Gauge Theories from D Branes

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of how gauge theories can be derived from D-branes, including their supergravity solutions and extensions to less supersymmetric cases, using string dualities and boundary states.

Contribution

It introduces a pedagogical approach to deriving gauge theories from D-branes, extending to non-conformal and less supersymmetric theories via fractional and wrapped branes.

Findings

Derived supergravity solutions for D-branes.

Connected open string descriptions to gauge theories.

Extended methods to less supersymmetric and non-conformal cases.

Abstract

In these lectures we start with a pedagogical introduction of the properties of open and closed superstrings and then, using the open/closed string duality, we construct the boundary state that provides the description of the maximally supersymmetric Dp branes in terms of the perturbative string formalism. We then use it for deriving the corresponding supergravity solution and the Born-Infeld action and for studying the properties of the maximally supersymmetric gauge theories living on their worldvolume. In the last section of these lectures we extend these results to less supersymmetric and non-conformal gauge theories by considering fractional branes of orbifolds and wrapped branes. Lectures given at the School "Frontiers in Number Theory, Physics and Geometry", Les Houches, March 2003.