Brane Transmutation in Supergravity

TL;DR

This paper investigates a class of BPS solutions in type IIA supergravity that illustrate how NS5-branes can transmute into D4-branes near D6-branes, revealing charge non-conservation phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces explicit supergravity solutions demonstrating brane transmutation and highlights charge non-conservation effects in type IIA supergravity.

Findings

Demonstration of NS5 to D4 brane transmutation near D6-branes.

Identification of charge non-conservation features in supergravity solutions.

Connection to brane-creation phenomena like Hanany-Witten effect.

Abstract

We study a family of BPS solutions of type IIA supergravity that can be interpreted as describing the `transmutation' of a Neveu-Schwarz five-brane into a D4-brane in the presence of a D6-brane. The D4-brane, which terminates on the D6-brane, can be equally well interpreted as a `pure multipole' configuration of NS5-brane wrapped tightly around the D6-brane. Such a transmutation is a "near-core" version (i.e., near the D6-brane) of the brane-creation that can occur when two branes pass through each other, as in the Hanany-Witten construction. The work below highlights certain charge non-conservation features of type IIA supergravity.