Kaehler forms and cosmological solutions in type II supergravities

We consider cosmological solutions to type II supergravity theories where the spacetime is split into a FRW universe and a K\"ahler space, which may be taken to be Calabi-Yau. The various 2-forms present in the theories are taken to be proportional to the K\"ahler form associated to the K\"ahler space.Comment: 6 pages, LaTeX2

Black holes and black strings of N=2, d=5 supergravity in the H-FGK formalism

We study general classes and properties of extremal and non-extremal static black-hole solutions of N=2, d=5 supergravity coupled to vector multiplets using the recently proposed H-FGK formalism, which we also extend to static black strings. We explain how to determine the integration constants and physical parameters of the black-hole and black-string solutions. We derive some model-independent statements, including the transformation of non-extremal flow equations to the form of those for the extremal flow. We apply our methods to the construction of example solutions (among others a new extremal string solution of heterotic string theory on K_3 \times S^1). In the cases where we have calculated it explicitly, the product of areas of the inner and outer horizon of a non-extremal solution coincides with the square of the moduli-independent area of the horizon of the extremal solution with the same charges.Comment: 33 pages. Revised version: references added. No other change

Solutions of Minimal Four Dimensional de Sitter Supergravity

Pseudo-supersymmetric solutions of minimal $N=2$, $D=4$ de Sitter supergravity are classified using spinorial geometry techniques. We find three classes of solutions. The first class of solution consists of geometries which are fibrations over a 3-dimensional manifold equipped with a Gauduchon-Tod structure. The second class of solution is the cosmological Majumdar-Papapetrou solution of Kastor and Traschen, and the third corresponds to gravitational waves propagating in the Nariai cosmology.Comment: 17 Pages. Minor correction to section 4; equation (4.21) corrected and (old) equation (4.26) deleted; the final result is unchange

The Tensor Hierarchies of Pure N=2,d=4,5,6 Supergravities

We study the supersymmetric tensor hierarchy of pure (gauged) N=2,d=4,5,6 supergravity and compare them with those of the pure, ungauged, theories (worked out by Gomis and Roest for d=5) and the predictions of the Kac-Moody approach made by Kleinschmidt and Roest. We find complete agreement in the ungauged case but we also find that, after gauging, new Stueckelberg symmetries reduce the number of independent "physical" top-forms. The analysis has to be performed to all orders in fermion fields. We discuss the construction of the worldvolume effective actions for the p-branes which are charged with respect to the (p+1)-form potentials and the relations between the tensor hierarchies and p-branes upon dimensional reduction.Comment: LaTeX2e file, 20 pages, 1 figure Results refined by extension of the analysis to all orders in fermion

Non-extremal black holes from the generalised r-map

We review the timelike dimensional reduction of a class of five-dimensional theories that generalises 5D, N = 2 supergravity coupled to vector multiplets. As an application we construct instanton solutions to the four-dimensional Euclidean theory, and investigate the criteria for solutions to lift to static non-extremal black holes in five dimensions. We focus specifically on two classes of models: STU-like models, and models with a block diagonal target space metric. For STU-like models the second order equations of motion of the four-dimensional theory can be solved explicitly, and we obtain the general solution. For block diagonal models we find a restricted class of solutions, where the number of independent scalar fields depends on the number of blocks. When lifting these solutions to five dimensions we show, by explicit calculation, that one obtains static non-extremal black holes with scalar fields that take finite values on the horizon only if the number of integration constants reduces by exactly half.Comment: 22 pages. Based on talk by OV at "Black Objects in Supergravity School" (BOSS2011), INFN, Frascati, Italy, 9-13 May, 201

p-p' Branes in PP-wave Background

We present several supergravity solutions corresponding to both Dp, as well as Dp-Dp' systems, in NS-NS and R-R PP-wave background originating from AdS_3 times S^3 times R^4. The Dp brane solutions, p=1,..,5 are fully localized, whereas Dp-Dp' are localized along common transverse directions. We also discuss the supersymmetry properties of these solutions and the worldsheet construction for the p-p' system.Comment: 17 pages, v5: supergrav. solns. corrected, v6: more results added: now includes p-p' branes in both NS-NS and R-R PP-wave background, some restructuring of the tex

Supersymmetric solutions of gauged five-dimensional supergravity with general matter couplings

We perform the characterization program for the supersymmetric configurations and solutions of the $\mathcal{N}=1$, $d=5$ Supergravity Theory coupled to an arbitrary number of vectors, tensors and hypermultiplets and with general non-Abelian gaugins. By using the conditions yielded by the characterization program, new exact supersymmetric solutions are found in the $SO(4,1)/SO(4)$ model for the hyperscalars and with $SU(2)\times U(1)$ as the gauge group. The solutions also content non-trivial vector and massive tensor fields, the latter being charged under the U(1) sector of the gauge group and with selfdual spatial components. These solutions are black holes with $AdS_2 \times S^3$ near horizon geometry in the gauged version of the theory and for the ungauged case we found naked singularities. We also analyze supersymmetric solutions with only the scalars $\phi^x$ of the vector/tensor multiplets and the metric as the non-trivial fields. We find that only in the null class the scalars $\phi^x$ can be non-constant and for the case of constant $\phi^x$ we refine the classification in terms of the contributions to the scalar potential.Comment: Minor changes in wording and some typos corrected. Version to appear in Class. Quantum Grav. 38 page

Generalizations of pp-wave spacetimes in higher dimensions

We shall investigate $D$-dimensional Lorentzian spacetimes in which all of the scalar invariants constructed from the Riemann tensor and its covariant derivatives are zero. These spacetimes are higher-dimensional generalizations of $D$-dimensional pp-wave spacetimes, which have been of interest recently in the context of string theory in curved backgrounds in higher dimensions.Comment: 5 pages, RevTex, to appear in Physical Review

Supersymmetry and homogeneity of M-theory backgrounds

We describe the construction of a Lie superalgebra associated to an arbitrary supersymmetric M-theory background, and discuss some examples. We prove that for backgrounds with more than 24 supercharges, the bosonic subalgebra acts locally transitively. In particular, we prove that backgrounds with more than 24 supersymmetries are necessarily (locally) homogeneous.Comment: 19 pages (Erroneous Section 6.3 removed from the paper.

Domain walls and instantons in N=1, d=4 supergravity

We study the supersymmetric sources of (multi-) domain-wall and (multi-) instanton solutions of generic N=1, d=4 supergravities, that is: the worldvolume effective actions for said supersymmetric topological defects. The domain-wall solutions naturally couple to the two 3-forms recently found as part of the N=1, d=4 tensor hierarchy (i.e. they have two charges in general) and their tension is the absolute value of the superpotential section L. The introduction of sources (we study sources with finite and vanishing thickness) is equivalent to the introduction of local coupling constants and results in dramatic changes of the solutions. Our results call for a democratic reformulation of N=1,d=4 supergravity in which coupling constants are, off-shell, scalar fields. The effective actions for the instantons are always proportional to the coordinate orthogonal to the twist-free embedding of the null-geodesic (in the Wick-rotated scalar manifold) describing the instanton. We show their supersymmetry and find the associated supersymmetric (multi-) instanton solutions.Comment: 34 pages, 4 figures, references adde