D-branes in NSNS and RR pp-wave backgrounds and S-duality

TL;DR

This paper explores how D-branes behave in NSNS and RR pp-wave backgrounds related by S-duality, revealing differences in their mobility and constructing RR D3-branes with fluxes that mirror NSNS counterparts.

Contribution

It demonstrates the impact of boundary conditions on D-brane mobility in S-dual backgrounds and constructs RR D3-branes with gauge fluxes corresponding to NSNS D3-branes.

Findings

D-branes in RR backgrounds are generally fixed at the origin without boundary gauge fields.

D-branes in NSNS backgrounds can move freely.

RR D3-branes with gauge fluxes can move anywhere, consistent with S-duality.

Abstract

We investigate boundary conditions for open strings in NSNS and RR pp-wave backgrounds constructed by Russo and Tseytlin, which are S-dual to each other. We show that if we do not turn on any boundary term (i.e. gauge field), D-branes in the RR background cannot move away from the origin in most cases, while those in the NSNS background can move anywhere. We construct RR counterparts of D3-branes in the NSNS background as D3-branes with gauge fluxes and show that indeed they can move anywhere, in accord with S-duality.