Soliton Solutions of M-theory on an Orbifold

TL;DR

This paper constructs explicit soliton solutions in M-theory on an orbifold, including membranes, 5-branes, and gauge 5-branes, revealing their supersymmetry properties and anomaly-related features.

Contribution

It provides explicit low-energy soliton solutions in M-theory on S^1/Z_2, including membranes, 5-branes, and gauge instantons, highlighting their supersymmetry and anomaly characteristics.

Findings

Membrane stretched between hyperplanes is a BPS solution.

Parallel membrane and orthogonal 5-brane break all supersymmetries.

Gauge 5-brane with instantons varies along the orbifold due to anomalies.

Abstract

We explicitly construct soliton solutions in the low energy description of M-theory on S^1/Z_2. It is shown that the 11-dimensional membrane is a BPS solution of this theory if stretched between the Z_2 hyperplanes. A similar statement holds for the 11-dimensional 5--brane oriented parallel to the hyperplanes. The parallel membrane and the orthogonal 5-brane, though solutions, break all supersymmetries. Furthermore, we construct the analog of the gauge 5-brane with gauge instantons on the hyperplanes. This solution varies nontrivially along the orbifold direction due to the gauge anomalies located on the orbifold hyperplanes. Its zero mode part is identical to the weakly coupled 10-dimensional gauge 5-brane.