Black $p$-Branes in Heterotic String Theory

TL;DR

This paper numerically constructs and analyzes black brane solutions in heterotic string theory, providing evidence for the existence of nonsupersymmetric branes suggested by the cobordism conjecture.

Contribution

It presents the first numerical construction of static, spherically symmetric black branes in heterotic string theory, including extremal and non-extremal cases, and confirms their properties.

Findings

Constructed extremal black branes with linear dilaton throat

Reproduced known analytical solutions for 6-branes

Supported the existence of nonsupersymmetric branes in heterotic theory

Abstract

Heterotic string theory has nonsupersymmetric branes whose existence is suggested by the cobordism conjecture. We numerically construct static, spherically symmetric, and asymptotically flat black brane solutions in ten-dimensional heterotic superstring theories for 0- and 4-branes. These branes carry charges that are measured by Chern classes on the sphere surrounding the branes. For the extremal case, the solutions have a throat region with a linear dilaton profile as expected from the corresponding world-sheet theory. We also construct non-extremal solutions by compactifying the time direction. To verify the reliability of our numerical calculations, we confirm that they reproduce the known analytical solutions for the 6-brane. Our black brane solutions provide evidence supporting the existence of such branes in heterotic string theory.