Superstars and Giant Gravitons in M-theory

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that certain BPS naked singularities in M-theory, called superstars, can be understood as continuous distributions of giant gravitons, expanding on spherical parts of the spacetime in AdS_7 x S^4 and AdS_4 x S^7 backgrounds.

Contribution

It provides a new interpretation of superstars as giant graviton configurations in M-theory compactifications, linking singular solutions to brane distributions.

Findings

Superstars can be described as giant graviton distributions.

Field configurations correspond to spherical M2- and M5-branes.

Superstars carry internal momenta and expand on spherical space components.

Abstract

Following hep-th/0109127, we show that a certain class of BPS naked singularities (superstars) found in compactifications of M-theory can be interpreted as being composed of giant gravitons. More specifically, we study superstars which are asymptotically AdS_7 x S^4 and AdS_4 x S^7 and show that these field configurations can be interpreted as being sourced by continuous distributions of spherical M2- and M5-branes, respectively, which carry internal momenta and have expanded on the spherical component of the space-time.