D-brane actions with local kappa symmetry

Abstract

We formulate world-volume actions that describe the dynamics of Dirichlet p-branes in a flat 10d background. The fields in these theories consist of the 10d superspace coordinates ( X m , θ) and an abelian world-volume gauge field A μ . The global symmetries are given by the N = 2A or N = 2B super-Poincaré group, according to whether p is even or odd. The local symmetries in the ( p + 1)-dimensional world volume are general coordinate invariance and a fermionic kappa symmetry.