No Arabic abstract
We study the matrix model for N M2-branes wrapping a Lens space L(p,1) = S^3/Z_p. This arises from localization of the partition function of the ABJM theory, and has some novel features compared with the case of a three-sphere, including a sum over flat connections and a potential that depends non-trivially on p. We study the matrix model both numerically and analytically in the large N limit, finding that a certain family of p flat connections give an equal dominant contribution. At large N we find the same eigenvalue distribution for all p, and show that the free energy is simply 1/p times the free energy on a three-sphere, in agreement with gravity dual expectations.
We consider periodic arrays of M2-branes in the ABJM model in the spirit of a circle compactification to D2-branes in type IIA string theory. The result is a curious formulation of three-dimensional maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory in terms of fermions, seven transverse scalars, a non-dynamical gauge field and an additional scalar `dual gluon. Upon further T-duality on a transverse torus we obtain a non-manifest-Lorentz-invariant description of five-dimensional maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills. Here the additional scalar field can be thought of as the components of a two-form along the torus. This action can be viewed as an M-theory description of M5-branes on ${mathbb T}^3$.
We describe a compactified Supermembrane, or M2-brane, with 2-form fluxes generated by constant three-forms that are turned on a 2-torus of the target space $M_9times T^2$. We compare this theory with the one describing a $11D$ M2-brane formulated on $M_9times T^2$ target space subject to an irreducible wrapping condition. We show that the flux generated by the bosonic 3-form under consideration is in a one to one correspondence to the irreducible wrapping condition. After a canonical transformation both Hamiltonians are exactly the same up to a constant shift in one particular case. Consequently both of them, share the same spectral properties. We conclude that the Hamiltonian of the M2-brane with 2-form target space fluxes on a torus has a purely discrete spectrum with eigenvalues of finite multiplicity and it can be considered to describe a new sector of the microscopic degrees of freedom of M-theory. We also show that the total membrane momentum in the direction associated to the flux condition acquires a quantized contribution in correspondence to the flux units that have been turned on.
We explore the stability of a recently found class of spinning dielectric M2-branes in the 11-dimensional maximally supersymmetric plane-wave background. We find two small windows of instabilities in the dipole (j=1) and quadrupole (j = 2) sector of linear multipole perturbations.
We show that M-theory admits a supersymmetric compactification to the Godel universe of the form Godel3 x S2 x CY3. We interpret this geometry as coming from the backreaction of M2-branes wrapping the S2 in an AdS3 x S2 x CY3 flux compactification. In the black hole deconstruction proposal similar states give rise to the entropy of a D4-D0 black hole. The system is effectively described by a three-dimensional theory consisting of an axion-dilaton coupled to gravity with a negative cosmological constant. Other embeddings of the three-dimensional theory imply similar supersymmetric Godel compactifications of type IIA/IIB string theory and F-theory.
We propose a natural generalisation of the BLG multiple M2-brane action to membranes in curved plane wave backgrounds, and verify in two different ways that the action correctly captures the non-trivial space-time geometry. We show that the M2 to D2 reduction of the theory along a non-trivial direction in field space is equivalent to the D2-brane world-volume Yang-Mills theory with a non-trivial (null-time dependent) dilaton in the corresponding IIA background geometry. As another consistency check of this proposal we show that the properties of metric 3-algebras ensure the equivalence of the Rosen coordinate version of this action (time-dependent metric on the space of 3-algebra valued scalar fields, no mass terms) and its Brinkmann counterpart (constant couplings but time-dependent mass terms). We also establish an analogous result for deformed Yang-Mills theories in any dimension which, in particular, demonstrates the equivalence of the Rosen and Brinkmann forms of the plane wave matrix string action.