D-branes Research Articles

Towards bootstrapping F-theory

We consider type IIB string theory with N D3 branes and various configurations of sevenbranes, such that the string coupling gs is fixed to a constant finite value. These are the simplest realizations of F-theory, and are holographically dual to rank N Argyres-Douglas conformal field theories (CFTs) with SU(2) and SU(3) flavor groups, and Minahan-Nemeschansky CFTs with E6, E7 and E8 flavor groups. We use the Seiberg-Witten curves of these theories to compute the mass deformed sphere free energy F (m) at large N in terms of novel matrix models with non-polynomial potentials. We show how F (m) can be used along with the analytic bootstrap to fix the large N expansion of flavor multiplet correlators in these CFTs, which are dual to scattering of gluons on AdS5 × S3, and in the flat space limit determine the effective theory of sevenbranes in F-theory. As a first step in this program, we use the matrix models to compute the log N term in F (m) and thereby fix the logarithmic threshold in the AdS5 × S3 holographic correlator, which matches the flat space prediction.

Factorised scattering and (non)integrability for marginally deformed AdS5/CFT4

We study non-SUSY CFTs that are marginal deformations of N=2 SCFTs in 4d. We explore the fate of integrability and/or non-integrability in these CFTs using the techniques of factorisation of scattering amplitudes in 2d sigma models. We show possibilities for the factorisation of scattering amplitudes in the absence of flavour D6 branes which rules out non-integrability in the dual non-SUSY CFTs.

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 line defect Schur index and semiclassical string

The giant graviton expansion of the line defect Schur index in four dimensional N4\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N}4 $$\\end{document} U(N) SYM was recently proposed in arXiv:2403.11543 to be captured in the dual string theory by counting fluctuations states of two half-infinite fundamental strings in AdS5 × S5 ending on the line defect and D3 brane giant. However, agreement with the gauge theory data for the defect line index at finite N required the inclusion of ad hoc extra contributions with unclear origin. We discuss the large N leading order contribution of the giant graviton expansion of the defect line index by a direct analysis of semiclassical string partition function in a twisted background. We discuss supersymmetric boundary conditions in the presence of the D3 brane and evaluate the quadratic fluctuations effective action by introducing a suitable projection of fluctuation modes. We show that the extra contributions to the single giant graviton correction found in arXiv:2403.11543 correspond to a supersymmetric Casimir energy contribution.

Pole-skipping and chaos in D3-D7 brane systems

In this paper, we analyze the pole-skipping phenomena of finite temperature Yang-Mills theory with quark flavors, which is dual to D3-D7 brane systems in bulk. We also consider the external electric field in the boundary field theory, which is dual to the world volume electric field on the D7 brane. We will work in the probe limit where the D7 branes do not backreact to the D3 brane background. In this scenario, we decode the characteristic parameters of the chaos, namely, Lyapunov exponent λL and butterfly velocity vb from the pole-skipping points by performing the near effective horizon analysis of the linearized Einstein equations. Unlike pure Yang-Mills, once charged quarks with a background electric field are added into the system, the characteristic parameters of the chaos show nontrivial dependence on the quark mass and external electric field. We have observed that λL and vb decreases with increasing electric field. We further perform the pole-skipping analysis for the gauge invariant sound, shear, and tensor modes of the perturbation in the bulk and discuss their physical importance in the holographic context. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Single-valuedness of the AdS Veneziano amplitude

We consider the Veneziano amplitude for the scattering of gluons in type IIB string theory on AdS5 × S5/ℤ2 in the presence of D7 branes. On general grounds curvature corrections around flat space can be thought of as arising from the extra insertion of soft gravitons. This naturally leads to an open string world-sheet representation with the extra insertion of single-valued functions evaluated on the real line. We check that the recently obtained first curvature correction is of this form and use this new constraint to compute the second curvature correction of the AdS Veneziano amplitude.

Hybrid inflation, reheating and dark radiation in a IIB perturbative moduli stabilization scenario

We study the cosmological implications of an effective field theory model derived within a configuration of D7 brane stacks in the framework of type-IIB string theory. We consider a suitable geometric setup where the Kähler moduli fields are stabilized and the parametric space is constrained so that a de Sitter vacuum is ensured. In addition to the moduli fields we also take into account the usual Higgs and matter fields included in the effective field theory. In this background, we implement the standard hybrid inflation scenario with a singlet scalar field acting as the inflaton and the Higgs states serving as waterfall fields. Radiative corrections and soft supersymmetry breaking terms play an essential role in the realization of a successful inflationary scenario consistent with the present cosmological data. Small tensor-to-scalar ratio values are predicted, which can be probed in future planned experiments. Further constraints on the model’s parameters are derived from bounds on dark radiation which is measured as a contribution to the effective number of neutrino species Neff. In particular, we find an excess of ∆Neff ≤ 0.95 at 2σ confidence level with natural values of the involved couplings.

On co-dimension 2 defect anomalies in 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 and (2,0) theory via brane probes in AdS/CFT

We consider a 12\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\frac{1}{2} $$\\end{document}-BPS solution for a D3 brane probe in AdS5× S5 that has world-volume geometry of AdS3× S1. It intersects the boundary over a surface that represents a dimension 2 defect in the boundary 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 theory. The effective action of the probe brane is proportional to the logarithmically divergent volume of AdS3 and may thus be interpreted as computing conformal anomaly of supersymmetric S2 defect. The classical action scales as N. We compute the 1-loop correction to it due to quantum fluctuations of the D3 brane world-volume fields and compare the result to an earlier suggested expression for the defect anomaly. We also perform a similar analysis of a 12\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\frac{1}{2} $$\\end{document}-BPS M5 brane probe solution in AdS7× S4 with the world-volume geometry of AdS5× S1 that represents a dimension 4 defect in the boundary (2,0) 6d theory. Here the classical M5 brane action computes the leading order N2 term in a-anomaly of the supersymmetric S4 defect. We perform a detailed computation of the 1-loop correction to the M5 brane effective action and thus provide a prediction for the subleading constant in the S4 defect a-anomaly coefficient.

Leading large N giant graviton correction to Schur correlators in large representations

We consider 4d N=4U(N) SYM and the leading giant graviton correction at large N to the Schur defect 2-point functions of 12-BPS Wilson lines in rank-k symmetric and antisymmetric representations. We study in particular the large k limit for the symmetric case and the regime 1≪k≪N in the antisymmetric one. In both cases we present exact results for the correction. Wilson lines in symmetric/antisymmetric representations admit a description in terms of D3k and D5k brane probes representing a collection of k fundamental strings. In this picture, giant graviton corrections come from fluctuations of brane probes in the presence of a wrapped D3 brane giant graviton. In the antisymmetric case, our leading correction matches the half-index of the 4d N=4 Maxwell theory living on the disk which is a part of the giant graviton divided out by the D5k probe, as recently proposed in arXiv:2404.08302. For the symmetric case at large k, we derive an explicit exact residue formula for the leading large N correction.

Higher-point gauge-theory couplings of massive spin-2 states in four-dimensional string theories

We explicitly compute the Neveu-Schwarz sector conventional type-I superstring tree-level amplitudes at five points after compactifying to 4D, express the QFT building block in the helicity basis, and give several attempts toward arbitrary n points. More specifically, we consider the interaction of one first excited level and otherwise massless states of conventional type-I superstrings, where the four-dimensional states can, for instance, be realized via D3 branes. We construct the amplitude by using the Berends-Giele currents. From the recursion of Berends-Giele currents, we can generate the higher point amplitude. We also apply the BCFW recursion with massive external legs shifted and get the amplitude for arbitrary n points. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Schur line defect correlators and giant graviton expansion

We consider Schur line defect correlators in four dimensional 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 U(N) SYM and their giant graviton expansion encoding finite N corrections to the large N limit. We compute in closed form the single giant graviton contribution to correlators with general insertions of 12\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\frac{1}{2} $$\\end{document}-BPS charged Wilson lines. For the 2-point function with fundamental and anti-fundamental Wilson lines, we match the result from fluctuations of two half-infinite strings ending on the giant graviton, recently proposed in arXiv:2403.11543. In particular, we prove exact factorization of the defect contribution with respect to wrapped D3 brane fluctuations representing the single giant graviton correction to the undecorated Schur index. This follows from a finite-difference representation of the Schur line defect index in terms of the index without defects, and similar factorization holds quite generally for more complicated defect configurations. In particular, the single giant graviton contribution to the 4-point function with two fundamental and two anti-fundamental lines is computed and discussed in this perspective.

Giant graviton expansion of Schur index and quasimodular forms

The flavored superconformal Schur 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 U(N) SYM has finite N corrections encoded in its giant graviton expansion in terms of D3 branes wrapped in AdS5 × S5. The key element of this decomposition is the non-trivial index of the theory living on the wrapped brane system. A remarkable feature of the Schur limit is that the brane index is an analytic continuation of the flavored 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 U(n) SYM, where n is the total brane wrapping number. We exploit recent exact results about the Schur 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 U(N) SYM to evaluate the closed form of the brane indices appearing in the giant graviton expansion. Away from the unflavored limit, they are characterized by quasimodular forms providing exact information at all orders in the index universal fugacity. As an application of these results, we present novel exact expressions for the giant graviton expansion of the unflavored Schur index in a class of four dimensional 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 theories with equal central charges a = c, i.e. the non-Lagrangian theories Γ̂SUN\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\hat{\\Gamma}\\left(\ extrm{SU}(N)\\right) $$\\end{document} with Γ = E6, E7, E8.

D6 branes wrapped on a spindle and Yp,q manifolds

We present new solutions of 8d gauged supergravity which, upon uplift to type IIA, represent D6 branes wrapped on spindles. A further circle uplift gives 11d supergravity on a Calabi-Yau three-fold which is the cone over five-dimensional Yp,q manifolds. This highlights a connection between co-homogeneity one Sasaki-Einstein metrics in general dimension and the recently introduced spindle solutions in gauged supergravity. We find that a similar connection also exists for the small resolution of the Calabi-Yau cone over such manifolds.

Magnons and spikes for 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 linear quivers and their non-Abelian T-duals

We compute the spectra associated with various semiclassical string states that propagate over 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 Gaiotto-Maldacena backgrounds. As an interesting special case, for the Abelian T- dual solution, we discover giant magnon and single spike configurations while imposing appropriate boundary conditions. However, for Sfetsos-Thompson backgrounds, one has to adopt a different string embedding which reveals “modified” dispersion relations both for magnons and spikes. These results boil down into the standard dispersion relations in the limit when the rank of the associated SU(Nc) color gauge group becomes large enough. We further generalize our analysis in the presence of flavor D6 branes. Our analysis reveals a new set of dispersion relations, which shows that both magnons and spikes are ceased to exist in the presence of flavor excitations.

Born-Infeld supermaze waves

The entropy of the supersymmetric D2-D4-P black hole comes at weak coupling from D2-brane strips stretched between parallel D4 branes and carrying momentum waves. We use the DBI action of D4 branes to construct two pieces of plumbing that enter in the construction of these microstates. The first is a semi-infinite D2 brane ending on a D4 brane and carrying a momentum wave along the common D2-D4 direction. The second is a non-Abelian solution to the 5D maximally-supersymmetric SU(2) Super-Yang-Mills theory describing a momentum-carrying D2 strip stretched between two D4 branes. The solution without momentum is the same as the ’t Hooft-Polyakov monopole, and the fields that carry the momentum can be added without changing any of the fields of the monopole.

Large N Schur 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 from semiclassical D3 brane

We consider the refined Schur superconformal index of 4d 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 U(N) SYM and the first term of its giant-graviton expansion, first predicted in arXiv:2001.11667 using indirect superconformal algebra considerations and analytic continuation of fugacities. This correction is the leading non-perturbative correction to the index at large N and we reproduce it from the semiclassical partition function of quantum D3 brane wrapped on S1 × S3 in a twisted modification of the AdS5 × S5 string background, depending on the index R-symmetry fugacity. Our calculation does not exploit directly supersymmetry. It is based on the determination of the partition function of the various bosonic and fermionic fluctuations on the wrapped brane whose action is conformal with specific constant holonomies along thermal cycle. We show how those partition functions may be obtained by adapting the operator counting method of Cardy to the twisted background.

Spin-1 glueballs in the Witten-Sakai-Sugimoto model

We consider the vector and the pseudovector glueball in the top-down holographic model of large-Nc QCD of Witten and their decays into ordinary mesons described by the D8 brane construction due to Sakai and Sugimoto. At leading order, the relevant interactions are determined exclusively by the Chern-Simons action of the D8 branes and are thus rigidly connected to the chiral anomaly and the Wess-Zumino-Witten terms. As found in a previous study of the pseudovector glueball, which we revisit and complete, the resulting decay widths are surprisingly large, implying that both the pseudovector and the vector glueball are very broad resonances, with a conspicuous dominance of decays into a1ρ and K1(1400)K* in the case of the vector glueball. We also obtain a certain weak mixing of vector glueballs with ordinary vector mesons, but we conclude that it does not provide an explanation for the so-called ρπ puzzle in charmonium decays. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Inflationary α-attractor from type-IIB/F theory

We derive an potential of slow-roll inflation in the warped D brane set-up featuring three intersecting D7 branes under type of CY 3-compactification within type-IIB/F theory with some near-conifold regions. The underlying quadratic structure of the kinetic poles is found to arise from a correction in the Kähler potential when an extra contribution of open string moduli is turned on. While the closed string sector of the moduli spectrum is completely stabilized via quantum corrections of perturbative and non-perturbative origin, the open string sector plays the lead role in driving the inflationary expansion in the radial direction. A generic asymptotic behaviour of the inflaton field near the pole boundaries manifests itself as the slow-roll plateau in canonical field space, which becomes responsible for giving universal predictions of the cosmological parameters. We find that the presence of the open strings near conifold regions brings the realization of pole inflation in the present set-up. Finally we compare our results with similar models and discuss the importance of exploring precise values of α in the light of ongoing and forthcoming cosmological surveys.

Confinement and D5-branes

In this work we present new solutions of type IIB supergravity based on wrapped D5 branes. We propose that two of these backgrounds are holographically dual to Quantum Field Theories that confine. The high energy regime of the field theories is that of a Little String Theory. We study various observables (Wilson and ’t Hooft loops, Entanglement entropy, density of degrees of freedom and the spectrum of spin-two glueballs, among others). We also present two new black membrane backgrounds and analyse some thermodynamic aspects of these solutions.

Line operators in 4d Chern-Simons theory and Cherkis bows

We show that the phase spaces of a large family of line operators in 4d Chern-Simons theory with GL_nn gauge group are given by Cherkis bow varieties with nn crosses. These line operators are characterized by Hanany-Witten type brane constructions involving D3, D5, and NS5 branes in an \OmegaΩ-background. Linking numbers of the five-branes and mass parameters for the D3 brane theories determine the phase spaces and in special cases they correspond to vacuum moduli spaces of 3d \mathcal{N}=4𝒩=4 quiver theories. Examples include line operators that conjecturally create T, Q, and L-operators in integrable spin chains.

Gluon scattering in AdS at finite string coupling from localization

We consider gluons scattering in Type IIB string theory on AdS5 × S5/ℤ2 in the presence of D7 branes, which is dual to the flavor multiplet correlator in a certain 4d 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 USp(2N) gauge theory with SO(8) flavor symmetry and complexified coupling τ. We compute this holographic correlator in the large N and finite τ expansion using constraints from derivatives of the mass deformed sphere free energy, which we compute to all orders in 1/N and finite τ using supersymmetric localization. In particular, we fix the F4 higher derivative correction to gluon scattering on AdS at finite string coupling τs = τ in terms of Jacobi theta functions, which feature the expected relations between the SL(2, ℤ) duality and the SO(8) triality of the CFT, and match it to the known flat space term. We also use the flat space limit to compute D2F4 corrections of the correlator at finite τ in terms of a non-holomorphic Eisenstein series. At weak string coupling, we find that the AdS correlator takes a form which is remarkably similar to that of the flat space Veneziano amplitude.