Summing Over World-Sheet Boundaries

The moduli associated with boundaries in a Riemann surface are parametrized by the positions and strengths of electric charges. This suggests a method for summing over orientable Riemann surfaces with Dirichlet boundary conditions on the embedding coordinates. A light-cone parameterization of such boundaries is also discussed.Comment: 10 page

Membranes from Five-Branes and Fundamental Strings from Dp Branes

We argue that M2 brane is realized as a topological soliton on a coincident pair of M5 and anti-M5 branes, as the two five-branes annihilate each other. Topology and quantum numbers of this world-volume soliton are discussed in some detail, and its formation is explained qualitatively. It follows from a compactification that a D4-anti-D4 pair annihilate and produce type II fundamental strings. The phenomenon is best described as the confinement of a world-volume U(1) gauge field on D4-anti-D4, where the confined electric flux string is identified as the fundamental string. This generalizes to other D$p$-anti-D$p$ systems, and solves a puzzle recently pointed out by Witten.Comment: LaTeX, 12 pages (typos corrected and minor changes in the text

Short-range ultrasonic communications in air using quadrature modulation

A study has been undertaken of ultrasonic communications methods in air, using a quadrature modulation method. Simulations were first performed to establish the likely performance of quadrature phase shift keying over the limited bandwidth available in an ultrasonic system. Quadrature phase shift keying modulation was then implemented within an experimental communication system, using capacitive ultrasonic sources and receivers. The results show that such a system is feasible in principle for communications over distances of several meters, using frequencies in the 200 to 400 kHz range

Generalized Koszul properties for augmented algebras

Under certain conditions, a filtration on an augmented algebra A admits a related filtration on the Yoneda algebra E(A) := Ext_A(K, K). We show that there exists a bigraded algebra monomorphism from gr E(A) to E_Gr(gr A), where E_Gr(gr A) is the graded Yoneda algebra of gr A. This monomorphism can be applied in the case where A is connected graded to determine that A has the K_2 property recently introduced by Cassidy and Shelton.Comment: 14 page

Gravitational Couplings of D-branes and O-planes

An explicit calculation is performed to check all the tangent bundle gravitational couplings of Dirichlet branes and Orientifold planes by scattering $q$ gravitons with a $p+1$ form Ramond-Ramond potential in the world-volume of a $D(p+2q)$-brane. The structure of the D-brane Wess-Zumino term in the world-volume action is confirmed, while a different O-plane Wess-Zumino action is obtained

Boundary states for moving D-branes

We determine the boundary state for both the NS-NS and R-R sectors of superstring theory. We show how they are modified under a boost. The boosted boundary state is then used for computing the interaction of two D-branes moving with constant velocity reproducing with a completely different method a recent calculation by Bachas.Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX, no figures; Eqs. (47) and (48) correcte

Connection between the Loop Variable Formalism and the Old Covariant Formalsm for the Open Bosonic String

The gauge invariant loop variable formalism and old covariant formalism for bosonic open string theory are compared in this paper. It is expected that for the free theory, after gauge fixing, the loop variable fields can be mapped to those of the old covariant formalism in bosonic string theory, level by level. This is verified explicitly for the first two massive levels. It is shown that (in the critical dimension) the fields, constraints and gauge transformations can all be mapped from one to the other. Assuming this continues at all levels one can give general arguments that the tree S-matrix (integrated correlation functions for on-shell physical fields) is the same in both formalisms and therefore they describe the same physical theory (at tree level).Comment: Latex file, 24 page