Codimension-2 Brane-Bulk Matching: Examples from Six and Ten Dimensions

TL;DR

This paper develops and applies new matching conditions for codimension-2 branes in higher-dimensional theories, demonstrating their impact on bulk geometry and low-energy effective theories in string and supergravity models.

Contribution

It introduces novel matching conditions for codimension-2 branes and applies them to string and supergravity models, advancing understanding of brane-bulk interactions in higher dimensions.

Findings

Codimension-2 branes influence bulk geometry significantly.

Only flat geometries are supported by positive-tension branes in 6D supergravity.

Effective scalar potentials reproduce brane-bulk dynamics.

Abstract

Experience with Randall-Sundrum models teaches the importance of following how branes back-react onto the bulk geometry, since this can dramatically affect the system's low-energy properties. Yet the practical use of this observation for model building is so far mostly restricted to branes having only one transverse dimension (codimension-1) in the bulk space, since this is where tools for following back-reaction are well-developed. This is likely a serious limitation since experience also tells us that one dimension is rarely representative of what happens in higher dimensions. We here summarize recent progress on developing the matching conditions that describe how codimension-2 branes couple to bulk metric, gauge and scalar fields. These matching conditions are then applied to three situations: D7-branes in F-theory compactifications of 10D Type IIB string vacua; 3-branes coupled to bulk axions in unwarped and non-supersymmetric 6D systems; and 3-branes coupled to chiral, gauged 6D supergravity. For each it is shown how the resulting brane-bulk dynamics is reproduced by the scalar potential for the low-energy moduli in the dimensionally reduced, on-brane effective theory. For 6D supergravity we show that the only 4D-maximally symmetric bulk geometries supported by positive-tension branes are flat.