A note on D-brane Interactions in the IIA Plane-Wave Background

TL;DR

This paper calculates D-brane tensions in the IIA plane-wave background, finding they match flat space values, and explores stringy halo behavior and amplitude features related to the background's geometry.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed comparison of D-brane tensions and interaction amplitudes in the IIA plane-wave background with flat space results, revealing geometric effects.

Findings

D-brane tensions and RR charges are unchanged from flat space.

Stringy halo behavior depends explicitly on light cone separation.

Amplitude features vary with brane position, especially at focal points.

Abstract

We compute the D-brane tensions in the type IIA plane-wave background by comparing the interaction potential between widely separated D-branes in string theory with the supergravity mode exchange between the D-branes. We found that the D-brane tensions and RR charges in the plane-wave background are the same as those in the flat space. Also we work out the stringy halo behavior of the $DpD\bar{p}$ spacelike branes and find the explicit dependence on the light cone separation $r^+$. This suggests that the detailed tachyon dynamics for the spacelike $DpD\bar{p}$ branes are different from those in the flat space case. We also discuss specific features of the exchange amplitudes in relation to the geometric properties of the IIA plane wave background. When branes are located at focal points, full or partial restoration of the translation invariance occurs and the amplitudes are similar to those in the flat space.