Nucleation of {ital p}-branes and fundamental strings
- California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California 91125 (United States)
We construct a solution to the low-energy string equations of motion in five dimensions that describes a circular loop of fundamental string exponentially expanding in a background electric {ital H} field. Euclideanizing this gives an instanton for the creation of a loop of fundamental string in a background {ital H} field, and we calculate the rate of nucleation. Solutions describing magnetically charged strings and {ital p}-branes, where the gauge field comes from Kaluza-Klein reduction on a circle, are also constructed. It is known that a magnetic flux tube in four (reduced) spacetime dimensions is unstable to the pair creation of Kaluza-Klein monopoles. We show that in (4+{ital p}) dimensions, magnetic ({ital p}+1) {open_quote}{open_quote}flux-branes{close_quote}{close_quote} are unstable to the nucleation of a magnetically charged spherical {ital p}-brane. In ten dimensions the instanton describes the nucleation of a Ramond-Ramond magnetically charged six-brane in type IIA string theory. We also find static solutions describing spherical charged {ital p}-branes or fundamental strings held in unstable equilibrium in appropriate background fields. Instabilities of intersecting magnetic flux-branes are also discussed. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}
- OSTI ID:
- 284819
- Journal Information:
- Physical Review, D, Journal Name: Physical Review, D Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 53; ISSN PRVDAQ; ISSN 0556-2821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Monopoles and instantons on partially compactified D-branes
Decay of magnetic fields in Kaluza-Klein theory