Search for Duality Symmetries in p-Brane Theories

We review self-duality of nonlinear electrodynamics and its extension to several Abelian gauge fields coupled to scalars. We then describe self-duality in supersymmetric models, both N = 1 and N = 2. The self-duality equations, which have to be satisfied by the action of any self-dual system, are found and solutions are discussed. One important example is the Born-Infeld action. We explain why the N = 2 supersymmetric actions proposed so far are not the correct world-volume a...

This is the written version of an invited talk delivered at the workshop ``Quantum gravity in the Southern Cone'' held in San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, January 7-10, 1998. After giving a brief introduction to the concept of branes and their role in string theory, this talk describes a method for formulating the dynamics of branes, especially those containing non-scalar moduli. Emphasis is put on the coupling of branes to fields in the low-energy background supergravity ...

We propose a method for constructing super-brane actions where every background tensor potential corresponds to a world-volume field strength. The procedure provides a natural coupling to the background and automatically displays the SL(2;Z) symmetry of the IIB string theory. The Dirichlet 3-brane is used as a test ground for these ideas. A polynomial action consistent with non-linear self-duality is presented. Invariance of the action under kappa-symmetry is demonstrated for...

Extending earlier results on the duality symmetries of three-brane probe theories we define the duality subgroup of SL(2,Z) as the symmetry group of the background 7-branes configurations. We establish that the action of Weyl reflections is implemented on junctions by brane transpositions that amount to exchanging branes that can be connected by open strings. This enables us to characterize duality groups of brane configurations by a map to the symmetry group of the Dynkin di...

Several quantum mechanical wave equations for $p$-branes are proposed based on the role that the volume-preserving diffeomorphisms group has on the physics of extended objects. The $p$-brane quantum mechanical wave equations determine the quantum dynamics involving the creation/destruction of $p$-branes in a $D$ dimensional spacetime background with a given world-volume measure configuration in a given quantum state $\Psi$.

Non-extremal intersecting p-brane solutions of gravity coupled with several antisymmetric fields and dilatons in various space-time dimensions are constructed. The construction uses the same algebraic method of finding solutions as in the extremal case and a modified "no-force" conditions. We justify the "deformation" prescription. It is shown that the non-extremal intersecting p-brane solutions satisfy harmonic superposition rule and the intersections of non-extremal p-brane...

In this letter we discuss the supersymmetry issue of the self dual supermembranes in (8+1) and (4+1)-dimensions. We find that all genuine solutions of the (8+1)-dimensional supermembrane, based on the exceptional group G_2, preserve one of the sixteen supersymmetries while all solutions in (4+1)-dimensions preserve eight of them.

Utilizing coset superspace approach, dual actions of super D1-and D3-branes on $AdS_5 \times S^5$ are constructed by carrying out duality transformation of world-volume U(1) gauge field. Resulting world-volume actions are shown to possess expected SL(2,{\bf Z}) properties. Crucial ingredient for deriving SL(2, {\bf Z}) transformation property of the D-brane actions is covariance of SU(2,2|4) coset superspace algebra under SO(2) rotation between two ten-dimensional Type IIB Ma...

General properties of intersecting extremal p-brane solutions of gravity coupled with dilatons and several different d-form fields in arbitrary space-time dimensions are considered. It is show that heuristically expected properties of the intersecting p-branes follow from the explicit formulae for solutions. In particular, harmonic superposition and S-duality hold for all p-brane solutions. Generalized T-duality takes place under additional restrictions on the initial theory ...

In addition to the double-dimensional reduction procedure that employs world-volume Killing symmetries of $p$-brane supergravity solutions and acts diagonally on a plot of $p$ versus spacetime dimension $D$, there exists a second procedure of ``vertical'' reduction. This reduces the transverse-space dimension via an integral that superposes solutions to the underlying Laplace equation. We show that vertical reduction is also closely related to the recently-introduced notion o...