We present the light-cone gauge fixed Lagrangian for the M5-brane; it has a residual `exotic' gauge invariance with the group of 5-volume preserving diffeomorphisms, SDiff(5), as gauge group. For an M5-brane of topology R2 x M3, for closed 3-manifold M3, we find an infinite tension limit that yields an SO(8)-invariant (1+2)-dimensional field theory with `exotic' SDiff(3) gauge invariance. We show that this field theory is the Carrollian limit of the Nambu bracket realization of the `BLG' model for multiple M2-branes.
Boundary states for D-branes are constructed using the light cone gauge. The D-brane breaks half the spacetime supersymmetry giving rise to fermionic zero modes living on the brane. The nonlinear realization of the broken supersymmetry on the open string degrees of freedom is analysed and the influence of boundary terms coming from closed string vertex operators is discussed.
We apply the light-cone hamiltonian approach to D2-brane, and derive the equivalent gauge-invariant Lagrangian. The later appears to be that of three-dimensional Yang-Mills theory, interacting with matter fields, in the special external induced metric, depending on matter fields. The duality between this theory and 11d membrane is shown.
Motivated by recent developments in the understanding of the connection between five branes on resolved geometries and the corresponding generalizations of complex deformations in the context of the warped resolved deformed conifold, we consider the construction of five branes solutions on the resolved cone over Y^{p,q} spaces. We establish the existence of supersymmetric five branes solutions wrapped on two-cycles of the resolved cone over Y^{p,q} in the probe limit. We then use calibration techniques to begin the construction of fully back-reacted five branes; we present an Ansatz and the co…
It is shown how magnetic fluxbrane, Fp-brane, solutions are related to electric black p-branes by analytic continuation. Viewing the transverse space of branes as a warped cone, one finds that the cone base of the p-brane becomes the world-volume of the F(D-p-3)-brane and the world volume of the p-brane becomes the cone base of the F(D-p-3)-brane. An explicit example of the correspondence is given for a 2-brane and F6-brane of 11D supergravity.
In this talk we are going to review a method to construct the thermal boundary states of the thermal string in the TFD approach. The class of thermal boundary states presented here is derived from the BPS D-branes of the type II GS superstrings.
The light-cone Hamiltonian approach is applied to the super D2-brane, and the equivalent area--preserving and U(1) gauge-invariant effective Lagrangian, which is quadratic in the U(1) gauge field, is derived. The latter is recognised to be that of the three-dimensional U(1) gauge theory, interacting with matter supermultiplets, in a special external induced supergravity metric and the gravitino field, depending on matter fields. The duality between this theory and 11d supermembrane theory is demonstrated in the light-cone gauge.
$D$-brane boundary states for type II superstrings are constructed by enforcing the conditions that preserve half of the space-time supersymmetry. A light-cone coordinate frame is used where time is identified as one of the coordinates transverse to the brane's (euclidean) world-volume so that the $p$-brane is treated as a $(p+1)$-instanton. The boundary states have the superspace interpretation of top or bottom states in a light-cone string superfield. The presence of a non-trivial open-string boundary condensate give rise to the familiar $D$-brane source terms that determine the (linearized)…
The problem of describing the boundary states of unstable non-BPS D-branes of type-II string theories in light-cone Green-Schwarz (GS) formalism is addressed. Regarding the type II theories in light-cone gauge as different realizations of the $\hat{SO}(8)_{k=1}$ Kac-Moody algebra, the non-BPS D-brane boundary states of these theories are given in terms of the relevant Ishibashi states constructed in this current algebra. Using the expressions for the current modes in terms of the GS variables it is straightforward to reexress the boundary states in the GS formalism. The problem that remains is…
We present the Hamiltonian formulation of the bosonic Dirichlet p-brane action. We rewrite the recently proposed quadratic D-brane action in terms of generalized shift vector and lapse function. The first class and the second class constraints are explicitly separated for the bosonic case. We then impose the gauge conditions in such a way that only time-independent gauge transformations are left. In this gauge we obtain the light-cone Hamiltonian which is quadratic in the field momenta of scalar and vector fields. The constraints are explicitly solved to eliminate part of the canonical variabl…
The cubic interaction vertex and the dynamical supercharges are constructed for open strings ending on D7-branes, in light-cone superstring field theory in PP-wave background. In this context, we write down the symmetry generators in terms of the relevant group structure: SU(2) x SU(2) x SO(2) x SO(2), originating from the eight transverse directions in the PP-wave background and use the expressions to explicitly construct the vertex at the level of stringy zero modes. The results are further generalized to include all the stringy excitations as well.
In 1007.2982 a novel system of equations which propagate in one null and four space directions were obtained as the on-shell conditions for the six-dimensional (2,0) superalgebra. In this paper we show how this system reduces to one-dimensional motion on instanton moduli space. Quantization leads to the previous light-cone proposal of the (2,0) theory, generalized to include a potential that arises on the Coulomb branch as well as couplings to background gauge and self-dual two-form fields.
We construct the scalar profile for the non-abelian self dual string connecting two M5-branes compactified on a light-like circle. The construction is based on a conjectured modified version of Nahm's equations describing a D2-brane, with a magnetic field on it, suspended between two D4-branes. Turning on a constant magnetic field on the D2-brane corresponds to a boost in the eleventh direction. In the limit of infinite boost the D4-branes correspond to light-like compactified M5-branes. The solution for the scalar profile of the brane remains finite in this limit and displays all the correct …
We consider a D2-brane in the pp-wave backgrounds obtained from AdS$_4\times$CP$^3$ when electric and magnetic fields have been turned on. Upon fixing the light-cone gauge, light-cone Hamiltonian and BPS configurations are obtained. In particular we study BPS configurations with electric dipole on the two sphere giant and a giant graviton rotating in transverse directions. Moreover we show that the gauge field living on the D2-brane is replaced by a scalar field in the light-cone Hamiltonian. We also present a matrix model by regularizing (quantizing) 2-brane theory.
I discuss D0-brane quantum mechanics as a nonperturbative formulation of string theory, in particular the relation between the Banks-Fischler-Shenker-Susskind matrix model, the Maldacena conjecture for D0-branes, and type IIA/M-theory duality. Some features of the quantum mechanics of D0-branes are also discussed. Lecture presented at the Nishinomiya-Yukawa Memorial Symposium, Nov. 1998.
We derive the superconformal index of the world-volume theory on M2-branes probing the cone over an arbitrary Sasaki-Einstein seven-manifold. The index is expressed in terms of the cohomology groups of the cone. We match our supergravity results with known results from gauge theory. Along the way we derive the spectrum of short Kaluza-Klein multiplets on generic Sasaki-Einstein seven-manifolds.
Non-BPS D-branes are difficult to describe covariantly in a manifestly supersymmetric formalism. For definiteness we concentrate on type IIB string theory in flat background in light-cone Green-Schwarz formalism. We study both the boundary state and the boundary conformal field theory descriptions of these D-branes with manifest SO(8) covariance and go through various consistency checks. We analyze Sen's original construction of non-BPS D-branes given in terms of an orbifold boundary conformal field theory. We also directly study the relevant world-sheet theory by deriving the open string boun…
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…
For physicists: We show that the quiver gauge theory derived from a Calabi-Yau cone via an exceptional collection of line bundles on the base has the original cone as a component of its classical moduli space. For mathematicians: We use data from the derived category of sheaves on a Fano surface to construct a quiver, and show that its moduli space of representations has a component which is isomorphic to the anticanonical cone over the surface.
We find the analogue of the Boillat metric of Born-Infeld theory for the M5-brane. We show that it provides the propagation cone of {\sl all} 5-brane degrees. In an arbitrary background field, this cone never lies outside the Einstein cone. An energy momentum tensor for the three-form is defined and shown to satisfy the Dominant Energy Condition. The theory is shown to be well defined for all values of the magnetic field but there is a limiting electric field strength. We consider the strong coupling limit of the M5-brane and show that the corresponding theory is conformally invariant and admi…
We construct the cubic interaction vertex and dynamically generated supercharges in light-cone superstring field theory for a large class half-supersymmetric D-branes in the plane-wave background. We show that these satisfy the plane-wave superalgebra at first order in string coupling. The cubic interaction vertex and dynamical supercharges presented here are given explicitly in terms of oscilators and can be used to compute three-point functions of open strings with endpoints on half-supersymmetric D-branes.
In gauge/gravity duality, the bulk double cone geometry has been argued to account for a key feature of the spectral form factor known as the ramp. This feature is deeply associated with quantum chaos in the dual field theory. The connection with the ramp has been demonstrated in detail for two-dimensional theories of bulk gravity, but it appears natural in higher dimensions as well. In a general bulk theory the double cone might thus be expected to dominate the semiclassical bulk path integral for the boundary spectral form factor in the ramp regime. While other known spacetime wormholes have…
We construct deformed, T^2 wrapped, rotating M2-branes on a resolved cone over Q^{1,1,1} and Q^{1,1,1}/Z_2, as well as on a product of two Eguchi-Hanson instantons. All worldvolume directions of these supersymmetric and regular solutions are fibred over the transverse space. These constitute gravity duals of D=3, N=2 gauge theories. In particular, the deformed M2-brane on a resolved cone over Q^{1,1,1} and the S^1 wrapped M2-brane on a resolved cone over Q^{1,1,1}/Z_2 provide explicit realizations of holographic renormalization group flows in M-theory for which both conformal and Lorentz symme…
We review and extend the progress made over the past few years in understanding the structure of toric quiver gauge theories; those which are induced on the world-volume of a stack of D3-branes placed at the tip of a toric Calabi-Yau cone, at an ``orbifold point'' in Kaehler moduli space. These provide an infinite class of four-dimensional N=1 superconformal field theories which may be studied in the context of the AdS/CFT correspondence. It is now understood that these gauge theories are completely specified by certain two-dimensional torus graphs, called brane tilings, and the combinatorics …
For supergavrity solutions which are the product of an anti-de Sitter space with an Einstein space X, we study the relation between the amount of supersymmetry preserved and the geometry of X. Depending on the dimension and the amount of supersymmetry, the following geometries for X are possible, in addition to the maximally supersymmetric spherical geometry: Einstein-Sasaki in dimension 2k+1, 3-Sasaki in dimension 4k+3, 7-dimensional manifolds of weak G_2 holonomy and 6-dimensional nearly Kaehler manifolds. Many new examples of such manifolds are presented which are not homogeneous and have e…
We study the N=2 supersymmetric Chern-Simons quiver gauge theory recently introduced in arXiv:0809.3237 to describe M2-branes on a cone over the well-known Sasaki-Einstein manifold Q^{1,1,1}. For Chern-Simons levels (k,k,-k,-k) we argue that this theory is dual to AdS_4 x Q^{1,1,1}/Z_k. We derive the Z_k orbifold action and show that it preserves geometrical symmetry U(1)_R x SU(2) x U(1), in agreement with the symmetry of the gauge theory. We analyze the simplest gauge invariant chiral operators, and show that they match Kaluza-Klein harmonics on AdS_4 x Q^{1,1,1}/Z_k. This provides a test of…
Light-front quantization of the conformally gauge-fixed Polyakov D1 brane action with a scalar dilaton field is studied using the equal light-cone world-sheet time framework.
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…
In this note we show that rigid N=2 superconformal hypermultiplets must have target manifolds which are cones over tri-Sasakian metrics. We comment on the relation of this work to cone-branes and the AdS/CFT correspondence.
The shape of D-branes is of fundamental interest in string theory. We find that generically D-branes in trivial spacetime can form a conic shape under external uniform forces. Surprisingly, the apex angle is found to be unique, once the spatial dimensions of the cone is given. In particular it is universal irrespective of the external forces. The quantized angle is reminiscent of Taylor cones of hydrodynamic electrospray. We provide explicit D-brane solutions as well as the mechanism of a force balance on the cone, for D-branes in RR and NSNS flux backgrounds. Critical embedding of probe D-bra…
We study open supermembranes in 11 dimensional rigid superspace with 6 dimensional topological defects (M-theory five-branes). After rederiving in the Green-Schwarz formalism the boundary conditions for open superstrings in the type IIA theory, we determine the boundary conditions for open supermembranes by imposing kappa symmetry and invariance under a fraction of 11 dimensional supersymmetry. The result seems to imply the self-duality of the three-form field strength on the five-brane world volume. We show that the light-cone gauge formulation is regularized by a dimensional reduction of a 6…
We explore the light-cone gauge formulation of a closed supermembrane on AdS_{7} x S^{4}. We obtain the action of matrix quantum mechanics with large N U(N) gauge symmetry for the light-cone supermembrane. We show that this action reproduces leading order terms in α'-expansion of the non-abelian Born-Infeld action of N D0-branes propagating near the horizon of D4-branes. The matrix quantum mechanics obtained in this paper, therefore, has an interpretation as Matrix theory in the near-horizon of D4-branes.
We study families of PP-wave solutions of type-IIB supergravity that have (light-cone) time dependent metrics and RR five-form fluxes. They arise as Penrose limits of supergravity solutions that correspond to rotating or continuous distributions of D3-branes. In general, the solutions preserve sixteen supersymmetries. On the dual field theory side these backgrounds describe the BMN limit of N=4 SYM when some scalars in the field theory have non-vanishing expectation values. We study the perturbative string spectrum and in several cases we are able to determine it exactly for the bosons as well…
We compute constitutive relations for a charged $(2+1)$ dimensional Schrödinger fluid up to first order in derivative expansion, using holographic techniques. Starting with a locally boosted, asymptotically $AdS$, $4+1$ dimensional charged black brane geometry, we uplift that to ten dimensions and perform $TsT$ transformations to obtain an effective five dimensional local black brane solution with asymptotically Schrödinger isometries. By suitably implementing the holographic techniques, we compute the constitutive relations for the effective fluid living on the boundary of this space-time and…
We consider the Penrose limit of the solution of D5-brane given in the Anti-de Sitter space and analyse the shape of the D5-brane in the pp-wave background. We find that the D5-brane leads to the branes and the throats connecting the branes. The branes spread on R^4 with periodic values of the light-cone time x^+ and the throats lie along x^+. We also give some comments on holography.
We make some comments on the derivation of N=2 super-conformal field theories with smooth gauge group from M2-branes placed at conifold singularities, giving a detailed prescription for two specific examples: the singular cones over the Q^{111} and M^{110} manifolds.
In important recent developments, new Sasaki-Einstein spaces $Y^{p,q}$ and conformal gauge theories dual to $AdS_5\times Y^{p,q}$ have been constructed. We consider a stack of N D3-branes and M wrapped D5-branes at the apex of a cone over $Y^{p,q}$. Replacing the D-branes by their fluxes, we construct asymptotic solutions for all p and q in the form of warped products of the cone and $R^{3,1}$. We show that they describe cascading RG flows where N decreases logarithmically with the scale. The warp factor, which we determine explicitly, is a function of the radius of the cone and one of the coo…
We propose a construction of five-branes which fill both light-cone dimensions in Banks, Fischler, Shenker and Susskind's matrix model of M theory. We argue that they have the correct long-range fields and spectrum of excitations. We prove Dirac charge quantization with the membrane by showing that the five-brane induces a Berry phase in the membrane world-volume theory, with a familiar magnetic monopole form.
Brane solutions in time \ light-cone time dependent backgrounds are of interest in order to gain a deeper understanding of the physics associated with cosmological and null singularities. In this paper, we report both brane solutions and their bound states in light-cone time dependent pp wave-like backgrounds. We show that the backgrounds our solutions live in are all cosmologically singular (lightlike) at the classical level. A spacetime supersymmetry analysis of the backgrounds reveals that they retain 1/8 of the full type IIB supersymmetry.
The explicit form of the Wess-Zumino term of the PST super 5-brane Lagrangian in 11 dimensions is obtained. A complete canonical analysis for a gauge fixed PST super 5-brane action reveals the expected mixture of first and second class constraints. The canonical Hamiltonian is quadratic in the antisymmetric gauge field. Finally, we find the light cone gauge Hamiltonian for the theory and its stability properties are commented.
We investigate light-cone structure on the world-volume of an unstable D-brane with a tachyon decaying inhomogeneously by using a field theoretical description. It is shown that (i) light-cones governing open strings are narrower than those governing closed strings and will eventually collapse inward in all directions except at kinks, where the tachyon remains at the top of its potential; and that (ii) light-cones governing open strings at a kink will be narrowed only in the direction perpendicular to the kink surface. It is also shown that (iii) future-directed light-cones governing open stri…
A class of supersymmetric gauge theories arising from M2-branes probing Calabi-Yau 4-folds which are cones over smooth toric Fano 3-folds is investigated. For each model, the toric data of the mesonic moduli space is derived using the forward algorithm. The generators of the mesonic moduli space are determined using Hilbert series. The spectrum of scaling dimensions for chiral operators is computed.
We study the Higgsing and UnHiggsing of M2-brane theories that probe cones over smooth toric Fano 3-folds, via brane tilings. We find many new examples of M2-brane gauge theories not studied previously in the literature, including those that do not correspond to cones over Fano varieties. Our analysis also provides, upon unHiggsing the known Fano varieties, new examples of quiver gauge theories that describe the same toric variety, but with external point multiplicities. As a byproduct of our results, we discuss an example of a CY 4-fold that does not have a tiling description, and study the H…
We consider the open string vacuum amplitude determining the interaction between a stack of N D3-branes and a single probe brane. When using light cone gauge, it is clear that the sum of planar diagrams (relevant in the large-N limit) is described by the free propagation of a closed string. A naive calculation suggests that the Hamiltonian of the closed string is of the form H = H0 - (g_s N) P. The same form of the Hamiltonian follows from considering the bosonic part of the closed string action propagating in the full D3-brane background suggesting the naive calculation captures the correct i…
We discuss the quantization of a tensionless closed string in light-cone gauge. It is known that by using a Hamiltonian BRST scheme the tensionless p-branes have no Lorentz anomaly in any space-time dimensions and no anomaly of space-time conformal symmetry in two dimensions. In this paper, we show that tensionless 3d strings in light-cone gauge also have no anomaly of space-time conformal symmetry. We also study the spectrum of a tensionless 3d closed string.
We consider integrable field theories with achiral boundary conditions and uncover the underlying achiral twisted Yangian algebra. This construction arises from old work on the bosonic principal chiral model on a half-line, but finds a modern realization as the hidden symmetry in the planar limit of the scattering of worldsheet excitations of the AdS/CFT light-cone superstring off a D5-brane.
The dynamics (in light-cone time) of the tachyon on an unstable brane in the background of a dilaton linear along a null coordinate is a non-local reaction-diffusion type equation, which admits a travelling front solution. We analyze the (in-)stability of this solution using linearized perturbation theory. We find that the front solution obtained in singular perturbation method is stable. However, these inhomogenous solutions (unlike the homogenous solution) also have Lyapunov exponents corresponding to unstable modes around the (meta-)stable vacuum.
We calculate classically the radiation of the antisymmetric form field generated in the collision of two non-excited membranes moving with ultrarelativistic velocities in five space-time dimensions. The interaction between branes through the form field is treated perturbatively with the deflection angle as a small parameter. Radiation arises in the second order approximation if the domain of the minimal separation between the branes moves with the superluminal velocity. It exhibits typical Cherenkov cone features. Generalization to p-branes colliding in $D=p+3$ dimensions is straightforward.
We consider deformations of N=1 superconformal field theories that are AdS/CFT dual to Type IIB string theory on Sasaki-Einstein manifolds, characterised by non-zero vacuum expectation values for certain baryonic operators. Such baryonic branches are constructed from (partially) resolved, asymptotically conical Ricci-flat Kahler manifolds, together with a choice of point where the stack of D3-branes is placed. The complete solution then describes a renormalisation group flow between two AdS fixed points. We discuss the use of probe Euclidean D3-branes in these backgrounds as a means to compute…
We construct the Penrose limit backgrounds in closed forms along the generic null geodesics for the near-horizon geometries of D1, D3, D5, NS1 and NS5 branes. The Penrose limit metrics of D1, D5 and NS1 have non-trivial dependence of the light-cone time coordinate, while those of D3 and NS5 have no its dependence. We study the Penrose limits on the marginal 1/4 supersymmetric configurations of standard intersecting branes, such as the NS-NS intersection of NS1 and NS5, the R-R intersections of Dp and Dq over some spatial dimensions and the mix intersections of NS5 and Dp over (p -1)-dimensiona…
We study NSR strings in the Nappi-Witten background, which is the Penrose limit of a certain NS5-brane supergravity solution. We solve the theory in the light-cone gauge, obtaining the spectrum, which is space-time supersymmetric. In light of the LST/NS5-brane duality, this spectrum should be in correspondence with the states of little string theory in the appropriate limit. A semiclassical analysis verifies that the relationship between energy and angular momentum, after a field redefinition, matches the known result for a flat background.
Recent paper arXiv:1103.0553 studied the quiver gauge theories on coincident $M2$ branes on a singular toric Calabi-Yau 4-folds which are complex cone over toric Fano 3-folds. There are 18 toric Fano manifolds but only 14 toric Fano were obtained from the forward algorithm. We attempt to systematize the inverse algorithm which helps in obtaining quiver gauge theories on $M2$-branes from the toric data of the Calabi-Yau 4-folds. In particular, we obtain quiver gauge theories on coincident $M2$-branes corresponding to the remaining 4 toric Fano 3-folds. We observe that these quiver gauge theorie…
The classical solution of bosonic d-brane in (d+1,1) space-time is studied. We work with light-cone gauge and reduce the problem into Chaplygin gas problem. The static equation is equivalent to vanishing of extrinsic mean curvature, which is similar to Einstein equation in vacuum. We show that the d-brane problem in this gauge is closely related to Plateau problem, and we give some non-trivial solutions from minimal surfaces. The solutions of d-1,d,d+1 spatial dimensions are obtained from d-dimensional minimal surfaces as solutions of Plateau problem. In addition we discuss on the relation to …
We examine the effect of light-cone broadening induced by quantum-gravity foam in the context of theories with ``large'' extra dimensions stretching between two parallel brane worlds. We consider the propagation of photon probes on one of the branes, including the response to graviton fluctuations, from both field- and string-theoretical viewpoints. In the latter approach, the dominant source of light-cone broadening may be the recoil of the D-brane, which scales linearly with the string coupling. Astrophysical constraints then place strong restrictions on consistent string models of macroscop…
