Journal of High Energy Physics (Sep 2018)

String dynamics in NS5-F1-P geometries

  • Emil J. Martinec,
  • Stefano Massai,
  • David Turton

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP09(2018)031
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2018, no. 9
pp. 1 – 50

Abstract

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Abstract String theory dynamics on certain fivebrane supertube backgrounds is described by an exactly solvable null-gauged WZW model. We use this description to compute the spectrum of closed string excitations on the three-charge non-supersymmetric solution found by Jejjala, Madden, Ross and Titchener, as well as its supersymmetric limit. The low-lying spectrum matches that of supergravity modes in the effective geometry and exhibits an underlying group-theoretic structure. Winding sectors describe strings carrying the same charges as the background; processes whereby strings turn into flux or vice-versa are mediated by large gauge transformations on the worldsheet. The S-matrix of such wound strings probes microstructure of the fivebrane source that is hidden in the supergravity approximation.

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