In this work, the moduli of D7-branes in type IIB orientifold compactifications and their stabilization by fluxes is studied from the perspective of F-theory. In F-theory, the moduli of the D7-branes and the moduli of the orientifold are unified in the moduli space of an elliptic Calabi-Yau manifold. This makes it possible to study the flux stabilization of D7-branes in an elegant manner. To answer phenomenological questions, one has to translate the deformations of the elliptic Calabi-Yau manifold of F-theory back to the positions and the shape of the D7-branes. We address this problem by constructing the homology cycles that are relevant for the deformations of the elliptic Calabi-Yau manifold. We show the viability of our approach for the case of elliptic two- and three-folds. Furthermore, we discuss consistency conditions related to the intersections between D7-branes and orientifold planes which are automatically fulfilled in F-theory. Finally, we use our results to study the flux stabilization of D7-branes on the orientifold $K3\times T^2/\Z_2$ using F-theory on $K3\times K3$. In this context, we derive conditions on the fluxes to stabilize a given configuration of D7-branes. This thesis furthermore contains an introduction to F-theory and a brief review of some mathematical background.
We analyze intersecting brane models on toroidal orbifolds T^4/Z_N(N=3,4,6). Focusing on several Higgsing processes of intersecting brane models, we have some insights into the matter spectrum on intersecting branes away from orientifold planes. The matter fields in the adjoint representations of the gauge group on branes can arise when brane intersects the orientifold images. Gauge group and matter spectrum are confirmed using Chan-Paton methods with the Higgsing processes.
We construct intersecting D-branes as noncommutative solitons in bosonic and type II string theory. ``Defect'' branes which are D-branes containing bubbles of the closed string vacuum play an important role in the construction.
We continue with the analysis of finite temperature corrections to the Tachyon mass in intersecting branes which was initiated in arxiv:1403.0389. In this paper we extend the computation to the case of intersecting D3-branes by considering a setup of two intersecting branes in flat-space background. A holographic model dual to BCS superconductor consisting of intersecting D8-branes in D4-brane background was proposed in arxiv:1104.2843. The background considered here is a simplified configuration of this dual model. We compute the one-loop Tachyon amplitude in the Yang-Mills approximation and …
We analyze six-dimensional supergravity theories coming from intersecting brane models on the toroidal orbifold T^4/Z_2. We use recently developed tools for mapping general 6D supergravity theories to F-theory to identify F-theory constructions dual to the intersecting brane models. The F-theory picture illuminates several aspects of these models. In particular, we have some new insight into the matter spectrum on intersecting branes, and analyze gauge group enhancement as branes approach orbifold points. These novel features of intersecting brane models are also relevant in four dimensions, a…
The moduli space of spiked instantons that arises in the context of the BPS/CFT correspondence is realised as the moduli space of classical vacua, i.e. low-energy open string field configurations, of a certain stack of intersecting D1-branes and D5-branes in Type IIB string theory. The presence of a constant B-field induces an interesting dynamics involving the tachyon condensation.
We discuss the special holonomy metrics of Gibbons, Lu, Pope and Stelle, which were constructed as nilmanifold bundles over a line by uplifting supersymmetric domain wall solutions of supergravity to 11 dimensions. We show that these are dual to intersecting brane solutions, and considering these leads us to a more general class of special holonomy metrics. Further dualities relate these to non-geometric backgrounds involving intersections of branes and exotic branes. We discuss the possibility of resolving these spaces to give smooth special holonomy manifolds.
We construct local solutions to eleven-dimensional supergravity describing M2-branes intersecting and/or ending on M5-branes, in the near-horizon limit of the M2-branes. Global solutions describing these theories should have 16 supercharges and asymptotic AdS_4 x S^7 regions, as well as M5-branes wrapping AdS_3 x S^3 subspaces. We construct the local solution describing a stack of an arbitrary number of M5-branes with AdS_3 x S^3 worldvolume and arbitrary M2-brane charge. Our construction provides a mechanism to get around the no-go theorem that rules out the existence of global solutions pres…
We study deformations of ${\cal N}=4$ supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with space-time dependent couplings by embedding probe D3-branes in supergravity backgrounds with non-trivial fluxes. The effective action on the world-volume of the D3-branes is analyzed and a map between the deformation parameters and the fluxes is obtained. As an explicit example, we consider D3-branes in a background corresponding to $(p,q)$ 5-branes intersecting them and show that the effective theory on the D3-branes precisely agrees with the supersymmetric Janus configuration found by Gaiotto and Witten in arXiv:0804…
We study in detail the system of D6 branes and euclidean D2-brane instantons intersecting at angles in type IIA string theory. We find that in the absence of orientifolds the system does not contribute to the low energy superpotential, in agreement with expectations based on effective field theory arguments. We also comment on the implications of our results for dual string theory pictures.
We discuss the process of transmutation of branes into Abelian magnetic flux on the worldvolume of $D9$ branes. This phenomenon is T-dual to the recombination of branes in the intersecting-brane description. In the low energy limit this can be described by a Higgs mechanism involving bifundamental scalars. The Abelian magnetic background arises as a consequence of the compactness of the internal space. Explicit (six-dimensional) examples based on the supersymmetric and the Brane Supersymmetry Breaking (BSB) \mathbb{T}^4/\mathbb{Z}_2 orientifold are analyzed.
