Notes on Branes in Matrix Theory

We study the effective actions of various brane configurations in Matrix theory. Starting from the 0+1 dimensional quantum mechanics, we replace coordinate matrices by covariant derivatives in the large N limit, thereby obtaining effective field theories on the brane world volumes. Even for noncompact branes, these effective theories are of Yang-Mills type, with constant background magnetic fields. In the case of a D2-brane, we show explicitly how the effective action equals the large magnetic field limit of the Born-Infeld action, and thus derive from Matrix theory the action used by Polchinski and Pouliot to compute M-momentum transfer between membranes. We also consider the effect of compactifying transverse directions. Finally, we analyze a scattering process involving a recently proposed background representing a classically stable D6+D0 brane configuration. We compute the potential between this configuration and a D0-brane, and show that the result agrees with supergravity.Comment: 24 pages, LaTeX file. Minor typo correction

M-momentum Transfer between Gravitons, Membranes, and Fivebranes as Perturbative Gauge Theory Processes

Polchinski and Pouliot have shown that M-momentum transfer between membranes in supergravity can be understood as a non-perturbative instanton effect in gauge theory. Here we consider a dual process: electric flux transmission between D-branes. We show that this process can be described in perturbation theory as virtual string pair creation, and is closely related to Schwinger's treatment of the pair creation of charged particles in a uniform electric field. Through the application of dualities, our perturbative calculation gives results for various non-perturbative amplitudes, including M-momentum transfer between gravitons, membranes, and longitudinal fivebranes. Thus perturbation theory plus dualities are sufficient to demonstrate agreement between supergravity and gauge theory for a number of M-momentum transferring processes. A variety of other processes where branes are transmitted between branes, e.g. (p,q)-string transmission in IIB-theory, can also be studied. We discuss the implications of our results for proving the 11 dimensional Lorentz invariance of Matrix theory.Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, 1 Postscript figure, uses epsf.tex and fps.sty macro

Quantum Hall Effect in AdS/CFT

Drawing on the connection with superconductivity, we give a simple AdS realization of the quantum Hall effect. The theory includes a statistical gauge field with a Chern-Simons term, in analogy with effective field theory models of the QHE.Comment: 12 page

The Ground State Structure and Modular Transformations of Fractional Quantum Hall States on a Torus

The structure of ground states of generic FQH states on a torus is studied by using both effective theory and electron wave function. The relation between the effective theory and the wave function becomes transparent when one considers the ground state structure. We find that the non-abelian Berry's phases of the abelian Hall states generated by twisting the mass matrix are identical to the modular transformation matrix for the characters of a Gaussian conformal field theory. We also show that the Haldane-Rezayi spin singlet state has a ten fold degeneracy on a torus which indicates such a state is a non-abelian Hall state.Comment: 28 pages, LATEX, 9 figures available by request from authors, CTP-2197 (two references added + some minor typos corrected

Electrostatics approach to closed string pair production from a decaying D-brane

We consider the emission of two closed string tachyons from a decaying Dp-brane in bosonic string theory. We study the high energy limit of the emission amplitude by using an analogue to electrostatics. The case where the emitted strings have equal energies is analyzed in detail, and we obtain a relatively simple result for the emission amplitude. We identify expected poles for s- and t-channel emission. In the high energy limit, the amplitude decays exponentially (~e^{-2\pi\omega}) or faster in the energies \omega of the closed strings.Comment: 28 pages, 2 figure

Timelike Boundary Sine-Gordon Theory and Two-Component Plasma

It has long been known that there is a relation between boundary sine-Gordon theory and thermodynamics of charge neutral two-component Coulomb plasma on a unit circle. On the other hand, recently it was found that open string worldsheet description of brane decay can be related to a sequence of points of thermodynamic equilibrium of one-component plasma. Here we consider a different decay process which is specifically described by the timelike boundary sine-Gordon theory. We find time evolution to be mapped to a one-dimensional curve in the space of points of thermal equilibrium of a non-neutral two-component Coulomb plasma. We compute the free energy of the system and find that along the curve it is monotonously decreasing, defining a thermodynamic arrow of time.Comment: 11 pages, v2: reference adde