Intersection Rules and Open Branes

A general rule determining how extremal branes can intersect in a configuration with zero binding energy is presented. It is derived in a model independent way and without explicit use of supersymmetry, solving a set of classical equations of motion. When specializing to M and type II theories, it is shown that some intersection rules can be consistently interpreted as boundary rules for open branes ending on other branes.Comment: 12 pages, Latex, uses crckapb.sty. To appear in the proceedings of the Cargese '97 summer schoo

Little Theories in Six and Seven Dimensions

We discuss theories with 16 and 8 supercharges in 6 and 7 dimensions. These theories are defined as world-volume theories of 5- and 6-branes of type II and M theories, in the limit in which bulk modes decouple. We analyze in detail the spectrum of BPS extended objects of these theories, and show that the 6 dimensional ones can be interpreted as little (non-critical) string theories. The little 5-branes of the 6 dimensional theories with 16 supercharges are used to find new string theories with 8 supercharges, which have additional group structure. We describe the web of dualities relating all these theories. We show that the theories with 16 supercharges can be used for a Matrix description of M-theory on T^6 in the general case, and that they also reproduce Matrix theory on T^5 and T^4 in some particular limit.Comment: 23 pages, LaTeX, no figures; references adde

On the Opening of Branes

We relate, in 10 and 11 dimensional supergravities, configurations of intersecting closed branes with vanishing binding energy to configurations where one of the branes opens and has its boundaries attached to the other. These boundaries are charged with respect to fields living on the closed brane. The latter hosts electric and magnetic charges stemming from dual pairs of open branes terminating on it. We show that charge conservation, gauge invariance and supersymmetry entirely determine these charges and these fields, which can be seen as Goldstone fields of broken supersymmetry. Open brane boundary charges can annihilate, restoring the zero binding energy configuration. This suggests emission of closed branes by branes, a generalization of closed string emission by D-branes. We comment on the relation of the Goldstone fields to matrix models approaches to M-theory.Comment: 13 pages, LaTeX, no figure

More on Superstrings in AdS(3) x N

We study superstring theories on AdS(3) x N backgrounds yielding N=2,3,4 extended superconformal symmetries in the dual boundary CFT. In each case the necessary constraints on the internal worldsheet theory N are found.Comment: JHEP style, 22 pages; v2: new references and a couple of sentences on N=1 are adde

A natural renormalizable model of metastable SUSY breaking

We propose a model of metastable dynamical supersymmetry breaking in which all scales are generated dynamically. Our construction is a simple variant of the Intriligator-Seiberg-Shih model, with quark masses induced by renormalizable couplings to an auxiliary supersymmetric QCD sector. Since all scales arise from dimensional transmutation, the model has no fundamental dimensionful parameters. It also does not rely on higher-dimensional operators.Comment: 9 pages; v2: typos correcte

Effective superpotential for U(N) with antisymmetric matter

We consider an N=1 U(N) gauge theory with matter in the antisymmetric representation and its conjugate, with a tree level superpotential containing at least quartic interactions for these fields. We obtain the effective glueball superpotential in the classically unbroken case, and show that it has a non-trivial N-dependence which does not factorize. We also recover additional contributions starting at order S^N from the dynamics of Sp(0) factors. This can also be understood by a precise map of this theory to an Sp(2N-2) gauge theory with antisymmetric matter.Comment: 22 pages. v2: comment (and a reference) added at the end of section 2 on low rank cases; minor typos corrected. v3: 2 footnotes added with additional clarifications; version to appear in journa

Stringy Instantons and Cascading Quivers

D-brane instantons can perturb the quantum field theories on space-time filling D-branes by interesting operators. In some cases, these D-brane instantons are novel "stringy" effects (not interpretable directly as instanton effects in the low-energy quantum field theory), while in others the D-brane instantons can be directly interpreted as field theory effects. In this note, we describe a situation where both perspectives are available, by studying stringy instantons in quivers which arise at simple Calabi-Yau singularities. We show that a stringy instanton which wraps an unoccupied node of the quiver, and gives rise to a non-perturbative mass in the space-time field theory, can be reinterpreted as a conventional gauge theory effect by going up in an appropriate renormalization group cascade. Interestingly, in the cascade, the contribution of the stringy instanton does not come from gauge theory instantons but from strong coupling dynamics.Comment: 17 pages, 6 figures, harvma

Gauge/gravity duality and the interplay of various fractional branes

We consider different types of fractional branes on a Z_2 orbifold of the conifold and analyze in detail the corresponding gauge/gravity duality. The gauge theory possesses a rich and varied dynamics, both in the UV and in the IR. We find the dual supergravity solution which contains both untwisted and twisted 3-form fluxes, related to what are known as deformation and N=2 fractional branes respectively. We analyze the resulting RG flow from the supergravity perspective, by developing an algorithm to easily extract it. We find hints of a generalization of the familiar cascade of Seiberg dualities due to a non-trivial interplay between the different types of fractional branes. We finally consider the IR behavior in several limits, where the dominant effective dynamics is either confining, in a Coulomb phase or runaway, and discuss the resolution of singularities in the dual geometric background.Comment: 38 pages + appendices, 15 figures; v2: refs added and typos correcte

Unscreening the Gaugino Mass with Chiral Messengers

Gaugino screening, the absence of next-to-leading order corrections to gaugino masses, is a generic feature of gauge mediation models of supersymmetry breaking. We show that in a specific class of models, known as semi-direct gauge mediation, it is possible to avoid gaugino screening by allowing for a chiral messenger sector. Messengers then acquire a mass at some scale, for instance by higgsing or by some auxiliary strong coupling dynamics. We implement this idea in a simple model which we work out explicitly