Brane Surgery with Thom Classes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel method using Thom classes to analyze brane charge conservation at intersections, providing insights into charge relations and defect formations in string and M-theory contexts.

Contribution

It presents a new approach employing Thom classes of normal bundles to study brane charge conservation at intersections, extending to applications in type II strings and M-theory.

Findings

Derived relations between brane charges and intersection defects.

Applied the method to various brane intersection scenarios.

Enhanced understanding of charge conservation in string theory.

Abstract

We propose a method to investigate the conservation of brane charges at the intersection of two or more branes using the Thom classes of their normal bundles. In particular we find a relation between the charge of the branes involved in the configuration and the charge of the defects on the branes due to the intersection. We also explore the applications of our method for various brane intersections in type II strings and M-theory.