Wess-Zumino-Novikov-Witten Models Based on Lie Superalgebras

The affine current algebra for Lie superalgebras is examined. The bilinear invariant forms of the Lie superalgebra can be either degenerate or non-degenerate. We give the conditions for a Virasoro construction, in which the currents are primary fields of weight one, to exist. In certain cases, the Virasoro central charge is an integer equal to the super dimension of the group supermanifold. A Wess-Zumino-Novikov-Witten action based on these Lie superalgebras is also found.Comment: 10 pages, Latexfile, BONN-TH-94-0

The excitation of a charged string passing through a shock wave in a charged Aichelburg-Sexl spacetime

We investigate how much a first-quantized charged bosonic test string gets excited after crossing a shock wave generated by a charged particle with mass $\tilde{M}$ and charge $\tilde{Q}$. On the basis of Kaluza-Klein theory, we pay attention to a closed string model where charge is given by a momentum along a compactified extra-dimension. The shock wave is given by a charged Aichelburg-Sexl (CAS) spacetime where $\tilde{Q}=0$ corresponds to the ordinary Aichelburg-Sexl one. We first show that the CAS spacetime is a solution to the equations of motion for the metric, the gauge field, and the axion field in the low-energy limit. Secondly, we compute the mass expectation value of the charged test string after passing through the shock wave in the CAS spacetime. In the case of small $\tilde{Q}$, gravitational and Coulomb forces are canceled out each other and hence the excitation of the string remains very small. This is independent of the particle mass $\tilde{M}$ or the strength of the shock wave. In the case of large $\tilde{Q}$, however, every charged string gets highly excited by quantum fluctuation in the extra-dimension caused by both the gauge and the axion fields. This is quite different from classical "molecule", which consists of two electrically charged particles connected by a classical spring.Comment: Latex, 20 pages, no figures, accepted for Nucl. Phys.

M-Branes and Their Interactions in Static Matrix Model

Different BPS M-brane configurations including single and two parallel M$p$-branes ($p$= even) and M5-branes are introduced as the classical solutions of the recently proposed Static Matrix Model. Also the long range interactions of two relatively rotated M$p$-branes (one and two angles) and M$p$-brane--anti-M$p$-brane are calculated. The results are in agreement with 11 dimensional supergravity results.Comment: Latex file, 17 pages, No Figure

Strings in the pp-wave Background from Membrane

In this paper we study strings with quantized masses in the pp-wave background. We obtain these strings from the membrane theory. For achieving to this, one of the membrane and one of the spacetime directions will be identified and wrapped. From the action of strings in the pp-wave background, we obtain its mass dual action. Some properties of the closed and open strings in this background will be studied.Comment: 15 pages, Latex, no figure, major changes have been introduce

Contact lines for fluid surface adhesion

When a fluid surface adheres to a substrate, the location of the contact line adjusts in order to minimize the overall energy. This adhesion balance implies boundary conditions which depend on the characteristic surface deformation energies. We develop a general geometrical framework within which these conditions can be systematically derived. We treat both adhesion to a rigid substrate as well as adhesion between two fluid surfaces, and illustrate our general results for several important Hamiltonians involving both curvature and curvature gradients. Some of these have previously been studied using very different techniques, others are to our knowledge new. What becomes clear in our approach is that, except for capillary phenomena, these boundary conditions are not the manifestation of a local force balance, even if the concept of surface stress is properly generalized. Hamiltonians containing higher order surface derivatives are not just sensitive to boundary translations but also notice changes in slope or even curvature. Both the necessity and the functional form of the corresponding additional contributions follow readily from our treatment.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, LaTeX, RevTeX styl

PP-Wave Strings from Membrane and from String in the Spacetime with Two Time Directions

In this paper we obtain strings that propagate in the quantized pp-wave backgrounds. We can obtain these strings from the solutions of membrane. The other way is the propagation of a massless string in a spacetime with two time dimensions. This string sweeps a worldvolume, which enables us to obtain other strings in the quantized pp-wave backgrounds in the spacetime with one time direction. The associated algebras and Hamiltonians of these massive strings will be studied.Comment: 12 pages, Latex, no figure, to appear in Phys. Lett.

Open String Fluctuations in AdS with and without Torsion

The equations of motion and boundary conditions for the fluctuations around a classical open string, in a curved space-time with torsion, are considered in compact and world-sheet covariant form. The rigidly rotating open strings in Anti de Sitter space with and without torsion are investigated in detail. By carefully analyzing the tangential fluctuations at the boundary, we show explicitly that the physical fluctuations (which at the boundary are combinations of normal and tangential fluctuations) are finite, even though the world-sheet is singular there. The divergent 2-curvature thus seems less dangerous than expected, in these cases. The general formalism can be straightforwardly used also to study the (bosonic part of the) fluctuations around the closed strings, recently considered in connection with the AdS/CFT duality, on AdS_5 \times S^5 and AdS_3 \times S^3 \times T^4.Comment: 19 pages, Late

Descriptions of membrane mechanics from microscopic and effective two-dimensional perspectives

Mechanics of fluid membranes may be described in terms of the concepts of mechanical deformations and stresses, or in terms of mechanical free-energy functions. In this paper, each of the two descriptions is developed by viewing a membrane from two perspectives: a microscopic perspective, in which the membrane appears as a thin layer of finite thickness and with highly inhomogeneous material and force distributions in its transverse direction, and an effective, two-dimensional perspective, in which the membrane is treated as an infinitely thin surface, with effective material and mechanical properties. A connection between these two perspectives is then established. Moreover, the functional dependence of the variation in the mechanical free energy of the membrane on its mechanical deformations is first studied in the microscopic perspective. The result is then used to examine to what extent different, effective mechanical stresses and forces can be derived from a given, effective functional of the mechanical free energy.Comment: 37 pages, 3 figures, minor change

Second Order Perturbations of a Macroscopic String; Covariant Approach

Using a world-sheet covariant formalism, we derive the equations of motion for second order perturbations of a generic macroscopic string, thus generalizing previous results for first order perturbations. We give the explicit results for the first and second order perturbations of a contracting near-circular string; these results are relevant for the understanding of the possible outcome when a cosmic string contracts under its own tension, as discussed in a series of papers by Vilenkin and Garriga. In particular, second order perturbations are necessaary for a consistent computation of the energy. We also quantize the perturbations and derive the mass-formula up to second order in perturbations for an observer using world-sheet time $\tau$. The high frequency modes give the standard Minkowski result while, interestingly enough, the Hamiltonian turns out to be non-diagonal in oscillators for low-frequency modes. Using an alternative definition of the vacuum, it is possible to diagonalize the Hamiltonian, and the standard string mass-spectrum appears for all frequencies. We finally discuss how our results are also relevant for the problems concerning string-spreading near a black hole horizon, as originally discussed by Susskind.Comment: New discussion about the quantum mass-spectrum in chapter

Balancing torques in membrane-mediated interactions: Exact results and numerical illustrations

Torques on interfaces can be described by a divergence-free tensor which is fully encoded in the geometry. This tensor consists of two terms, one originating in the couple of the stress, the other capturing an intrinsic contribution due to curvature. In analogy to the description of forces in terms of a stress tensor, the torque on a particle can be expressed as a line integral along any contour surrounding the particle. Interactions between particles mediated by a fluid membrane are studied within this framework. In particular, torque balance places a strong constraint on the shape of the membrane. Symmetric two-particle configurations admit simple analytical expressions which are valid in the fully nonlinear regime; in particular, the problem may be solved exactly in the case of two membrane-bound parallel cylinders. This apparently simple system provides some flavor of the remarkably subtle nonlinear behavior associated with membrane-mediated interactions.Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures, REVTeX4 style. The Gaussian curvature term was included in the membrane Hamiltonian; section II.B was rephrased to smoothen the flow of presentatio