Electromagnetic dipole radiation of oscillating D-branes

Abstract

I emphasize analogy between Dp-branes in string theories and solitons in gauge theories comparing their common properties and showing differences. In string theory we do not have the full set of equations which define the theory in all orders of coupling constant as it was in gauge theories, nevertheless such solutions have been found as solutions of low energy superstring effective action carrying the RR charges. The existence of dynamical RR charged extended objects in string theory has been deduced also by considering string theory with mixed boundary conditions, when type II closed superstring theory is enriched by open strings with Neumann boundary conditions on p + 1 directions and Dirichlet conditions on the remaining 9-p transverse directions. We will show that for certain excitations of the string/D3-brane system Neumann boundary conditions emerge from the Born-Infeld dynamics. Here the excitations which are coming down the string with a polarization along a direction parallel to the brane are almost completely reflected just as in the case of all-normal Dirichlet excitations considered by Callan and Maldacena, but now the end of the string moves freely on the 3-brane realizing Polchinski's open string Neumann boundary condition dynamically. In the low energy limit ω → 0, i.e. for wavelengths much larger than the string scale only a small fraction ∼ ω 4 of the energy escapes in the form of dipole radiation. The physical interpretation is that a string attached to the 3-brane manifests itself as an electric charge, and waves on the string cause the end point of the string to freely oscillate and produce e.m. dipole radiation in the asymptotic outer region. The magnitude of emitted power is in fact exactly equal to the one given by Thomson formula in electrodynamics.