In this paper we study non-perturbative instabilities in Anti de-Sitter vacua arising from flux compactifications of string models with broken supersymmetry. In the semi-classical limit, these processes drive the vacua towards lower fluxes, which translate into higher curvatures and higher string couplings. In order to shed some light on this regime, we provide evidence for a description in terms of branes, which generate near-horizon AdS throats. To this end, we study the attractor properties of the geometries near the throat, and we also characterize their asymptotics away from it. We also describe the instability within a probe-brane picture, finding an agreement between low-energy (super)gravity and brane instanton estimates of the decay rates.
The time-varying density of D-branes and anti-D-branes in an expanding universe is calculated. The D-brane anti-brane annihilation rate is shown to be too small to compete with the expansion rate of a FRW type universe and the branes over-close the universe. This brane problem is analogous to the old monopole problem. Interestingly however, it is shown that small dimension D-branes annihilate more slowly than high dimension branes. Hence, an initially brany universe may be filled with only low dimension branes at late times. When combined with an appropriate late inflationary theory this leads…
Fluxes can decay via the nucleation of Brown-Teitelboim bubbles, but when the decaying fluxes induce D-brane charges this process must be accompanied with an annihilation of D-branes. This occurs via dynamics inside the bubble wall as was well described for (anti-)D3 branes branes annihilating against 3-form fluxes. In this paper we extend this to the other Dp branes with p smaller than seven. Generically there are two decay channels: one for the RR flux and one for the NSNS flux. The RR channel is accompanied by brane annihilation that can be understood from the Dp branes polarising into D(p+…
We study the brane/flux annihilation in the double-throat system in which the corresponding cycles of two throats are homologically equivalent. When we put $\overline{\rm D3}$-branes at only one of throat tips, two throats are no longer identical. Then the brane/flux annihilation can be interpreted as the process for reducing the difference between two throat geometries through the transition to the supersymmetric vacuum. To see this, we describe the changes in the amounts of the NSNS 3-form flux supporting the B-cycle contained in two throat regions during the brane/flux annihilation. We also…
In this note $D9$- and anti-$D9$-brane annihilation in type I string theory is probed by a $D1$-brane. We consider the covariant Green-Schwarz or twistor formulation of the probe theory. We expect the theory to be $κ$-invariant after the annihilation is completed. Conditions of the $κ$-invariance of the theory impose constraints on the background tachyon field. Solutions to the constraints define tachyon values which correspond to type I $D5$-branes as remnants of the annihilation. As a byproduct we get a theory which lies in the same universality class as the non-linear $σ$-model for the Atiy…
In this paper we point out the inevitability of an explosive production of gauge field and gravity wave during an open string tachyon condensation in a cosmological setting. We will be particularly studying an example of brane-anti-brane inflation in a warped throat where inflation ends via tachyon condensation. We point out that a tachyonic instability helps fragmenting the homogeneous tachyon and excites gauge field and contributes to the stress energy tensor which also feeds into the gravity waves.
By extending the calculation of Kahler moduli stabilization to account for an embiggened antibrane, we reevaluate brane/flux annihilation in a warped throat with one stabilized Kahler modulus. We find that depending on the relative size of various fluxes three things can occur: the decay process proceeds unhindered, the anti-D3-branes are forbidden to decay classically, or the entire space decompactifies. Additionally, we show that the Kahler modulus receives a contribution from the collective 3-brane tension. This allows for a significant change in compactified volume during the transition an…
We investigate the leading contribution to open string production in the time dependent background of the Brane Anti-Brane. This is a 1-loop diagram and we use Boundary Conformal Field Theory (BCFT) techniques to study it. We show that the amplitude to a single open string naively diverges when one looks at it as an expansion in oscillator levels. Nevertheless, we show that once we sum over all oscillator levels we get a finite result. We also clarify where to perform the inverse Wick rotation in this kind of problems. This calculation could have important consequences for the theory of reheat…
We study scattering of $D0$ branes in eleven dimensional supergravity (SUGRA) using the tree level four point amplitude. The range of validity of SUGRA allows us to make reliable calculations of relativistic brane scattering, inaccessible in string theory because of halo effects. We also compare the rate of annihilation of $D0-\bar{D0}$ branes to the rate of elastic $D0-\bar{D0}$ scattering and find that the former is always smaller than the latter. We also find a pole in $σ_{D0-\bar{D0}}$. We exploit the analogy with the positronium to argue that the brane anti-brane pairs form branium atoms …
We investigate the supersymmetric index of N=2,3 SU(n) supersymmetric Yang-Mills Chern Simons theories at level k by using the brane configuration with a (p,q)5-brane. We can explain that the supersymmetry breaking occurs when k<n in terms of the s-rule for Type IIB branes. The supersymmetric index coincides with the number of the possible supersymmetric brane configurations. We also discuss a construction of a family of theories which have the same supersymmetric index.
We consider both the supersymmetric open 2-brane and bosonic open 2-brane, their quantization and spectrum under the flat metric condition. The supersymmetric spectrum turns out to be discrete, while the spectrum of purely bosonic open 2-brane is shown to be devoid of any massless states.
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.
We examine if there exists a zero-energy supersymmetric ground state for the fundamental five-brane. Looking for an $SO(6)\times SO(2)$- invariant ground state, we construct, in the light-cone gauge, perturbatively a Nicolai map up to third order in the inverse five-brane tension. We show that the Nicolai map equilibrates and the five-brane has a zero-energy normalizable supersymmetric vacuum state. For the other p-branes, we argue that only the three-brane has a zero-energy ground state.
We study the dynamical Myers effect by allowing the fuzzy (or the dynamical dielectric brane) coordinates to be time dependent. We find three novel kinds of the dynamical spherical dielectric branes depending on their respective excess energies. The first represents a dynamical spherical brane carrying a negative excess energy (having a lower bound) with its radius oscillating periodically between two given non-zero values. The second is the one with zero excess energy and whose time dependence can be expressed in terms of a simple function. This particular dynamical spherical configuration re…
Harmonic oscillators with a centrifugal spike are analysed, via a non-Hermitian regularization, within a complexified SUSY quantum mechanics. The formalism enables us to construct the factorized creation and annihilation operators. We show how the real though, generically, non-equidistant spectrum complies with the current SUSY-type isospectrality and degeneracy in an unusual way.
We reconsider the dynamics of p anti-D3 branes inside the Klebanov-Strassler geometry, in which M units of R-R 3-form flux and K units of NS-NS 3-form flux are presented in deformed conifold. We find that anti-D3 branes blow up into a spherical D5-brane at weak string coupling via quantum tunnelling. The D5-brane can be either stable or unstable, depending on number of background flux. The nucleation rate of D5-brane is suppressed by \exp{-Mp^2}. The classical mechanically the evolution of unstable D5-brane annihilates one unit of R-R flux and ends with (K-p) D3-branes. This observation is con…
We propose a generic supersymmetric and kappa-invariant action for describing coincident D0-branes with non-abelian matter fields on their worldline. The action is shown to be in agreement with the Matrix Theory limit of the ND0-brane effective action.
Using N=2 off-shell supergravity in five dimensions, we supersymmetrize the brane world scenario of Randall and Sundrum. We extend their construction to include supersymmetric matter at the fixpoints.
We consider the dynamics of p anti-D3 branes inside the Klebanov-Strassler geometry, the deformed conifold with M units of RR 3-form flux around the S^3. We find that for p<<M the system relaxes to a nonsupersymmetric NS 5-brane ``giant graviton'' configuration, which is classically stable, but quantum mechanically can tunnel to a nearby supersymmetric vacuum with M-p D3 branes. This decay mode is exponentially suppressed and proceeds via the nucleation of an NS 5-brane bubble wall. We propose a dual field theory interpretation of the decay as the transition between a nonsupersymmetric ``baryo…
In certain regions of the moduli space of K3 and Calabi-Yau manifolds, D-branes wrapped on non-supersymmetric cycles may give rise to stable configurations. We show that in the orbifold limit, some of these stable configurations can be described by solvable boundary conformal field theories. The world-volume theory of N coincident branes of this type is described by a non-supersymmetric U(N) gauge theory. At the boundary of the region of stability, there are marginal deformations connecting the non-supersymmetric brane to a pair of D-branes wrapped on supersymmetric cycles. We also discuss var…
We refine a previous proposal for obtaining the multi-instanton partition function from the supersymmetric index of the 1d supersymmetric gauge theory on the worldline of D0-branes. We provide examples where the refinements are crucial for obtaining the correct result.
We derive superalgebras in many types of supersymmetric M-brane backgrounds. The backgrounds examined here include the cases of the M-wave and the M-Kaluza-Klein monopole. On the basis of the obtained algebras, we deduce all the supersymmetric non-orthogonal intersections of the M-Kaluza-Klein monopole and the M-5-brane at angles. In addition, we present a 1/4 supersymmetric worldvolume 3-brane soliton on the M-5-brane in the M-5-brane background as an extended solution of the 3-brane solitons of the M-5-brane by Howe, Lambert and West. This soliton can be interpreted as a certain intersection…
We employ generalized complex geometry to investigate supersymmetric embeddings of D-brane probes in a large class of SU(2) structure manifolds. This class includes the gravity dual of mass deformation and marginal beta deformation of N=4 SYM gauge theory. We find supersymmetric configurations of D-branes with different dimensionality and propose their interpretation in the dual gauge theory.
We study supersymmetric intersections of M2 and M5 branes with different pp-waves of M-theory. We consider first M-brane probes in the background of pp-waves and determine under which conditions the embedding is supersymmetric. We particularize our formalism to the case of pp-waves with 32, 24 and 20 supersymmetries. We also construct supergravity solutions for the brane-wave system. Generically these solutions are delocalised along some directions transverse to the brane and preserve the same number of supersymmetries as in the brane probe approach.
In the orbifold limit of K3, one can give exact conformal field theory description of D-branes wrapped on certain non-supersymmetric cycles of K3. We study the effect of switching on the `non-geometric blow up modes' corresponding to anti-symmetric tensor gauge field flux through the 2-cycles on these D-branes. Working to first order in the blow up parameter, we determine the region of the moduli space in which these D-branes are stable. Across the boundary of this region, the D-brane wrapped on the non-supersymmetric cycle decays to a pair of D-branes, each wrapped on a supersymmetric cycle, …
We use dyonic brane configurations of type 0 string theory to study large N non-supersymmetric 4d gauge theories. The brane configurations define theories similar to the supersymmetric ones which arise in type II. We find the non-SUSY analogues of N=2 and N=1. In particular we suggest new non-SUSY CFT's and a brane realization of a non-SUSY Seiberg duality.
We study the correspondence between the moduli space of vacua of three-dimensional supersymmetric Yang-Mills (Maxwell) Chern-Simons theories and brane configurations with (p,q)5-brane. For Coulomb branches, the number of the massless adjoint scalar fields in various supersymmetric theories exactly coincides with the number of the freely moving directions of D3-branes stretched between two 5-branes. When we include a matter superfield into the supersymmetric Chern-Simons theory two distinct symmetric and asymmetric phase appear. The symmetric phase is peculiar to this Chern-Simons Higgs system.…
Generalizing the work by Cherkis and Schwarz [1], we carry out the double dimensional reduction of supersymmetric M5 brane on K3 to obtain the supersymmetric action of heterotic string in 7-dimensional flat space-time. Motivated by this result, we propose the supersymmetric heterotic action in 10-dimensional flat space-time where the current algebra is realized in a novel way. We explicitly verify the kappa-symmetry of the proposed action.
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 study non-supersymmetric SO(3)-invariant deformations of d=3, N=8 super Yang-Mills theory and their type IIA string theory dual. By adding both gaugino mass and scalar mass, dielectric D4-brane potential coincides with D5-brane potential in type IIB theory. We find the region of parameter space where the non-supersymmetric vacuum is described by stable dielectric NS5-branes. By considering the generalized action for NS5-branes in the presence of D4-flux, we also analyze the properties of dielectric NS5-branes.
A supersymmetric action functional describing the interaction of the fundamental superstring with the D=10, type IIB Dirichlet super-9-brane is presented. A set of supersymmetric equations for the coupled system is obtained from the action principle. It is found that the interaction of the string endpoints with the super-D9-brane gauge field requires some restrictions for the image of the gauge field strength. When those restrictions are not imposed, the equations imply the absence of the endpoints, and the equations coincide either with the ones of the free super-D9-brane or with the ones for…
We present two classes of regular supergravity backgrounds dual to supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric gauge theories living on the world-volume of wrapped branes. In particular we consider the Maldacena Nunez and the Klebanov Strassler models, describing N=1 and N=2 theories, and find their non supersymmetric generalization by explicitly solving the second order equation of motion. We also study various aspects of these solutions, including the supersymmetry breaking issue and the vacuum energy.
We study D-branes of N=2 supersymmetric sigma models. Supersymmetric nonlinear sigma models with 2-dimensional target space have D0,D1,D2-branes, which are realized as A-,B-type supersymmetric boundary conditions on the worldsheet. When we embed the models in the string theory, the Kahler potential is restricted and leads to a 2-dim black hole metric with a dilaton background. The D-branes in this model are susy cycles and consistent with the analysis of conjugacy classes. The generalized metrics with U(n) isometry is proposed and dynamics on them are realized by linear sigma models. We invest…
A class of p-brane solutions for supersymmetric gravity theories with negative cosmological constant are proposed and analyzed. The solutions are purely bosonic and contain a worldsheet and a transverse section. The classification relays on the number of intrinsic Killing spinors on the worldsheet and the transverse section. A explicit discussion of the classification is performed for the four dimensional worldsheet case.
We construct a class of supersymmetric boundary interactions in N=2 field theories on the half-space, which depend on parameters that are not at all renormalized or not renormalized in perturbation theory beyond one-loop. This can be used to study D-branes wrapped on a certain class of Lagrangian submanifolds as well as holomorphic cycles. The construction of holomorphic D-branes is in close relationship with the background independent open string field theory approach to brane/anti-brane systems. As an application, mirror pairs of Lagrangian and holomorphic D-branes are identified. The mirror…
We study webs of D3- and D5-branes in type IIB supergravity. These webs preserve at least 8 supercharges. By solving the Killing spinor equations we determine the form of supergravity solutions for the system. We then turn to the sub-class of the intersecting D3/D5 brane system and elucidate some of its features.
In this paper we investigate the form of calibrated M5-branes in the presence of a nonvanishing 3-form field H. We discuss the influence of the H-field on the deformation of supersymmetric n-cycles (in particular SLAG submanifolds in R^n). In addition we argue for a construction which relates calibrated M5-branes of different curved dimensions to each other.
We find a class of flat supersymmetric brane-antibrane configurations. They follow from ordinary brane-antibrane systems by turning on a specific worldvolume background electric field, which corresponds to dissolved fundamental strings. We have clarified in detail how they arise and identified their constituent charges as well as the corresponding supergravity solutions. Adopting the matrix theory description, we construct the worldvolume gauge theories and prove the absence of any tachyonic degrees. We also study supersymmetric solitons of the worldvolume theories.
We construct non-supersymmetric four dimensional gauge theories arising as effective theories of D-branes placed on various singularities in Type 0B string theory. We mostly focus on models which are conformal in the large N limit and present both examples appearing on self-dual D3-branes on orbifold singularities and examples including orientifold planes. Moreover, we derive type 0 Hanany-Witten setups with NS 5-branes intersected by D-branes and the corresponding rules for determining the massless spectra. Finally, we discuss possible duality symmetries (Seiberg-duality) for non-supersymmetr…
We derive an energy bound for a `baryonic' D5-brane probe in the $adS_5\times S^5$ background near the horizon of $N$ D3-branes. Configurations saturating the bound are shown to be 1/4 supersymmetric $S^5$-wrapped D5-branes, with a total Born-Infeld charge $N$. Previous results are recovered as a special case. We derive a similar energy bound for a `baryonic' M5-brane probe in the background of $N$ M5-branes. Configurations saturating the bound are again 1/4 supersymmetric and, in the $adS_7\times S^4$ near-horizon limit, provide a worldvolume realization of the `baryon string' vertex of the (…
In the last few years, brane tilings have proven to be an efficient and convenient way of studying supersymmetric gauge theories living on D3-branes or M2-branes. In these pages we present a quick and simple introduction to the subject, hoping this could tickle the reader's curiosity to learn more on this extremely fascinating subject.
We consider supersymmetric extensions of a recently proposed partonic description of a bosonic p-brane which reformulates the Nambu-Goto action as an interacting multi-particle action with Filippov-Lie algebra gauge symmetry. We construct a worldline supersymmetric action by postulating, among others, a p-form fermion. Demanding a local worldline supersymmetry rather than the full worldvolume supersymmetry, we circumvent a known no-go theorem against the construction of a Ramond-Neveu-Schwarz supersymmetric action for a p-brane of p>1. We also derive a spacetime supersymmetric Green-Schwarz ex…
We study the supersymmetric properties of D7-branes in the warped deformed conifold. We consider the $κ$-symmetry conditions on D7-branes in this specific warped background, taking into account the background NS-NS 2-form flux. While any holomorphic embedding defines a supersymmetric D7-brane in the absence of background H-flux, most of the D7-brane embeddings considered in the literature do not preserve supersymmetry for the warped deformed conifold without also including brane worldvolume flux. For the simplest such embedding, we construct numerically the worldvolume fluxnecessary to restore…
We consider a supersymmetric extension of the SL(2;Z)-covariant D3-brane action proposed by Nurmagambetov, and prove its kappa-symmetry in an on-shell type-IIB supergravity background.
We derive level-rank duality in pure Chern-Simons gauge theories from a non-supersymmetric Seiberg duality by using a non-supersymmetric brane configuration in type IIB string theory. The brane configuration consists of fivebranes, N D3 antibranes and an O3 plane. By swapping the fivebranes we derive a 3d non-supersymmetric Seiberg duality. After level shifts from loop effects, this identifies the IR of Sp(2N)_{2k-2N+2} and Sp(2k-2N+2)_{-2N} pure Chern-Simons theories, which is a level-rank pair. We also derive level-rank duality in a Chern-Simons theory based on a unitary group.
We discuss how to incorporate non-supersymmetric branes in compactifications of type II string theories. We particularly focus on flux compactifications on $SU(3)\times SU(3)$ structure manifolds to four dimensions, so that a linear $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetry is spontaneously broken by spacetime filling Dp-branes. Anti-Dp-branes are a very special subset of such branes but our analysis is generic. We show that the backreaction of non-supersymmetric branes can be incorporated into the standard 4d $\mathcal{N}=1$ supergravity by including a nilpotent chiral multiplet. Supersymmetry in such se…
For a given attractor black hole with generic D6-D4-D2-D0-charges in four dimensions we identify the set of supersymmetric branes, static or stationary in global coordinates, of the corresponding eleven-dimensional near horizon geometry. The set of these BPS states, which includes branes which partially or fully wrap the horizon, should play a role in understanding the partition function of black holes with D6-charges.
We study wrapped brane configurations via possible maximally supersymmetric gauged supergravities. First, we construct various supersymmetric wrapped D3 brane configurations from D=5 N=8 SO(6) gauged supergravity. This procedure provides certain new examples of wrapped D3 branes around supersymmetric cycles inside non-compact special holonomy manifolds. We analyze their behaviors numerically in order to discuss a correspondence to Higgs and Coulomb branches of sigma models on wrapped D3 branes. We also realize supersymmetric wrapped M2 branes from D=4 N=8 SO(8) gauged supergravity. Then, we st…
We study the vacuum polarization of supersymmetric toroidal D-brane placed in the constant electromagnetic field. Explicit calculation of the one-loop effective potential is performed for membrane with constant magnetic or electric background. We find the one-loop potentials vanish as the effect of supersymmetry,
We find various supersymmetric configurations of toroidal M2 brane solutions in $\AdS_4 \times S^7$ or, more generally, in $\AdS_4 \times S^7/Z_k$. In this class we identify solutions preserving 1/4 and 1/8 supersymmetries of the background. The supersymmetric M2 branes have angular momenta and winding on $S^7$, and null world-volumes. In certain cases they collapse to string-like configurations. These configurations can be viewed as a higher-dimensional (membrane) analog of BMN states. We compute the energy and angular momenta, showing that all supersymmetric configurations obey the BPS relat…
We review the salient features of spacetime and worldvolume supersymmetric super p-brane actions. These are sigma models for maps from a worldvolume superspace to the target superspace. For p-branes, the symmetries of the model depend crucially on the existence of closed super (p+1)-forms on a worldvolume superspace, built out of the pull-backs of the Kalb-Ramond super (p+1)-form in target superspace and its curvature. This formulation of super p-branes is usually referred to as the twistor-like formulation.
We obtain new examples of partially supersymmetric M-brane solutions defined on products of Ricci-flat manifolds, which contain two-dimensional Lorentzian submanifold R^{1,1}_{*}/Z_2 with one parallel spinor. The examples belong to the following configurations: M2, M5, M2-M5 and M5-M5. Among them a M2 solution with N =1/32 fractional number of preserved supersymmetries is presented. The examples with three M-branes were considered earlier in our paper with A.A. Golubtsova.
We construct type II A brane configuration of N=(4,4) supersymmetric two dimensional gauge theory with gauge group U(1) and N_f hypermultiplets in the fundamental representation. By lifting to M-theory (strong coupling), we can see the origin of the R-symmetry enhancement of the Coulomb branch. One can also find two theories which become equivalent at strong coupling.
We consider five-dimensional brane worlds with N=2 gauged supergravity in the bulk coupled supersymmetrically to two boundary branes at the fixed points of a Z_2 symmetry. We analyse two mechanisms that break supersymmetry either by choosing flipped fermionic boundary conditions on the boundary branes or by modifying the gravitino variation to include both Z_2-odd and Z_2-even operators. In all cases we find the corresponding background. Including an even part in the gravitino variation leads to tilted branes. Choosing the flipped boundary conditions leads to AdS_4 branes and stabilized radion…
We calculate vacuum energy for twisted SUSY D-brane on toroidal background with constant magnetic or constant electric field. Its behaviour for toroidal D-brane (p=2) in constant electric field shows the presence of stable minimum for twisted versions of the theory. That indicates such a background maybe reasonable groundstate.
An action for supersymmetric D0-branes in curved backgrounds is obtained by dimensional reduction of N=1 ten-dimensional supergravity coupled to super Yang-Mills system to 0+1 dimensions. The resultant action exhibits the coset-space symmetry $\frac{SO(9,9+n)}{SO(9)\times SO(9+n)}\times U(1)$ where $n=N^{2}-1$ is the dimension of the SU(N) gauge group.
We consider genuine type IIB string theory (supersymmetric) brane intersections that preserve $(1+1)$D Lorentz symmetry. We provide the full supergravity solutions in their analytic form and discuss their physical properties. The Ansatz for the spacetime dependence of the different brane warp factors goes beyond the harmonic superposition principle. By studying the associated near-horizon geometry, we construct interesting classes of AdS$_3$ vacua in type IIB and highlight their relation to the existing classifications in the literature. Finally, we discuss their holographic properties.
We discuss non-linear instantons in supersymmetric field theories on curved spaces arising from D-branes. Focusing on D3-branes and four-dimensional field theories, we derive the supersymmetry conditions and show the intimate relation between the instanton solutions and the non-linearly realized supersymmetries of the field theory. We demonstrate that field theories with non-linearly realized supersymmetries are coupled to supergravity backgrounds in a similar fashion as those with linearly realized supersymmetries, and provide details on how to derive such couplings from a type II perspective…
