D-brane Configurations Research Articles

Topological defects in K3 sigma models

We consider the topological defect lines commuting with the spectral flow and the N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = (4, 4) superconformal symmetry in two dimensional non-linear sigma models on K3. By studying their fusion with boundary states, we derive a number of general results for the category of such defects. We argue that while for certain K3 models infinitely many simple defects, and even a continuum, can occur, at generic points in the moduli space the category is actually trivial, i.e. it is generated by the identity defect. Furthermore, we show that if a K3 model is at the attractor point for some BPS configuration of D-branes, then all topological defects have integral quantum dimension. We also conjecture that a continuum of topological defects arises if and only if the K3 model is a (possibly generalized) orbifold of a torus model. Finally, we test our general results in a couple of examples, where we provide a partial classification of the topological defects.

One-loop quantization of Euclidean D3-branes in holographic backgrounds

In this note we analyze the semi-classical quantization of D3-branes in three different holographic backgrounds in type IIB string theory. The first background is Euclidean AdS5 with S1× S3 boundary accompanied with a twist to preserve supersymmetry. We work out the spectrum of fluctuations around the classical D3-brane configuration, compute its one-loop partition function, and match to the non-perturbative correction to the superconformal index of N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 SYM. We then study Euclidean D3-branes in the Pilch-Warner geometry dual to the IR Leigh-Strassler fixed point of N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 1* with the aim to find non-perturbative corrections to its index. Finally we study Euclidean D3-branes in the non-geometric N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 2 J-fold background which is dual to the gauging of the 3D Gaiotto-Witten SCFT.

Light stringy states and the g − 2 of the muon

In this work, we evaluate the contributions to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon ((g − 2)μ) coming from light stringy states in a D-brane semi-realistic configuration. A scalar which couples only to the muon can have a mass sufficiently light to provide a significant contribution to the (g − 2)μ. This scenario can arise in intersecting D-brane models, where such light scalars correspond to the first stringy excitations of an open string stretched between two D-branes intersecting with a very small angle. In this article, we show that there is a region in the space of the geometric parameters of the internal manifold where such scalar light stringy states can explain (part) of the observed discrepancy in the (g − 2)μ. In a low string scale framework with Ms ≳ 10 TeV, we show that an excited Higgs with mass mathcal{O} (250 MeV), living in an intersection with an angle of order mathcal{O} (10−10), can provide a significant contribution of one-tenth of the (g − 2)μ discrepancy. This leads to a lower bound for the compact dimension where the branes intersect of order mathcal{O} (10−8 GeV−1). We also study patterns in D-brane configurations that realize our proposal, both in three and four stacks models.

Replicas, averaging and factorization in the IIB matrix model

We study the partition functions of multiple replicas (copies) of D-brane configurations in the type IIB (IKKT) matrix model. We consider the quenched regime, where small fluctuations of the matrices are superimposed onto the slow (quenched) dynamics of the background, so the partition function is an ensemble average over the background. Interacting D-branes always factorize in a simple way. On the other hand, the non-interacting BPS configurations may or may not factorize depending on the number of replicas, and their factorization mechanism is more involved as the corresponding saddle-point solutions (half-wormholes) break the replica symmetry. We argue that the simple factorization mechanism of interacting branes is actually more interesting as it carries the specific signatures of quantum gravity, which are absent from disordered field theories like the SYK model.

Quiver Yangian and Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics

The statistical model of crystal melting represents BPS configurations of D-branes on a toric Calabi–Yau three-fold. Recently it has been noticed that an infinite-dimensional algebra, the quiver Yangian, acts consistently on the crystal-melting configurations. We physically derive the algebra and its action on the BPS states, starting with the effective supersymmetric quiver quantum mechanics on the D-brane worldvolume. This leads to remarkable combinatorial identities involving equivariant integrations on the moduli space of the quantum mechanics, which can be checked by numerical computations.

Minimal embedding of the Standard Model into intersecting D-brane configurations with a bulk leptonic U(1)

It has been recently shown that the discrepancy between the theoretical and experimental values of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon can be fully accommodated by considering the contribution of few Kaluza–Klein (KK) states of the gauged lepton number with masses lighter than the LEP energy, consistently with present experimental limits. In this article, we construct the minimal embedding of the Standard Model (SM) into D-brane configurations with a gauged lepton number. In order to give rise to such KK modes, the lepton number gauge boson must live on an abelian U(1)_L brane extended along at least one “large” extra dimension in the bulk, with a compactification scale M_Lsim {mathcal {O}}(10{-}10^2~mathrm{GeV}) for a string scale M_sgtrsim 10~mathrm{TeV}. As a consequence, U(1)_L cannot participate to the hypercharge linear combination. We show that the minimal realisation of this framework contains five stacks of branes: the SM color U(3)_c, weak U(2)_w and abelian U(1) stacks extended effectively only in four dimensions, the bulk U(1)_L, as well as a fifth U(1)^{'} brane. With these five abelian factors, one finds besides the hypercharge a second anomaly-free linear combination which does not couple to the SM spectrum, both in the non-supersymmetric case as well as in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the model. It is also shown how the right-handed neutrino can be implemented in the spectrum, and how fermions arising from the two non-SM branes and coupled to the SM through the U(1)_L KK modes can provide Dark Matter candidates. Finally, the possibility of breaking Lepton Flavour Universality is studied by replacing U(1)_L with a brane gauging only the muonic lepton number, avoiding most experimental constraints and enlarging the parameter space for explaining the discrepancy on the muon magnetic moment.

KLT factorization of nonrelativistic string amplitudes

We continue our study of the Kawai-Lewellen-Tye (KLT) factorization of winding string amplitudes in [1]. In a toroidal compactification, amplitudes for winding closed string states factorize into products of amplitudes for open strings ending on an array of D-branes localized in the compactified directions; the specific D-brane configuration is determined by the closed string data. In this paper, we study a zero Regge slope limit of the KLT relations between winding string amplitudes. Such a limit of string theory requires a critically tuned Kalb-Ramond field in a compact direction, and leads to a self-contained corner called nonrelativistic string theory. This theory is unitary, ultraviolet complete, and its string spectrum and spacetime S-matrix satisfy nonrelativistic symmetry. Moreover, the asymptotic closed string states in nonrelativistic string theory necessarily carry nonzero windings. First, starting with relativistic string theory, we construct a KLT factorization of amplitudes for winding closed strings in the presence of a critical Kalb-Ramond field. Then, in the zero Regge limit, we uncover a KLT relation for amplitudes in nonrelativistic string theory. Finally, we show how such a relation can be reproduced from first principles in a purely nonrelativistic string theory setting. We will also discuss connections to the amplitudes of string theory in the discrete light cone quantization (DLCQ), a method that is relevant for Matrix theory.

Deriving on-shell open string field amplitudes without using Feynman rules

Abstract We present a series of new gauge-invariant quantities in Witten’s open string field theory. They are defined for a given set of open string states which satisfy the physical state condition around a classical solution. For known classical solutions, we demonstrate that these gauge-invariant quantities compute on-shell tree-level scattering amplitudes around the corresponding D-brane configuration.

Entanglement entropy and edge modes in topological string theory. Part II. The dual gauge theory story

This is the second in a two-part paper devoted to studying entanglement entropy and edge modes in the A model topological string theory. This theory enjoys a gauge-string (Gopakumar-Vafa) duality which is a topological analogue of AdS/CFT. In part 1, we defined a notion of generalized entropy for the topological closed string theory on the resolved conifold. We provided a canonical interpretation of the generalized entropy in terms of the q-deformed entanglement entropy of the Hartle-Hawking state. We found string edge modes transforming under a quantum group symmetry and interpreted them as entanglement branes. In this work, we provide the dual Chern-Simons gauge theory description. Using Gopakumar-Vafa duality, we map the closed string theory Hartle-Hawking state to a Chern-Simons theory state containing a superposition of Wilson loops. These Wilson loops are dual to closed string worldsheets that determine the partition function of the resolved conifold. We show that the undeformed entanglement entropy due to cutting these Wilson loops reproduces the bulk generalized entropy and therefore captures the entanglement underlying the bulk spacetime. Finally, we show that under the Gopakumar-Vafa duality, the bulk entanglement branes are mapped to a configuration of topological D-branes, and the non-local entanglement boundary condition in the bulk is mapped to a local boundary condition in the gauge theory dual. This suggests that the geometric transition underlying the gauge-string duality may also be responsible for the emergence of entanglement branes.

Three-dimensional Yang-Mills-Chern-Simons theory from a D3-brane background with D-instantons

By constructing the configuration of D3-branes with D(-1)-branes as D-instantons, we study the three-dimensional Yang-Mills Chern-Simons theory in holography. Due to the presence of the D-instantons, the D7-branes with discrepant embedding functions are able to be introduced in order to include the fundamental fermions (as flavors) and the Chern-Simons term (at very low energy) in the dual theory. The vacuum structure at zero temperature is studied in the soliton background and it illustrates the topological phase transition in the presence of instantons. Moreover, since the confinement/deconfinement phase transition could be holographically identified as the Hawking-Page transition in the bulk, we accordingly calculate the critical temperature of the deconfinement phase transition by collecting the bulk onshell action as the thermodynamical free energy. On the other hand, we evaluate the difference of the entanglement entropy in slab configuration by using the RT formula since the confinement may also be characterized by the entanglement entropy. Altogether we find the behavior of the critical temperature is in qualitative agreement with the behavior of the critical length determined by the entanglement entropy which implies the entanglement entropy could indeed be a character of the confinement in our setup and the D3-D(-1) system would be a remarkable approach to study the three-dimensional gauge theory.

KLT factorization of winding string amplitudes

We uncover a Kawai-Lewellen-Tye (KLT)-type factorization of closed string amplitudes into open string amplitudes for closed string states carrying winding and momentum in toroidal compactifications. The winding and momentum closed string quantum numbers map respectively to the integer and fractional winding quantum numbers of open strings ending on a D-brane array localized in the compactified directions. The closed string amplitudes factorize into products of open string scattering amplitudes with the open strings ending on a D-brane configuration determined by closed string data.

Dimers, orientifolds and anomalies

We study 4d mathcal{N} = 1 gauge theories engineered via D-branes at orientifolds of toric singularities, where gauge anomalies are cancelled without the introduction of non-compact flavor branes. Using dimer model techniques, we derive geometric criteria for establishing whether a given singularity can admit anomaly-free D-brane configurations purely based on its toric data and the type of orientifold projection. Our results therefore extend the dictionary between geometric properties of singularities and physical properties of the corresponding gauge theories.

Dimers, orientifolds and stability of supersymmetry breaking vacua

We study (orientifolded) toric Calabi-Yau singularities in search for D-brane configurations which lead to dynamical supersymmetry breaking at low energy. By exploiting dimer techniques we are able to determine that while most realizations lead to a Coulomb branch instability, a rather specific construction admits a fully stable supersymmetry breaking vacuum. We describe the geometric structure that a singularity should have in order to host such a construction, and present its simplest example, the Octagon.

A possibility of Lorentz violation in the Higgs sector

In string theory, a scalar field often appears as a moduli of a geometrical configuration of D-branes in higher-dimensional space. In the low energy effective theory on D-branes, the distance between D-branes is translated into the energy scale of the gauge symmetry breaking. In this paper, we study a phenomenological consequence of a possibility that the Higgs field is such a moduli field and the D-brane configuration is stabilized by a stationary motion, in particular, revolution of D-branes on which we live. Then, due to the Coriolis force, Higgs mode is mixed with the angular fluctuation of branes and the Lorentz symmetry is violated in the dispersion relation of the Higgs boson. The Higgs boson mass measurements at LHC experiments give an upper bound [Formula: see text][Formula: see text][Formula: see text] GeV for the angular frequency of the revolution of D-branes.

Integrable asymmetric \u03bb-deformations

We construct integrable deformations of the λ-type for asymmetrically gauged WZW models. This is achieved by a modification of the Sfetsos gauging procedure to account for a possible automorphism that is allowed in G/G models. We verify classical integrability, derive the one-loop beta function for the deformation parameter and give the construction of integrable D-brane configurations in these models. As an application, we detail the case of the λ-deformation of the cigar geometry corresponding to the axial gauged SL(2, R)/U(1) theory at large k. Here we also exhibit a range of both A-type and B-type integrability preserving D-brane configurations.

D-branes in \u03bb-deformations

We show that the geometric interpretation of D-branes in WZW models as twisted conjugacy classes persists in the λ-deformed theory. We obtain such configurations by demanding that a monodromy matrix constructed from the Lax connection of the λ-deformed theory continues to produce conserved charges in the presence of boundaries. In this way the D-brane configurations obtained correspond to “integrable” boundary configurations. We illustrate this with examples based on SU(2) and SL(2, ℝ), and comment on the relation of these D-branes to both non-Abelian T-duality and Poisson-Lie T-duality. We show that the D2 supported by D0 charge in the λ-deformed theory map, under analytic continuation together with Poisson-Lie T-duality, to D3 branes in the η-deformation of the principal chiral model.

1/2-BPS D-branes from covariant open superstring in AdS4 \xd7 CP3 background

We consider the open superstring action in the AdS4 × CP3 background and investigate the suitable boundary conditions for the open superstring describing the 1/2-BPS D-branes by imposing the κ-symmetry of the action. This results in the classification of 1/2-BPS D-branes from covariant open superstring. It is shown that the 1/2-BPS D-brane configurations are restricted considerably by the Kähler structure on CP3. We just consider D-branes without worldvolume fluxes.

Notes on worldvolume supersymmetries for D-branes on AdS5\xd7S5 background

We revisit the 1/2-BPS D-branes on the AdS5×S5 background. Based only on the classification of 1/2-BPS D-branes obtained by the covariant open string description, we consider various purely static configurations of D-branes without any worldvolume flux on the AdS5×S5 background. Under the covariant κ symmetry fixing condition, we investigate which part the spacetime supersymmetries is preserved on the D-brane worldvolume and obtain the associated worldvolume supersymmetry transformation rules to leading order in the worldvolume fluctuating fields. It is shown that, for purely static configurations without any worldvolume flux, only the AdS type D-branes, in which the AdS radial direction is one of worldvolume coordinates, are 1/2-BPS.

Non-supersymmetric D-branes with vanishing cylinder amplitudes in asymmetric orbifolds

We study the type II string vacua with chiral space-time SUSY constructed as asymmetric orbifolds of torus and K3 compactifications. Despite the fact that all the D-branes are non-BPS in any chiral SUSY vacua, we show that the relevant non-geometric vacua of asymmetric orbifolds allow rather generally configurations of D-branes which lead to vanishing cylinder amplitudes, implying the bose-fermi cancellation at each mass level of the open string spectrum. After working on simple models of toroidal asymmetric orbifolds, we focus on the asymmetric orbifolds of T2 × ℳ, where ℳ is described by a general mathcal{N} = 4 SCFT with c = 6 defined by the Gepner construction for K3. Even when the modular invariant partition functions in the bulk remain unchanged, the spectra of such non-BPS D-branes with the bose-fermi cancellation can vary significantly according to the choice of orbifolding.

A holographic bound for D3-brane

In this paper, we will regularize the holographic entanglement entropy, holographic complexity and fidelity susceptibility for a configuration of D3-branes. We will also study the regularization of the holographic complexity from the action for a configuration of D3-branes. It will be demonstrated that for a spherical shell of D3-branes the regularized holographic complexity is always greater than or equal to the regularized fidelity susceptibility. Furthermore, we will also demonstrate that the regularized holographic complexity is related to the regularized holographic entanglement entropy for this system. Thus, we will obtain a holographic bound involving regularized holographic complexity, regularized holographic entanglement entropy and regularized fidelity susceptibility of a configuration of D3-brane. We will also discuss a bound for regularized holographic complexity from action, for a D3-brane configuration.