Central charges of wrapped M5-brane backgrounds

TL;DR

This paper investigates the central charges in supersymmetry algebras of wrapped M5-brane backgrounds, revealing geometric structures and BPS states relevant for understanding flux vacua in M-theory.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of supersymmetric probes and central charges for M5-branes wrapping holomorphic cycles, connecting to BPS spectra and flux vacua structures.

Findings

M5-branes wrapping holomorphic 2-cycles relate to M2-brane probes and BPS spectra.

M5-branes wrapping 2-cycles in three complex dimensions admit Cayley calibrated 4-cycle probes.

Explicit construction of M5-brane domain walls as associative 3-cycles with calculable tension.

Abstract

We study the central charges of the supersymmetry algebra of branes in backgrounds corresponding to wrapped M5-branes. In the case of M5-branes wrapping a holomorphic 2-cycle in two complex-dimensional space, we find this allows for a supersymmetric M5-brane probe which is related to the M2-brane probe which describes the BPS spectra of the corresponding N=2 worldvolume gauge theory. For the case of M5-branes wrapping a holomorphic 2-cycle in three complex-dimensional space, we find that the central charges allow for a supersymmetric M5-brane probe wrapping a Cayley calibrated 4-cycle, which has an intersecting BPS domain wall interpretation in the corresponding N=1 MQCD gauge theory. The domain wall is constructed explicitly as an M5-brane wrapping an associative 3-cycle. The tension is found to be the integral of a calibrating form. These wrapped M5-brane backgrounds provide a clear and interesting geometrical realisation of structure groups of M-theory vacua with fluxes.