Tachyon Couplings to Fermion

By fixing the internal CP factor of tachyon and massless Ramond vertex operators in different pictures, we have shown that the internal CP factor of the disk level S-matrix elements of two fermions and odd number of tachyon vertex operators in the world volume of non-BPS D-branes/D-brane-anti-D-brane is zero. We have calculated the S-matrix element of two fermions and two tachyons which has non vanishing internal CP factor, and found the momentum expansion of this amplitude. In the abelian case, we have compared the two-fermion-two-tachyon coupling at low energy with the corresponding coupling in the gauge-fixed supersymmetric tachyon DBI action. The couplings in the two cases are exactly the same.Comment: 16 pages, latex file; V2:a missing term in the modified tachyon DBI action adde

New Examples of Flux Vacua

Type IIB toroidal orientifolds are among the earliest examples of flux vacua. By applying T-duality, we construct the first examples of massive IIA flux vacua with Minkowski space-times, along with new examples of type IIA flux vacua. The backgrounds are surprisingly simple with no four-form flux at all. They serve as illustrations of the ingredients needed to build type IIA and massive IIA solutions with scale separation. To check that these backgrounds are actually solutions, we formulate the complete set of type II supergravity equations of motion in a very useful form that treats the R-R fields democratically.Comment: 38 pages, LaTeX; references updated; additional minor comments added; published versio

Nonabelian D-branes and Noncommutative Geometry

We discuss the nonabelian world-volume action which governs the dynamics of N coincident Dp-branes. In this theory, the branes' transverse displacements are described by matrix-valued scalar fields, and so this is a natural physical framework for the appearance of noncommutative geometry. One example is the dielectric effect by which Dp-branes may be polarized into a noncommutative geometry by external fields. Another example is the appearance of noncommutative geometries in the description of intersecting D-branes of differing dimensions, such as D-strings ending on a D3- or D5-brane. We also describe the related physics of giant gravitons.Comment: 21 pages, Latex, ref. adde

Note About Unstable M3-brane Action

We construct an action for unstable M3-brane in M-theory. We argue that in order to find M3-brane action that upon direct dimensional reduction leads to non-BPS D3-brane action in type IIA theory we have to presume that the background possesses Killing isometry and that this isometry has to be gauged on the world-volume of M3-brane. Then we construct singular tachyon kink on world-volume of M3-brane and we show that the dynamics of resulting topological defect is governed by an action that upon direct dimensional reduction leads to D2-brane in type IIA theory and that is equivalent to standard M2-brane action in flat background.Comment: 20 pages, references adde

More on WZ action of non-BPS branes

We calculate the disk level S-matrix element of one Ramond-Ramond, two gauge fields and one tachyon vertex operators in the world volume of non-BPS branes. We then find the momentum expansion of this amplitude and show that the infinite tachyon/massless poles and the contact terms of this amplitude can be reproduced by the tachyon DBI and the WZ actions, and by their higher derivative corrections.Comment: 17 pages, no figure

Singular tachyon kinks from regular profiles

We demonstrate how Sen's singular kink solution of the Born-Infeld tachyon action can be constructed by taking the appropriate limit of initially regular profiles. It is shown that the order in which different limits are taken plays an important role in determining whether or not such a solution is obtained for a wide class of potentials. Indeed, by introducing a small parameter into the action, we are able circumvent the results of a recent paper which derived two conditions on the asymptotic tachyon potential such that the singular kink could be recovered in the large amplitude limit of periodic solutions. We show that this is explained by the non-commuting nature of two limits, and that Sen's solution is recovered if the order of the limits is chosen appropriately.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures. References adde

Tachyon kinks on non BPS D-branes

We consider solitonic solutions of the DBI tachyon effective action for a non-BPS brane. When wrapped on a circle, these solutions are regular and have a finite energy. We show that in the decompactified limit, these solitons give Sen's infinitely thin finite energy kink -- interpreted as a BPS brane -- provided that some conditions on the potential hold. In particular, if for large $T$ the potential is exponential, $V = e^{-T^a}$, then Sen's solution is only found for $a<1$. For power-law potentials $V = 1/T^b$, one must have $b>1$. If these conditions are not satisfied, we show that the lowest energy configuration is the unstable tachyon vacuum with no kinks. We examine the stability of the solitons and the spectrum of small perturbations.Comment: 16 pages, 2 figure

Regular and Periodic Tachyon Kinks

We search for regular tachyon kinks in an extended model, which includes the tachyon action recently proposed to describe the tachyon field. The extended model that we propose adds a new contribution to the tachyon action, and seems to enrich the present scenario for the tachyon field. We have found stable tachyon kinks of regular profile, which may appropriately lead to the singular kink found by Sen sometime ago. Also, under specific conditions we may find periodic array of kink-antikink configurations.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure. Version to be published in Mod. Phys. Lett.

On RR couplings on D-branes at order O(α′2)O(\alpha'^2)

Recently, it has been found that there are couplings of the RR field strength $F^{(p)}$ and the B-field strength $H$ on the world volume of D$_p$-branes at order ${\cal O}(\alpha'^2)$. These couplings which have both world-volume and transverse indices, are invariant under the linear T-duality transformations. Consistency with the nonlinear T-duality indicates that the RR field strength $F^{(p)}$ in these couplings should be replaced by ${\cal F}^{(p)}=d{\cal C}^{(p-1)}$ where ${\cal C}=e^{B}C$. This replacement, however, reproduces some non-gauge invariant terms. On the other hand, the nonlinear terms are invariant under the linear T-duality transformations at the level of two B-fields. This allows one to remove some of the nonlinear terms in ${\cal F}^{(p)}$. We fix this by comparing the nonlinear couplings with the S-matrix element of one RR and two NSNS vertex operators. Our results indicate that in the expansion of ${\cal F}^{(p)}$ one should keep only the B-field gauge invariant terms, e.g. $B\wedge dC^{(p-3)}$ where both indices of B-field lie along the brane. Moreover, in this case one should replace $B$ with $B+2\pi\alpha'f$ to have the $B$-field gauge invariance.Comment: 23 pages, Latex file, 1 figure; v2:typos corrected, to appear in JHE

On effective actions of BPS branes and their higher derivative corrections

We calculate in detail the disk level S-matrix element of one Ramond-Ramond field and three gauge field vertex operators in the world volume of BPS branes, to find four gauge field couplings to all orders of $\alpha'$ up to on-shell ambiguity. Then using these infinite couplings we find that the massless pole of the field theory amplitude is exactly equal to the massless pole S-matrix element of this amplitude for the $p=n$ case to all orders of $\alpha'$. Finally we show that the infinite massless poles and the contact terms of this amplitude for the $p=n+2$ case can be reproduced by the Born-Infeld action and the Wess-Zumino actions and by their higher derivative corrections.Comment: 26 pages, 2 figures, minor corrections,references added and version published in JHE