Five dimensional 2-branes and the universal hypermultiplet

We present a discussion of black 2-branes coupled to the fields of the universal hypermultiplet of ungauged N=2 supergravity theory in five dimensions. Using a general ansatz dependent on a spherically symmetric harmonic function, we show that there are exactly two such solutions, both of which can be thought of as arising from the dimensional reduction of either M2- or M5-branes over special Lagrangian cycles of a Calabi-Yau 3-fold, confirming previous results. By relaxing some of the constraints on the ansatz, we proceed to find a more general solution carrying both M-brane charges and discuss its properties, as well as its relationship to Euclidean instantons.Comment: In v2 the paper was completely rewritten, errors fixed and notation improved. To appear in Nuclear Physics

Zero-branes and the symplectic hypermultiplets

We study the scalar fields of the five-dimensional N=2 hypermultiplets using the method of symplectic covariance developed in previous work. For static spherically symmetric backgrounds, we show that exactly two possibilities exist. One of them is a Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfeld (BPS) zero-brane carrying charge under the hypermultiplets. We find an explicitly symplectic solution of the fields in this background and derive the conditions required for a full spacetime understanding

Calibrated brane solutions of M-theory

Close studies of the solitonic solutions of D=11 N=1 supergravity theory provide a deeper understanding of the elusive M-theory and constitute steps towards its final formulation. In this work, we propose the use of calibration techniques to find localized intersecting brane solutions of the theory. We test this hypothesis by considering Kahler and special Lagrangian calibrations. We also discuss the interpretation of some of these results as branes wrapped or reduced over supersymmetric cycles of Calabi-Yau manifolds and we find the corresponding solutions in D=5 N=2 supergravity.Comment: Ph.D dissertation, 153 pages, 1 figur

Split-complex representation of the universal hypermultiplet

Split-complex fields usually appear in the context of Euclidean supersymmetry. In this paper, we propose that this can be generalized to the non-Euclidean case and that, in fact, the split-complex representation may be the most natural way to formulate the scalar fields of the five dimensional universal hypermultiplet. We supplement earlier evidence of this by studying a specific class of solutions and explicitly showing that it seems to favor this formulation. We also argue that this is directly related to the symplectic structure of the general hypermultiplet fields arising from non-trivial Calabi-Yau moduli. As part of the argument, we find new explicit instanton and 3-brane solutions coupled to the four scalar fields of the universal hypermultiplet