and Kutasov have found the type IIA intersecting nonsupersymmetric meta-stable brane configuration where the electric gauge theory superpotential has a quartic term as well as the mass term for quarks. In this paper, by adding the orientifold 6-plane to this brane configuration, we describe the brane configuration corresponding to the meta-stable nonsupersymmetric vacua of the supersymmetric unitary gauge theory with symmetric flavor as well as fundamental flavors.
We carefully analyze the supersymmetry algebra of closed strings and open strings in a type IIB plane wave background. We use eight component chiral spinors, SO(8) Majorana-Weyl spinors, in light-cone gauge to provide a useful basis of string field theory calculation in the plane wave. We consider the two classes of D-branes, $D_\pm$-branes, and give a worldsheet derivation of conserved supercurrents for all half BPS D-branes preserving 16 supersymmetries in the type IIB plane wave background. We exhaustively provide the supersymmetry algebra of the half BPS branes as well. We also point out t…
We explore the properties of five-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories living on 5-brane webs in orientifold 7-plane backgrounds. These include $USp(2N)$ and $SO(N)$ gauge theories with fundamental matter, as well as $SU(N)$ gauge theories with symmetric and antisymmetric matter. We find a number of new 5d fixed point theories that feature enhanced global symmetries. We also exhibit a number of new 5d dualities.
We work out boundary conditions for the covariant open string in the type IIA plane wave background, which corresponds to the D-branes in the type IIA theory. We use the kappa symmetric string action and see what kind of boundary conditions should be imposed to retain kappa symmetry. We find half BPS as well as quarter BPS branes and the analysis agrees with the previous work in the light cone gauge if the result is available. Finally we find that D0-brane is non-supersymmetric.
We use the M theory approach in the presence of an orientifold O6 plane to understand some aspects of the moduli space of vacua for N=1 supersymmetric $SO(N_c)/Sp(N_c)$ gauge theories in four dimensions. By exploiting some general properties of the O6 orientifold, we reproduce some results obtained previously with an orientifold O4 plane when the flavor group arises from the worldvolume dynamics of D6 branes. By using semi-infinite D4 branes instead of D6 branes, we derive the most general form of the rotated curve describing the moduli space of vacua for N=1 supersymmetric gauge theory with m…
The cylinder diagrams that determine the static interactions between pairs of Dp-branes in the type IIB plane wave background are evaluated. The resulting expressions are elegant generalizations of the flat-space formulae that depend on the value of the Ramond-Ramond flux of the background in a non-trivial manner. The closed-string and open-string descriptions consistently transform into each other under a modular transformation only when each of the interacting D-branes separately preserves half the supersymmetries. These results are derived for configurations of euclidean signature D(p+1)-in…
We consider matrix theoretical description of transverse M5-branes in M-theory on the 11-dimensional maximally supersymmetric pp-wave background. We apply the localization to the plane wave matrix model (PWMM) and show that the transverse spherical fivebranes with zero light cone energy in M-theory are realized as the distribution of low energy moduli of the $SO(6)$ scalar fields in PWMM.
We study a system of $N_c$ $D3$-branes intersecting $D7$-branes and $O7$-planes in 1+1-dimensions. We use anomaly cancellation and string dualities to argue that there must be chiral fermion zero-modes on the $D3$-branes which are localized near the $O7$-planes. Away from the orientifold limit we verify this by using index theory as well as explicit construction of the zero-modes. This system is related to F-theory on K3 and heterotic matrix string theory, and the heterotic strings are related to Alice string defects in $\mathcal{N}=4$ Super-Yang-Mills. In the limit of large $N_c$ we find an $…
Following [arXiv:1202.5935 [hep-th]] and [arXiv:1212.4328 [hep-th]], we study non-conformal brane plane wave backgrounds dual to strongly coupled gauge theories with constant energy flux and holographic entanglement entropy for strip subsystems in them. We find that for the strip direction along the direction of the energy flux, the finite cutoff-independent part of entanglement entropy can be estimated in terms of a dimensionless combination of the energy density and the strip dimensions, alongwith an effective scale-dependent number of degrees of freedom. For the strip orthogonal to the flux…
We give an overview of D-branes in the maximally supersymmetric plane wave background of IIB supergravity. We start by reviewing the results of the probe analysis. We then present the open string analysis and show how certain spacetime symmetries are restored using worldsheet symmetries. We discuss the construction of these branes as boundary states and summarize what is known about the dual gauge theory description.
We explore the properties of five-dimensional supersymmetric gauge theories living on $5$-brane webs in orientifold $5$-plane backgrounds. This allows constructing quiver gauge theories with alternating $USp(2N)$ and $SO(N)$ gauge groups with fundamental matter, and thus leads to the existence of new $5d$ fixed point theories. The web description can be further used to study non-perturbative phenomena such as enhancement of symmetry and duality. We further suggest that one can use these systems to engineer $5d$ $SO$ group with spinor matter. We present evidence for this claim.
The standard extremal p-brane solutions in supergravity are known to allow for a generalisation which consists of adding a linear dependence on the world-volume coordinates to the usual harmonic function. In this note we demonstrate that remarkably this generalisation goes through in exactly the same way for p-branes with fluxes added to it that correspond to fractional p-branes. We relate this to warped orientifold compactifications by trading the Dp-branes for Op-planes that solve the RR tadpole condition. This allows us to interpret the worldvolume dependence as due to lower-dimensional sca…
We study aspects of the interaction between a D-brane and an anti-D-brane in the maximally supersymmetric plane wave background of type IIB superstring theory, which is equipped with a mass parameter mu. An early such study in flat spacetime (mu=0) served to sharpen intuition about D-brane interactions, showing in particular the key role of the ``stringy halo'' that surrounds a D-brane. The halo marks the edge of the region within which tachyon condensation occurs, opening a gateway to new non-trivial vacua of the theory. It seems pertinent to study the fate of the halo for non--zero mu. We fo…
We study the worldvolume supersymmetries of M2 branes in the maximally supersymmetric plane wave background of M theory. For certain embeddings the standard probe analysis indicates that the worldvolume theory has less than 16 supersymmetries. We show that at the quadratic level the worldvolume theory admits additional linearly realized supersymmetries, and that the spectra of the branes are organized into multiplets of these symmetries. We find however that these supersymmetries are not respected by worldvolume interactions. Our analysis was motivated by recent work showing that D-branes in t…
Using the relation between D-brane charges and K-theory, we study non-BPS D-branes and their behavior under T-duality. We point out that in general compactifications, D-brane charges are classified by relative K-theory groups. T-duality is found to act as a symmetry between the relative K-theory groups in Type II and Type I/IA theories. We also study Type \tilde\IA theory (which contains an O8^- plane and an O8^+ plane), using K-theory and T-duality to identify its stable D-branes. Comparison with string theory constructions reveals two interesting effects. One of them involves the transfer of…
We study some aspects of the strong coupling dynamics of Dirichlet six branes, anti- six branes, and orientifold planes by using the equivalence of type IIA string theory and M-theory on S^1. In the strong coupling limit there exists static configuration of brane and anti-brane at arbitrary separation, suspended in an external magnetic field. The mass of the open string stretched between the brane and the anti-brane approaches a finite positive value even when the branes coincide. Similar result is obtained for a Dirichlet six brane on top of an orientifold six plane. We also derive the anomal…
In this paper we consider type IIA compactifications in the isotropic Z2 x Z2 orbifold with a flux-induced perturbative superpotential combined with non-perturbative effects. Without requiring the presence of O-planes, and simply having D6-branes as local sources, we demonstrate the existence of de Sitter (dS) critical points, where the non-perturbative contributions to the cosmological constant have negligible size. We note, however, that these solutions generically have tachyons. By means of a more systematic search, we are able to find two examples of stable dS vacua with no need for anti-b…
We derive boundary conditions for the covariant open string corresponding to D-branes in an Hpp-wave, by requiring kappa symmetry of its bulk action. Both half-supersymmetric and quarter-supersymmetric branes are seen to arise in this way, and the analysis furthermore agrees fully with the existing probe brane and supergravity computations. We elaborate on the origin of dynamical and kinematical supersymmetries from the covariant point of view. In particular we focus on the D-string which only preserves half of the dynamical supersymmetries and none of the kinematical ones. We discuss its orig…
This is the first of a series of papers devoted to the group-theoretical analysis of the conditions which must be satisfied for a configuration of intersecting M5-branes to be supersymmetric. In this paper we treat the case of static branes. We start by associating (a maximal torus of) a different subgroup of Spin(10) with each of the equivalence classes of supersymmetric configurations of two M5-branes at angles found by Ohta & Townsend. We then consider configurations of more than two intersecting branes. Such a configuration will be supersymmetric if and only if the branes are G-related, wh…
The explicit (all-order in fermions) form of the kappa-symmetric $D3$ brane probe action was previously found in the two maximally supersymmetric type IIB vacua: flat space and $AdS_5 \times S^5$. Here we present the form of the action in the third maximally supersymmetric type IIB background: gravitational plane wave supported by constant null 5-form strength. We study $D3$ brane action in both covariant and light cone kappa symmetry gauges. Like the fundamental string action, the $D3$ brane action takes a simple form once written in the light cone kappa-symmetry gauge. We also consider the $…
In this article we conjecture a relationship between 5d SCFT's, that can be engineered by 5-brane webs in the presence of an $O5^-$-plane, and 4d class S theories of type D. The specific relation is that compactification on a circle of the former leads to the latter. We present evidence for this conjecture. One piece of evidence, which is also an interesting application of this, is that it suggests identifications between different class S theories. This can in turn be tested by comparing their central charges.
We argue that the effective field theory on D3-branes in a plane-wave background with 3-form flux is a nonlocal deformation of Yang-Mills theory. In the case of NSNS flux, it is a dipole field theory with lightlike dipole vectors. For an RR 3-form flux the dipole theory is strongly coupled. We propose a weakly coupled S-dual description for it. The S-dual description is local at any finite order in string perturbation theory but becomes nonlocal when all perturbation theory orders are summed together.
Starting from an N=1 supersymmetric electric gauge theory with the multiple product gauge group and the bifundamentals, we apply Seiberg dual to each gauge group, obtain the N=1 supersymmetric dual magnetic gauge theories with dual matters including the gauge singlets. Then we describe the intersecting brane configurations, where there are NS-branes and D4-branes(and anti D4-branes), of type IIA string theory corresponding to the meta-stable nonsupersymmetric vacua of this gauge theory. We also discuss the case where the orientifold 4-planes are added into the above brane configuration. Next, …
We consider brane configurations in elliptic models which represent softly broken N=4 USp(2 N_c) and SO(N_c) theory. We generalize the notion of the O4 plane, so that it is compatible with the symmetry in the covering space of the elliptic models. By using this notion of the O4 plane, we find the curve for softly broken N=4 USp(2 N_c) and that for SO(N_c) theory as infinite series expansions. For the USp case, we can present the expansion as a polynomial.
From BFSS matrix theory considerations, it is expected that a single D$_{p+2}$-brane action can be obtained from N D$_p$-brane action in large N limit. We examine and confirm this expectation by working out the details of DBI and Chern-Simons terms of D$_{p+2}$-brane action from D$_{p}$-brane action. We show that the same relation works for non-BPS, as well as BPS branes
We study various aspects of N=(4,4) type IIA GS superstring theory in the pp-wave background, which arises as the compactification of maximally supersymmetric eleven-dimensional pp-wave geometry along the spacelike isometry direction. We show the supersymmetry algebra of N=(4,4) worldsheet supersymmetry as well as non-linearly realized supersymmetry. We also give quantization of closed string and open string incorporating various boundary conditions. From the open string boundary conditions, we find configurations of D-branes which preserve half the supersymmetries. Among these we identify D4 …
We investigate the correspondence between the D2-brane, which is described by the abelian Born-Infeld action, and multiple D0-branes, which are done by the nonabelian Born-Infeld action. We construct effective actions for the fuzzy cylinder, sphere and plane formed via D0-branes and compare these actions with those for the cylindrical, spherical and planar D2-brane. We show that in the continuous limit, the effective actions for the fuzzy D0-branes precisely coincide with those for the single D2-brane if both the fuzziness of the D0-brane and the area occupied per a unit of magnetic flux on th…
We construct branes in the plane wave background under the inclusion of fermionic boundary fields. The resulting deformed boundary conditions in the bosonic and fermionic sectors give rise to new integrable and supersymmetric branes of type (n,n). The extremal case of the spacetime filling (4,4)-brane is shown to be maximally spacetime supersymmetric.
We propose 5-brane webs for 5d $\mathcal{N}=1$ $G_2$ gauge theories. From a Higgsing of the $SO(7)$ gauge theory with a hypermultiplet in the spinor representation, we construct two types of 5-brane web configurations for the pure $G_2$ gauge theory using an O5-plane or an $\widetilde{\text{O5}}$-plane. Adding flavors to the 5-brane web for the pure $G_2$ gauge theory is also discussed. Based on the obtained 5-brane webs, we compute the partition functions for the 5d $G_2$ gauge theories using the recently suggested topological vertex formulation with an O5-plane, and we find agreement with kn…
We construct the type IIA nonsupersymmetric meta-stable brane configurations corresponding to the various N=1 supersymmetric gauge theories. The D6-branes are both displaced and rotated where these deformations are described as the mass term and quartic term for the fundamental flavors respectively. The multiplicity of the NS5-branes occurs in the superpotential order for adjoint, symmetric, or bifundamental matters. A rich pattern of nonsupersymmetric meta-stable states as well as the supersymmetric stable states is found.
We give a classification of all multiple intersections of D-branes in ten dimensions and M-branes in eleven dimensions that corresponds to threshold BPS bound states. The residual supersymmetry of these composite branes is determined. By dimensional reduction composite p-branes in lower dimensions can be constructed. We emphasize in dimensions D greater or equal than two, those solutions which involve a single scalar and depend on a single harmonic function. For these extremal branes we obtain the strength of the coupling between the scalar and the gauge field. In particular we give a D-brane …
A class of D-branes for the type IIB plane-wave background is considered that preserve half the dynamical supersymmetries of the light-cone gauge. The D-branes of this type are the euclidean (or instantonic) (0,0), (0,4) and (4,0) branes (where (r,s) denotes a brane oriented with r axes in the first four directions transverse to the +,- light-cone and s axes in the second four directions). Corresponding lorentzian D-branes are (+,-;0,0), (+,-;0,4) and (+,-;4,0). These are constructed in two ways. The first uses a boundary state formalism which implements appropriate fermionic gluing conditions…
