Low-energy dynamics of (p, q) string webs and wrapped supermembranes
Paul Damon Shocklee · CERN Document Server (European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2002
We study the rigid zero-mode dynamics of planar Type IIB (p, q) string networks ending on D3- branes, and their lifts to M-theory in the form of M2- branes wrapped on the cycles of a torus and ending on M5- branes. We compute the metrics on moduli space on both the string and membrane sides and find that they agree in appropriate limits. We then consider the problem of supersymmetric extensions and construct a supersymmetric quantum mechanics by expanding the supermembrane action. This results in a one-dimensional N = 4 supersymmetric nonlinear sigma model with a Kahler metric. We then consider the limit as the radius of the compactification torus shrinks to zero, and we find that we must include additional degrees of freedom on the string side to preserve the full supersymmetry. It may be possible that these degrees of freedom can be identified with Wilson loops of the worldvolume gauge theories on the (p, q) strings going around the faces of the network, but we do not yet have a clear picture of how this might work.