M-Theory Solutions and Intersecting D-Brane Systems
Date
2013-01-22
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Degree Level
Doctoral
Abstract
It is believed that fundamental M-theory in the low-energy limit can be described
effectively by D=11 supergravity.
Extending our understanding of the different classical brane solutions in M-theory
(or string theory) is important, and so there is a lot of interest in finding D=11
M-brane solutions such that after reduction to ten dimensions, they (or some combinations
of them) reduce simply to the supersymmetric BPS saturated p-brane solutions.
In this thesis, we study and construct M2 and M5-branes solutions in D=11
supergravity. The M-brane solutions are constructed by lifting a D-brane to a four
or higher dimensional geometry embedded in M-theory and then placing M-brane
solutions in the background geometry.
We present new analytic M2 and M5-brane solutions in M-theory based on transverse
Gibbons-Hawking and Bianchi spaces. These solutions provide realizations of
fully localized type IIA D2/D6 and NS5/D6 brane intersections. One novel feature
of these solutions is that the metric functions depend on more than two transverse
coordinates, unlike all the other previous known solutions. Moreover since the metric
functions in the Gibbons-Hawking geometries depends on more than one physical
parameters, their embedding into M-theory yield new M-brane solutions with the
M-brane metric functions depend on both compact and non-compact coordinates.
We show that all new solutions have eight preserved supersymmetries. Upon
reduction to 10 dimensions, we find that the world-volume theories of the NS5-branes
decouple from the bulk for these solutions.
Description
Keywords
String theory, M-theory, Supergravity, M2-brane, M5-brane, D-brane, D=11 Supergravity
Citation
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
Physics and Engineering Physics
Program
Physics