We explore Carroll limit corresponding to M2 as well as M3 branes propagating over 11D supergravity backgrounds in M theory. In the first part of the analysis, we introduce the membrane Carroll limit associated to M2 branes propagating over M theory supergravity backgrounds. Considering two specific M2 brane embeddings, we further outline the solutions corresponding to the Hamilton's dynamical equations in the Carroll limit. We further consider the so called \textit{stringy} Carroll limit associated to M2 branes and outline the corresponding solutions to the underlying Hamilton's equations of motion by considering specific M2 brane embeddings over 11D target space geometry. As a further illustration of our analysis, considering the Nambu-Goto action, we show the equivalence between different world-volume descriptions in the Carroll limit of M2 branes. Finally, considering the \textit{stringy} Carroll limit, we explore the constraint structure as well as the Hamiltonian dynamics associated to unstable M3 branes in 11D supergravity and obtain the corresponding effective world-volume description around their respective tachyon vacua.
Carroll symmetries arise when the velocity of light is sent to zero (ultra-relativistic limit). In this paper, we present the construction of the three-dimensional Chern-Simons supergravity theory invariant under the so-called AdS Carroll superalgebra, which was obtained in the literature as a contraction of the AdS superalgebra. The action is characterized by two coupling constants. Subsequently, we study its flat limit, obtaining the three-dimensional Chern-Simons supergravity theory invariant under the super-Carroll algebra, which is a contraction of the Poincaré superalgebra. We apply the …
Carrollian limit of NS-NS and Heterotic Supergravity
Universidad San Sebastián, Facultad de Ingeniería（塞巴斯蒂安大学工程学院）；University of Wroclaw, Faculty of Physics and Astronomy（弗罗茨瓦夫大学物理与天文学学院）；Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Departamento de Física de Altas Energías, Instituto de Ciencias Nucleares（墨西哥国立自治大学高能物理系核科学研究所）
We discuss membranes in four-dimensional N=1 superspace. The kappa-invariance of the Green-Schwarz action implies that there is a dual version of N=1 supergravity with a three-form potential. We formulate this new supergravity in terms of a three-form superfield in curved superspace, giving the relevant constraints on the field strength. We find the corresponding membrane soliton in the new supergravity and discuss how the extended supersymmetry algebra emerges from the symmetries of the flat superspace background.
Starting from gauged N=8 supergravity in three dimensions we construct actions for multiple membranes by taking the limit to global supersymmetry for different choices of the embedding tensor. This provides a general framework that reproduces many recent results on multiple membrane actions as well as generalisations thereof. As examples we discuss conformal (non-conformal) gaugings leading to multiple M2-branes (D2-branes) and massive deformations of these systems.
We present a class of static membrane solutions, with non-flat worldvolume geometry, in the eleven dimensional supergravity with source terms. This class of solutions contains supersymmetric as well as a large class of non-supersymmetric configurations. We comment about near horizon limit and stability of these solutions and point out an interesting relation with certain two dimensional dilaton gravity system.
We consider superconformal field theories in three and six dimensions with eight supercharges which can be realized on the world-volume of M-theory branes sitting at orbifold singularities. We find that they should admit a N=4 and N=2 supergravity dual in AdS_4 and AdS_7, respectively. We discuss the characteristics of the corresponding gauged supergravities.
There exist two variants of the old minimal formulation for ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity in four dimensions, in which one or each of the two auxiliary scalars is replaced by the field strength of a gauge three-form. These theories are known as three-form supergravity and complex three-form supergravity, respectively. For each of them, we present a super-Weyl invariant coupling of supergravity to the supermembrane and prove kappa-invariance of the resulting action. In the case of three-form supergravity, we demonstrate that the action constructed reduces to that given by Ovrut and Waldram twenty y…
In 1980, Antonio Aurilia, Hermann Nicolai and I constructed an N=8 supergravity with a positive exponential potential for one of the 70 scalar fields by adapting the dimensional reduction of 11D supergravity to allow for a non-zero 4-form field-strength in 4D. This model, now viewed as a particular gauged maximal supergravity, had little influence at the time because it does not have a maximally-symmetric vacuum. However, as shown here, it does have a domain-wall solution, which lifts to the M2-brane solution of D=11 supergravity. The possibility of a similar construction for other branes of M…
We consider four-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=1$ supergravity models of a kind appearing in string flux compactifications. It has been recently shown that, by using double three-form multiplets instead of ordinary chiral multiplets, one can promote to dynamical variables (part of) the quantized numbers appearing in the flux-induced superpotential. We show that double three-form multiplets naturally transform under symplectic dualities associated with the special Kähler structure that characterizes their scalar sector. Furthermore, we discuss how to couple membranes which carry arbitrary `electric-…
The effective action of N=2 supersymmetric 5-dimensional supergravity arising from compactifications of M-theory on Calabi-Yau threefolds receives non-perturbative corrections from wrapped Euclidean membranes and fivebranes. These contributions can be interpreted as instanton corrections in the 5 dimensional field theory. Focusing on the universal hypermultiplet, a solution of this type is presented and the instanton action is calculated, generalizing previous results involving membrane instantons. The instanton action is not a sum of membrane and fivebrane contributions: it has the form remin…
We use fake supergravity as a solution generating technique to obtain a continuum of non-supersymmetric asymptotically $AdS_4\times S^7$ domain wall solutions of eleven-dimensional supergravity with non-trivial scalars in the $SL(8,\mathbb{R})/SO(8)$ coset. These solutions are continuously connected to the supersymmetric domain walls describing a uniform sector of the Coulomb branch of the $M2$-brane theory. We also provide a general argument that under certain conditions identifies the fake superpotential with the exact large-N quantum effective potential of the dual theory, describing a marg…
We construct the 11-dimensional lift of the known N=2 supersymmetric RG flow solution in 4-dimensional N=8 gauged supergravity. The squashed and stretched 7-dimensional internal metric preserving SU(2) x U(1) x U(1)_R symmetry contains an Einstein-Kahler 2-fold which is a base manifold of 5-dimensional Sasaki-Einstein Y^{p, q} space found in 2004. The nontrivial r(transverse to the domain wall)-dependence of the AdS_4 supergravity fields makes the Einstein-Maxwell equations consistent not only at the critical points but also along the supersymmetric whole RG flow connecting two critical points…
The leading terms in the long-range interaction potential between an arbitrary pair of matrix theory objects are calculated at one-loop order. This result generalizes previous calculations by including arbitrary fermionic background field configurations. The interaction potential at orders 1/r^7 and 1/r^8 is shown to correspond precisely with the leading terms expected from linearized supergravity interactions between arbitrary objects in M-theory. General expressions for the stress tensor, membrane current and 5-brane current of an arbitrary matrix configuration are derived, including fermion…
We review the dynamical generation of coupling constants in 4D supergravity by means of gauge three-form fields. The latter are introduced as components of particular chiral supermultiplets and can be coupled to membranes preserving local supersymmetry. Such a set-up naturally arises from type-II string compactifications on Calabi-Yau manifolds with fluxes. We present generic 4D $\mathcal N=1$ supergravity models with three-form multiplets and study domain wall solutions supported by membranes, which interpolate between vacua with different values of the cosmological constant.
We construct supergravity solutions dual to the twisted field theories arising when M-theory membranes wrap holomorphic curves in Calabi-Yau n-folds. The solutions are constructed in an Abelian truncation of maximal D=4 gauged supergravity and then uplifted to D=11. For four-folds and five-folds we find new smooth AdS/CFT examples and for all cases we analyse the nature of the singularities that arise. Our results provide an interpretation of certain charged topological AdS black holes. We also present the generalised calibration two-forms for the solutions.
We construct generalized 11D supergravity solutions of fully localized D2/D6 brane intersections. These solutions are obtained by embedding Taub-NUT and/or self-dual geometries lifted to M-theory. We reduce these solutions to ten dimensions, obtaining new D-brane systems in type IIA supergravity. We discuss the limits in which the dynamics of the D2 brane decouples from the bulk for these solutions.
We compute the interaction potential between two parallel transversely boosted wrapped membranes (with fixed momentum $p_-$) in D=11 supergravity with compact light-like direction. We show that the supergravity result is in exact agreement with the potential following from the all-order Born-Infeld-type action conjectured to be the leading planar infra-red part of the quantum super Yang-Mills effective action. This provides a non-trivial test of consistency of the arguments relating Matrix theory to a special limit of type II string theory. We also find the potential between two (2+0) D-brane …
We present an exact analytic class of solutions for a system of two membranes in eleven-dimensional supergravity. One brane in the system is completely localized along the overall and relative transverse coordinates while the other brane in the system is localized only along the overall transverse coordinates. The membrane configuration preserves four supersymmetries. Moreover we find some approximate solutions for the system of two membranes with a Bianchi space as the overall transverse space to both membranes. All supergravity solutions preserve 1/8 of the supersymmetry. Upon dimensional re…
The effective four-dimensional supergravity of M-theory compactified on the orbifold S^1/Z_2 and a Calabi-Yau threefold includes in general moduli supermultiplets describing massless modes of five-branes. For each brane, one of these fields corresponds to fluctuations along the interval. The five-brane also leads to modifications of the anomaly-cancelling terms in the eleven-dimensional theory, including gauge contributions located on their world-volumes. We obtain the interactions of the brane "interval modulus" predicted by these five-brane-induced anomaly-cancelling terms and we construct t…
By placing a collection of membranes in 11 dimensional background supergravity six form field and considering the non-linear action of multiple membranes we obtain the potential for transverse scalar fields of membranes and study some possible vacuum configurations. We find that the system has a stable vacuum in which is a formation of membranes into fuzzy three sphere.
We study membrane scattering in a curved space with non-zero M-momentum p_{11} transfer. In the low-energy short-distance region, the membrane dynamics is described by a three-dimensional N=4 supersymmetric gauge theory. We study an n-instanton process of the gauge theory, corresponding to the exchange of n units of p_{11}, and compare the result with the scattering amplitude computed in the low-energy long-distance region using supergravity. We find that they behave differently. We show that this result is not in contradiction with the large-N Matrix Theory conjecture, by pointing out that cu…
We outline a formulation of membrane dynamics in D=8 which is fully covariant under the U-duality group SL(2,Z) x SL(3,Z), and encodes all interactions to fields in the eight-dimensional supergravity, which is constructed through Kaluza-Klein reduction on T^3. Among the membrane degrees of freedom is an SL(2,R) doublet of world-volume 2-form potentials, whose quantised electric fluxes determine the membrane charges, and are conjectured to provide an interpretation of the variables occurring in the minimal representation of E_{6(6)} which appears in the context of automorphic membranes. We solv…
We present dyonic multi-membrane solutions of the N=2 D=8 supergravity theory that serves as the effective field theory of the $T^2$-compactified type II superstring theory. The `electric' charge is fractional for generic asymptotic values of an axion field, as for D=4 dyons. These membrane solutions are supersymmetric, saturate a Bogomolnyi bound, fill out orbits of an $Sl(2;\Z)$ subgroup of the type II D=8 T-duality group, and are non-singular when considered as solutions of $T^3$-compactified D=11 supergravity. On $K_3$ compactification to D=4, the conjectured type II/heterotic equivalence …
The M-theory lift of N=1 G_2-invariant RG flow via a combinatoric use of the 4-dimensional RG flow and 11-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell equations was found some time ago. The 11-dimensional metric, a warped product of an asymptotically AdS_4 space with a squashed and stretched 7-sphere, for SU(3)-invariance was found before. In this paper, by choosing the 4-dimensional internal space as CP^2 space, we discover an exact solution of N=1 G_2-invariant flow to the 11-dimensional field equations. By an appropriate coordinate transformation on the three internal coordinates, we also find an 11-dimens…
A model considered in the paper generalizes supergravity type model to the case of delocalized membrane sources. A generalization of intersecting p-brane solution with delocalized membranes is presented.
We generalize the supermembrane solution of D=11 supergravity by permitting the 4-form $G$ to be either self-dual or anti-self-dual in the eight dimensions transverse to the membrane. After analyzing the supergravity field equations directly, and also discussing necessary conditions for unbroken supersymmetry, we focus on two specific, related solutions. The self-dual solution is not asymptotically flat. The anti-self-dual solution is asymptotically flat, has finite mass per unit area and saturates the same mass=charge Bogomolnyi bound as the usual supermembrane. Nevertheless, neither solution…
We describe the qualitative properties of p-brane solutions of supergravity theories and present two examples of p-brane solutions, first the dyonic membrane solutions of N=2 D=8 supergravity and second the intersecting M-brane solutions of D=11 supergravity.
We study a new class of inhomogeneous pp-wave solutions with 8 unbroken supersymmetries in D=11 supergravity. The 9 dimensional transverse space is Euclidean and split into 3 and 6 dimensional subspaces. The solutions have non-constant gauge flux, which are described in terms of an arbitrary holomorphic function of the complexified 6 dimensional space. The supermembrane and matrix theory descriptions are also provided and we identify the relevant supersymmetry transformation rules. The action also arises through a dimensional reduction of N=1, D=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory coupled to 3 …
We perform a systematic study, in eleven dimensional supergravity, of the geometry of wrapped brane configurations admitting $AdS_2$ limits. Membranes wrapping holomorphic curves in Calabi-Yau manifolds are found to exhibit some novel features; in particular, for fourfolds or threefolds, the gravitational effect of the branes on the overall transverse space is only weakly restricted by the kinematics of the Killing spinor equation. We also study the $AdS_2$ limits of the wrapped brane supergravity descriptions. For membranes wrapped in a two-fold, we derive a set of $AdS_2$ supersymmetry condi…
In a recent paper Townsend suggested to associate to the D=11 solitonic membrane of N=1 supergravity a certain thickness, and then to identify this membrane with the fundamental supermembrane. By integrating out the 8 transverse dimensions of the "thick" solitonic membrane, we show that the resulting world-volume action indeed contains all the usual supermembrane terms, as well as background curvature terms and extrinsic curvature terms, which are believed to render the membrane spectrum discrete. We also outline the analog derivation for the "thick" D=10 solitonic string solution of N=IIA sup…
Polchinski and Pouliot have shown that M-momentum transfer between membranes in supergravity can be understood as a non-perturbative instanton effect in gauge theory. Here we consider a dual process: electric flux transmission between D-branes. We show that this process can be described in perturbation theory as virtual string pair creation, and is closely related to Schwinger's treatment of the pair creation of charged particles in a uniform electric field. Through the application of dualities, our perturbative calculation gives results for various non-perturbative amplitudes, including M-mom…
We construct the N=2, D=9 supergravity theory up to the quartic fermionic terms and derive the supersymmetry transformation rules for the fields modulo cubic fermions. We consider a class of p-brane solutions of this theory, the stainless p-branes, which cannot be isotropically oxidized into higher dimensions. The new stainless elementary membrane and elementary particle solutions are found. It is explicitly verified that these solutions preserve half of the supersymmetry.
There exist extremal p-brane solutions of $D\!=\!11$ supergravity for p=2~and~5. In this paper we investigate the zero modes of the membrane and the five-brane solutions as a first step toward understanding the full quantum theory of these objects. It is found that both solutions possess the correct number of normalizable zero modes dictated by supersymmetry.
The backreactions of anti-branes on a variety of supergravity backgrounds have been shown in a recent series of papers to be riled by some unexplained flux singularities. All of the situations studied so far involve backgrounds with (close to) AdS-asymptotics. It is the purpose of this work to study the backreaction of anti-M2 branes on a background exhibiting a different UV behavior: The so-called $\mathbb{A}_8$ regular solution of eleven-dimensional supergravity that we consider has "Taub-NUT type" asymptotics. As it turns out, some subleading infrared singularities are inevitable; they cann…
The dual supergravity description of the flow between (2,0) five-brane theory and the noncommutative five-brane (OM) theory is examined at critical five-brane field strength. The self-duality of the field strength is shown to arise as a consequence of the supergravity solution. Open membrane solutions are examined in the background of the five-brane giving rise to an M analogue of the noncommutative open string (NCOS) solution.
The generalised calibration for a wrapped membrane is gauge equivalent to the supergravity three-form under which the membrane is electrically charged. Given the relevant calibration, one can go a long way towards constructing the supergravity solution for the wrapped brane. Applications of this method have been restricted since generalised calibrations have not yet been completely classified in spacetimes with non-vanishing flux. In this paper, we take a first step towards such a classification by studying membranes wrapping holomorphic curves. Supersymmetry preservation imposes a constraint …
We study classical BPS five-brane solutions in the Horava-Witten supergravity. The presence of the eleventh dimension add a new feature, namely the dependence of the solution on this new coordinate. For gauge five-branes with an instanton size less than the eleventh radius and in the neighborhood of the center of the neutral five-brane, important corrections to the ten-dimensional solution appear for all values of the string coupling constant. We compute the mass and magnetic charge of the five-brane solitons and the result is shown to agree with the membrane and five-brane quantization condit…
We find a new stable rotator solution in D0-brane matrix mechanics. The solution is interpreted as a D2/D0 brane bound state, constructed as a transversely rotating ellipsoidal membrane with N D0-branes pinned over it. From the membrane point of view the attractive force of tension is exactly cancelled by the repulsive centrifugal force. Dynamical properties of the system are investigated, in particular the emission of spherical waves in the different massless sectors of supergravity. We compute the RR 1-form quadrupole, the RR 3-form dipole and the gravitational quadrupole radiation. Also, we…
We present and analyze solutions of D=11 supergravity describing the ``near-horizon'' (i.e., asymptotically AdS_4 x S^7) geometry of M2-branes wrapped on surfaces of arbitrary genus. We study the forces experienced by test M2-branes in such backgrounds, and find evidence that extremal branes on surfaces of genera higher than the torus are unstable. Using the holographic connection between AdS spaces and superconformal field theories in the large N limit, we discuss the phases of the associated 2+1 dimensional theories. Finally, we also study the extension of these solutions to other branes, in…
It is shown that membrane and fivebrane of D=11 supergravity theory can support nongauge, linearized spin-3/2 superhairs. Supercharges associated with these fields are calculated. We also generalize the solutions to some overlapping cases and discuss possible implications of their existence.
We suggest and motivate a precise equivalence between uncompactified eleven dimensional M-theory and the N = infinity limit of the supersymmetric matrix quantum mechanics describing D0-branes. The evidence for the conjecture consists of several correspondences between the two theories. As a consequence of supersymmetry the simple matrix model is rich enough to describe the properties of the entire Fock space of massless well separated particles of the supergravity theory. In one particular kinematic situation the leading large distance interaction of these particles is exactly described by sup…
We study the effective low energy supergravity of the strongly coupled heterotic string compactified on a Calabi-Yau 3-fold with generic E8 x E8 gauge bundle. We focus on the effective potential for the chiral scalars. The effective superpotential can be studied using the dual 11-dimensional M-theory background involving insertions of M5 branes along an interval. In such backgrounds, in some regions of moduli space, the leading nonperturbative contributions are due to open membrane instantons. These instantons lead to both attractive and repulsive forces between the 5-branes and the orientifol…
It is shown that many of the $p$-branes of type II string theory and $d=11$ supergravity can have boundaries on other $p$-branes. The rules for when this can and cannot occur are derived from charge conservation. For example it is found that membranes in $d=11$ supergravity and IIA string theory can have boundaries on fivebranes. The boundary dynamics are governed by the self-dual $d=6$ string. A collection of $N$ parallel fivebranes contains $\half N(N-1)$ self-dual strings which become tensionless as the fivebranes approach one another.
Generalized membrane solutions of D=11 supergravity, for which the transverse space is a toric hyper-K{\" a}hler manifold, are shown to have IIB duals representing the intersection of parallel 3-branes with 5-branes whose orientations are determined by their $Sl(2;\bZ)$ charge vectors. These IIB solutions, which generically preserve 3/16 of the supersymmetry, can be further mapped to solutions of D=11 supergravity representing the intersection of parallel membranes with any number of fivebranes at arbitrary angles. Alternatively, a subclass (corresponding to non-singular D=11 solutions) can be…
It is argued that the type IIA 10-dimensional superstring theory is actually a compactified 11-dimensional supermembrane theory in which the fundamental supermembrane is identified with the the solitonic membrane of 11-dimensional supergravity. The charged extreme black holes of the 10-dimensional type IIA string theory are interpreted as the Kaluza-Klein modes of 11-dimensional supergravity and the dual sixbranes as the analogue of Kaluza-Klein monopoles. All other p-brane solutions of the type IIA superstring theory are derived from the 11-dimensional membrane and its magnetic dual fivebrane…
These notes are based on lectures given at the Clay School on Geometry and String Theory, Isaac Newton Institute, Cambridge, 25 March - 19 April 2002. They attempt to provide an elementary and somewhat self contained discussion of the construction of supergravity solutions describing branes wrapping calibrated cycles, emphasising the geometrical aspects and focusing on D=11 supergravity. Following a discussion of the role of special holonomy backgrounds in D=11 supergravity, the basic membrane and fivebrane solutions are reviewed and the connection with the AdS/CFT correspondence is made. The …
In this paper we perform some non-trivial tests for the recently obtained open membrane/D-brane metrics and `generalized' noncommutativity parameters using Dp/NS5/M5-branes which have been deformed by light-like fields. The results obtained give further evidence that these open membrane/D-brane metrics and `generalized' noncommutativity parameters are correct. Further, we use the open brane data and supergravity duals to obtain more information about non-gravitational theories with light-like noncommutativity, or `generalized' light-like noncommutativity. In particular, we investigate various …
A zero-brane is used to probe non-threshold BPS bound states of (p, p+2,p+4)-branes. At long distances the stringy calculation agrees with the supergravity calculations. The supergravity description is given, using the interpretation of the D=8 dyonic membrane as the bound state of a two-brane inside a four-brane. We investigate the short distance structure of these bound states, compute the phase shift of the scattered zero-brane and find the bound states characteristic size. It is found that there should be a supersymmetric solution of type IIa supergravity, describing a bound state of a zer…
We construct new supersymmetric solutions of $D$=11 supergravity describing $n$ orthogonally ``overlapping" membranes and fivebranes for $n$=2,\dots,8. Overlapping branes arise after separating intersecting branes in a direction transverse to all of the branes. The solutions, which generalize known intersecting brane solutions, preserve at least $2^{-n}$ of the supersymmetry. Each pairwise overlap involves a membrane overlapping a membrane in a 0-brane, a fivebrane overlapping a fivebrane in a 3-brane or a membrane overlapping a fivebrane in a string. After reducing $n$ overlapping membranes t…
We show that four-dimensional N=2 ungauged Einstein-Maxwell supergravity can be embedded on the Randall-Sundrum 3-brane, as a consistent Kaluza-Klein reduction of five-dimensional N=4 gauged supergravity. In particular, this allows us to describe four-dimensional Reissner-Nordstrom black holes within the Randall-Sundrum scenario. Using earlier results on the embedding of five-dimensional N=4 gauged supergravity in ten dimensions, we can then describe the four-dimensional Einstein-Maxwell supergravity on the 3-brane, and its solutions, from a type IIB viewpoint. We also show that the minimal un…
Coupling of a membrane and a five-brane to the bosonic sector of D=11 supergravity is considered. The five--brane is a dyonic object which carries both an electric and a magnetic charge of the D=11 three-form gauge field $A^3$, and it couples not only to $A^3$ but also minimally couples to a six-form field $A^6$ dual to $A^3$. This implies that the 5-brane should more naturally couple to a version of D=11 supergravity where both gauge fields are present in a duality-symmetric fashion. We demonstrate how an action of duality-symmetric D=11 supergravity looks like, couple it to the five-brane an…
In the light of the duality between physics in the bulk of anti-de Sitter space and a conformal field theory on the boundary, we review the M2, D3 and M5 branes and how their near-horizon geometry yields the compactification of D=11 supergravity on S^{7}, Type IIB supergravity on S^{5} and D=11 supergravity on S^{4}, respectively. We discuss the ``Membrane at the End of the Universe'' idea and its relation to the corresponding superconformal singleton theories that live on the boundary of the AdS_{4}, AdS_{5} and AdS_{7} vacua. The massless sectors of these compactifications are described by t…
We study supersymmetric branes in AdS_7 x S^4 and AdS_4 x S^7. We show that in the former case the membranes should be viewed as M5 branes with fluxes and we identify two types of such fivebranes (they are analogous to giant gravitons and to dual giants). In AdS_4 x S^7 we find both M5 branes with fluxes and freestanding stacks of membranes. We also go beyond probe approximation and construct regular supergravity solutions describing geometries produced by the branes. The metrics are completely specified by one function which satisfies either Laplace or Toda equation and we give a complete cla…
