An Open String Landscape

TL;DR

This paper explores how fluxes in type IIB string theory affect open string moduli, revealing a discrete landscape of supersymmetric D-brane solutions that extend the closed string landscape.

Contribution

It demonstrates that fluxes lift open string moduli and identifies a disconnected set of supersymmetric solutions in the open string sector.

Findings

Open string moduli are generically lifted by fluxes.

Supersymmetric solutions form a discrete, disconnected set.

The open string landscape extends the closed string landscape.

Abstract

The effect of fluxes on open string moduli is studied by analyzing the constraints imposed by supersymmetry on D-branes in type IIB flux backgrounds. We show that generically the conditions of supersymmetry cannot be maintained when moving along the geometrical moduli space of the brane, so that open string moduli are lifted. We argue that there is a disconnected and discrete set of supersymmetric solutions to the open string equations of motion, which extends the familiar closed string landscape to the open string sector.