4,368 research outputs found
The return of the four- and five-dimensional preons
We prove the existence of 3/4-BPS preons in four- and five-dimensional gauged
supergravities by explicitly constructing them as smooth quotients of the AdS_4
and AdS_5 maximally supersymmetric backgrounds, respectively. This result
illustrates how the spacetime topology resurrects a fraction of supersymmetry
previously ruled out by the local analysis of the Killing spinor equations.Comment: 10 pages (a minor imprecision has been corrected
Penrose limits of Lie Branes and a Nappi--Witten braneworld
Departing from the observation that the Penrose limit of AdS_3 x S^3 is a
group contraction in the sense of Inonu and Wigner, we explore the relation
between the symmetric D-branes of AdS_3 x S^3 and those of its Penrose limit, a
six-dimensional symmetric plane wave analogous to the four-dimensional
Nappi--Witten spacetime. Both backgrounds are Lie groups admitting bi-invariant
lorentzian metrics and symmetric D-branes wrap their (twisted) conjugacy
classes. We determine the (twisted and untwisted) symmetric D-branes in the
plane wave background and we prove the existence of a space-filling D5-brane
and, separately, of a foliation by D3-branes with the geometry of the
Nappi--Witten spacetime which can be understood as the Penrose limit of the
AdS_2 x S^2 D3-brane in AdS_3 x S^3. Parenthetically we also derive a simple
criterion for a symmetric plane wave to be isometric to a lorentzian Lie group.
In particular we observe that the maximally supersymmetric plane wave in IIB
string theory is isometric to a lorentzian Lie group, whereas the one in
M-theory is not.Comment: 21 pages (v2: references added
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.
On the maximal superalgebras of supersymmetric backgrounds
In this note we give a precise definition of the notion of a maximal
superalgebra of certain types of supersymmetric supergravity backgrounds,
including the Freund-Rubin backgrounds, and propose a geometric construction
extending the well-known construction of its Killing superalgebra. We determine
the structure of maximal Lie superalgebras and show that there is a finite
number of isomorphism classes, all related via contractions from an
orthosymplectic Lie superalgebra. We use the structure theory to show that
maximally supersymmetric waves do not possess such a maximal superalgebra, but
that the maximally supersymmetric Freund-Rubin backgrounds do. We perform the
explicit geometric construction of the maximal superalgebra of AdS_4 x S^7 and
find that is isomorphic to osp(1|32). We propose an algebraic construction of
the maximal superalgebra of any background asymptotic to AdS_4 x S^7 and we
test this proposal by computing the maximal superalgebra of the M2-brane in its
two maximally supersymmetric limits, finding agreement.Comment: 17 page
New Branes and Boundary States
We examine D-branes on , and find a three-brane wrapping the entire
, in addition to 1-branes and instantonic 2-branes previously discussed
in the literature. The three-brane is found using a construction of Maldacena,
Moore, and Seiberg. We show that all these branes satisfy Cardy's condition and
extract the open string spectrum on them.Comment: 18 pages, late
Supersymmetric exact sequence, heat kernel and super KdV hierarchy
We introduce the free N=1 supersymmetric derivation ring and prove the
existence of an exact sequence of supersymmetric rings and linear
transformations. We apply necessary and sufficient conditions arising from this
exact supersymmetric sequence to obtain the essential relations between
conserved quantities, gradients and the N=1 super KdV hierarchy. We combine
this algebraic approach with an analytic analysis of the super heat operator.We
obtain the explicit expression for the Green's function of the super heat
operator in terms of a series expansion and discuss its properties. The
expansion is convergent under the assumption of bounded bosonic and fermionic
potentials. We show that the asymptotic expansion when of the Green's
function for the super heat operator evaluated over its diagonal generates all
the members of the N=1 super KdV hierarchy.Comment: 20 pages, to be published in JM
Spinorial geometry and Killing spinor equations of 6-D supergravity
We solve the Killing spinor equations of 6-dimensional (1,0)-supergravity
coupled to any number of tensor, vector and scalar multiplets in all cases. The
isotropy groups of Killing spinors are Sp(1)\cdot Sp(1)\ltimes \bH (1),
U(1)\cdot Sp(1)\ltimes \bH (2), Sp(1)\ltimes \bH (3,4), , and , where in parenthesis is the number of supersymmetries
preserved in each case. If the isotropy group is non-compact, the spacetime
admits a parallel null 1-form with respect to a connection with torsion the
3-form field strength of the gravitational multiplet. The associated vector
field is Killing and the 3-form is determined in terms of the geometry of
spacetime. The Sp(1)\ltimes \bH case admits a descendant solution preserving
3 out of 4 supersymmetries due to the hyperini Killing spinor equation. If the
isotropy group is compact, the spacetime admits a natural frame constructed
from 1-form spinor bi-linears. In the and U(1) cases, the spacetime
admits 3 and 4 parallel 1-forms with respect to the connection with torsion,
respectively. The associated vector fields are Killing and under some
additional restrictions the spacetime is a principal bundle with fibre a
Lorentzian Lie group. The conditions imposed by the Killing spinor equations on
all other fields are also determined.Comment: 34 pages, Minor change
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