String Creation, D-branes and Effective Field Theory

This paper addresses several unsettled issues associated with string creation in systems of orthogonal Dp-D(8-p) branes. The interaction between the branes can be understood either from the closed string or open string picture. In the closed string picture it has been noted that the DBI action fails to capture an extra RR exchange between the branes. We demonstrate how this problem persists upon lifting to M-theory. These D-brane systems are analysed in the closed string picture by using gauge-fixed boundary states in a non-standard lightcone gauge, in which RR exchange can be analysed precisely. The missing piece in the DBI action also manifests itself in the open string picture as a mismatch between the Coleman-Weinberg potential obtained from the effective field theory and the corresponding open string calculation. We show that this difference can be reconciled by taking into account the superghosts in the (0+1)effective theory of the chiral fermion, that arises from gauge fixing the spontaneously broken world-line local supersymmetries.Comment: 33 page

On running couplings in gauge theories from type-IIB supergravity

We construct an explicit solution of type-IIB supergravity describing the strong coupling regime of a non-supersymmetric gauge theory. The latter has a running coupling with an ultraviolet stable fixed point corresponding to the N=4 SU(N) super-Yang-Mills theory at large N. The running coupling has a power law behaviour, argued to be universal, that is consistent with holography. Around the critical point, our solution defines an asymptotic expansion for the gauge coupling beta-function. We also calculate the first correction to the Coulombic quark-antiquark potential.Comment: 10 pages, latex, v2: Another form of the solution is given and a reference is added, v3: a reference is added, final form to appear in PL

Effective potential in non-supersymmetric SU(N) x SU(N) gauge theory and interactions of type 0 D3-branes

We study some aspects of short-distance interaction between parallel D3-branes in type 0 string theory as described by the corresponding world-volume gauge theory. We compute the one-loop effective potential in the non-supersymmetric SU(N) x SU(N) gauge theory (which is a Z_2 projection of the U(2N) n=4 SYM theory) representing dyonic branes composed of N electric and N magnetic D3-branes. The branes of the same type repel at short distances, but an electric and a magnetic brane attract, and the forces between self-dual branes cancel. The self-dual configuration (with the positions of the electric and the magnetic branes, i.e. the diagonal entries of the adjoint scalar fields, being the same) is stable against separation of one electric or one magnetic brane, but is unstable against certain modes of separation of several same-type branes. This instability should be suppressed in the large N limit, i.e. should be irrelevant for the large N CFT interpretation of the gauge theory suggested in hep-th/9901101.Comment: 14 pages, latex, v2: minor corrections, v3: a comment and references added at the end of section

N=2 Supersymmetric Sigma Models and D-branes

We study D-branes of N=2 supersymmetric sigma models. Supersymmetric nonlinear sigma models with 2-dimensional target space have D0,D1,D2-branes, which are realized as A-,B-type supersymmetric boundary conditions on the worldsheet. When we embed the models in the string theory, the Kahler potential is restricted and leads to a 2-dim black hole metric with a dilaton background. The D-branes in this model are susy cycles and consistent with the analysis of conjugacy classes. The generalized metrics with U(n) isometry is proposed and dynamics on them are realized by linear sigma models. We investigate D-branes of the linear sigma models and compare the results with those in the nonlinear sigma models.Comment: 23 pages, 5 figure

On Heterotic/Type I Duality in d=8

We discuss heterotic corrections to quartic internal U(1) gauge couplings and check duality by calculating one-loop open string diagrams and identifying the D-instanton sum in the dual type I picture. We also compute SO(8)^4 threshold corrections and finally R^2 corrections in type I theory.Comment: 9 pages, Latex, To appear in the proceedings of "Quantum Aspects of Gauge Theories, Supersymmetries and Unification", Corfu, September 199

Defect loops in gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten models

We consider loop observables in gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten models, and study the action of renormalization group flows on them. In the WZW model based on a compact Lie group G, we analyze at the classical level how the space of renormalizable defects is reduced upon the imposition of global and affine symmetries. We identify families of loop observables which are invariant with respect to an affine symmetry corresponding to a subgroup H of G, and show that they descend to gauge-invariant defects in the gauged model based on G/H. We study the flows acting on these families perturbatively, and quantize the fixed points of the flows exactly. From their action on boundary states, we present a derivation of the "generalized Affleck-Ludwig rule, which describes a large class of boundary renormalization group flows in rational conformal field theories.Comment: 43 pages, 2 figures. v2: a few typos corrected, version to be published in JHE

Extra-Dimensions effects on the fermion-induced quantum energy in the presence of a constant magnetic field

We consider a U(1) gauge field theory with fermion fields (or with scalar fields) that live in a space with $\delta$ extra compact dimensions, and we compute the fermion-induced quantum energy in the presence of a constant magnetic field, which is directed towards the x_3 axis. Our motivation is to study the effect of extra dimensions on the asymptotic behavior of the quantum energy in the strong field limit (eB>>M^{2}), where M=1/R. We see that the weak logarithmic growth of the quantum energy for four dimensions, is modified by a rapid power growth in the case of the extra dimensions.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, 2 tables, several correction

The `s-rule' exclusion principle and vacuum interpolation in worldvolume dynamics

We show how the worldvolume realization of the Hanany-Witten effect for a supersymmetric D5-brane in a D3 background also provides a classical realization of the `s-rule' exclusion principle. Despite the supersymmetry, the force on the D5-brane vanishes only in the D5 `ground state', which is shown to interpolate between 6-dimensional Minkowski space and an $OSp(4^*|4)$-invariant $adS_2\times S^4$ geometry. The M-theory analogue of these results is briefly discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures, LaTeX JHEP styl

On supersymmetric interfaces for string theory

We construct the world-sheet interface which preserves space-time supersymmetry in type II superstring theories in the Green-Schwarz formalism. This is an analog of the conformal interface in two-dimensional conformal field theory. We show that a class of the supersymmetric interfaces generates T-dualities of type II theories, and that these interfaces have a geometrical interpretation in the doubled target space. We compute the partition function with a pair of the supersymmetric interfaces inserted, from which we read off the spectrum of the modes coupled to the interfaces and the Casimir energy between them. We also derive the transformation rules under which a set of D-branes is transformed to another by the interface.Comment: 1+23 pages, 1 figure; (v2) added comments, made changes in presentatio

Deviations from the 1/r21/r^2 Newton law due to extra dimensions

We systematically examine corrections to the gravitational inverse square law, which are due to compactified extra dimensions. We find the induced Yukawa-type potentials for which we calculate the strength \alpha and range. In general the range of the Yukawa correction is given by the wavelength of the lightest Kaluza-Klein state and its strength, relative to the standard gravitational potential, by the corresponding degeneracy. In particular, when n extra dimensions are compactified on an n-torus, we find that the strength of the potential is \alpha=2n, whereas the compactification on an n-sphere gives \alpha= n+1. For Calabi-Yau compactifications the strength can be at most \alpha=20.Comment: 8 pages, latex, 1 figure; v2: References added and some clarifications in sec. 3 are made; v3: Physics Letters B versio