Supersymmetric String Waves

TL;DR

This paper introduces supersymmetric string wave solutions in superstring theory that preserve unbroken supersymmetry and remain unaffected by stringy corrections, expanding understanding of exact solutions in string theory.

Contribution

It presents a new class of solutions called supersymmetric string waves (SSW) that are exact to all orders in string corrections and preserve supersymmetry.

Findings

Existence of solutions with unbroken space-time supersymmetries.

Identification of a class where string corrections vanish.

These solutions generalize Brinkmann metrics with additional fields.

Abstract

We present plane-wave-type solutions of the lowest order superstring effective action which have unbroken space-time supersymmetries. They describe dilaton, axion and gauge fields in a stringy generalization of the Brinkmann metric. Some conspiracy between the metric and the axion field is required. We show that there exists a special class of these solutions, for which $\alpha^\prime$ stringy corrections to the effective on-shell action, to the equations of motion (and therefore to the solutions themselves), and to the supersymmetry transformations vanish. We call these solutions supersymmetric string waves (SSW).