Related papers: The M Theory Five-Brane
Brane actions with chiral bosons present special challenges. Recent progress in the description of the two main examples -- the M theory five-brane and the heterotic string -- is described. Also, double dimensional reduction of the M theory…
Using a recently constructed M5-brane world-volume action, we demonstrate that wrapping the M5-brane on K3 gives the heterotic string in seven dimensions. To facilitate the comparison, a new version of the world-sheet action for the…
The effective action for five-dimensional heterotic M-theory in the presence of five-branes is systematically derived from Horava-Witten theory coupled to an M5-brane world-volume theory. This leads to a five-dimensional N=1 gauged…
On the world-volume of an $M$-theory five-brane propagates a two-form with self-dual field strength. As this field is non-Lagrangian, there is no obvious framework for determining its partition function. An analogous problem exists in Type…
We give a unified description of all BPS states of M-theory compactified on $T^5$ in terms of the five-brane. We compute the mass spectrum and degeneracies and find that the $SO(5,5,Z)$ U-duality symmetry naturally arises as a T-duality by…
In a recent paper, Polchinski and Strassler found a string theory dual of a gauge theory with reduced supersymmetry. Motivated by their approach, we perturb the $\N=8$ theory living on a set of N M2 branes to $\N=2$, by adding fermion mass…
We describe the worldvolume for the bosonic sector of the lower-dimensional F-theory that embeds 5D, N=1 M-theory and the 4D type II superstring. This theory is a complexification of the fundamental 5-brane theory that embeds the 4D, N=1…
We propose a novel approach to the brane worldvolume theory based on the geometry of extended field theories: double field theory and exceptional field theory. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach by showing that one can…
In this informal review for non-specalists we discuss the construction of maximally supersymmetric gauge theories that arise on the worldvolumes branes in String Theory and M-Theory. Particular focus is made on the relatively recent…
We review the evidence for the various dualities amongst the five D=10 superstring theories and for the existence of M-theory using the associated effective supergravity theories. We also summarise the combinatorial technics developed for…
We consider the realization of four-dimensional theories with N = 2 supersymmetry as M-theory configurations including a five-brane. Our emphasis is on the spectrum of massive states, that are realized as two-branes ending on the…
We review the recent developments in superstrings. We start with a brief summary of various consistent superstring theories and discuss T-duality which necessarily leads to the presence of D-branes. The properties of D-branes are summarized…
We relate Type IIB superstrings compactified to six dimensions on K3 to an eleven-dimensional theory compactified on $({\bf S}^1)^5/{\bf Z}_2$. Eleven-dimensional five-branes enter the story in an interesting way.
We discuss BPS states preserving 1/4 supersymmetries of N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory as M2-branes holomorphically embedded and ending on M5-branes. We use techniques in electrodynamics to find the M2-brane configurations, and give…
We study the world-volume effective action of an exotic five-brane, known as the M-theory 5${}^3$-brane (M5${}^3$-brane) in eleven dimensions. The supermultiplet of the world-volume theory is the $\mathcal{N} = (2, 0)$ tensor multiplet in…
We review some recent developments in the study of M-theory compactifications via Matrix theory. In particular we highlight the appearance of IIA strings and their interactions, and explain the unifying role of the M-theory five-brane for…
String and membrane dynamics may be unified into a theory of 2+2 dimensional self-dual world-volumes living in a 10+2 dimensional target space. Some of the vacua of this M-theory are described by the N=(2,1) heterotic string, whose target…
These lectures begin by reviewing the evidence for S duality of the toroidally compactified heterotic string in 4d that was obtained in the period 1992--94. Next they review recently discovered dualities that relate all five of the 10d…
The investigation of strings and M-theory involves the understanding of various BPS solitons which in a certain approximation can be thought of as solutions of ten- and eleven-dimensional supergravity theories. These solitons have a brane…
In this PhD thesis the low energy effective actions for D-branes and the M5-brane are used to analyze the dynamics of brane probes moving in the geometry created by diverse supergravity backgrounds. It begins with an introduction to string…