Worldvolume Dynamics of D-branes in a D-brane Background

TL;DR

This paper investigates the embedding of D(8-p)-branes in Dp-brane backgrounds, deriving BPS solutions that describe branes connected by fundamental string-like tubes, illustrating the Hanany-Witten effect.

Contribution

It provides explicit analytical BPS solutions for D(8-p)-branes in Dp-brane backgrounds, including near-horizon and flat geometries, and clarifies the interpretation of these embeddings across different p.

Findings

Brane embeddings form tube-like structures interpreted as fundamental strings.

Explicit BPS solutions are derived for various geometries.

The study illustrates the Hanany-Witten effect through these configurations.

Abstract

We study the embedding of D(8-p)-branes in the background geometry of parallel Dp-branes for $p\le 6$. The D(8-p)-brane is extended along the directions orthogonal to the Dp-branes of the background. The D(8-p)-brane configuration is determined by its Dirac-Born-Infeld plus Wess-Zumino-Witten action. We find a BPS condition which solves the equation of motion. The analytical solution of the BPS equation for the near-horizon and asymptotically flat geometries is given. The embeddings we obtain represent branes joined by tubes. By analyzing the energy of these tubes we conclude that they can be regarded as bundles of fundamental strings. Our solution provides an explicit realization of the Hanany-Witten effect. When $p=6$ the solution of the BPS equation must be considered separately and, in general, the embeddings of the D2-branes do not admit the same interpretation as in the $p<6$ case.