nLab
M-brane

Idea

There are two types of black brane solutions in 11-dimensional supergravity, one of dimension $2+1$, one of dimension 5+1. These are thought to correspond to a fundamental 2-brane and its EM dual, called the

• M2-brane

• M5-brane.

The M2-brane carries electric charge under the supergravity C-field. The M5-brane is the dual magnetic charge.

Properties

Reduction to branes in 10 d

Under reduction to type II supergravity the M2 and the M5 turn into the D-branes and the NS-branes.

Related concepts

Table of branes appearing in supergravity/string theory (for classification see at brane scan).

brane	in supergravity	charged under gauge field	has worldvolume theory
black brane	supergravity	higher gauge field	SCFT
D-brane	type II	RR-field	super Yang-Mills theory
$(D=2n)$	type IIA	$$	$$
D0-brane	$$	$$	BFSS matrix model
D2-brane	$$	$$	$$
D4-brane	$$	$$	D=5 super Yang-Mills theory with Khovanov homology observables
D6-brane	$$	$$
D8-brane	$$	$$
$(D=2n+1)$	type IIB	$$	$$
D1-brane	$$	$$	2d CFT with BH entropy
D3-brane	$$	$$	N=4 D=4 super Yang-Mills theory
D5-brane	$$	$$	$$
D7-brane	$$	$$	$$
NS-brane	type I, II, heterotic	circle n-connection	$$
string	$$	B2-field	2d SCFT
NS5-brane	$$	B6-field	little string theory
M-brane	11D SuGra/M-theory	circle n-connection	$$
M2-brane	$$	C3-field	ABJM theory, BLG model
M5-brane	$$	C6-field	6d (2,0)-superconformal QFT
topological M2-brane	topological M-theory	C3-field on G2-manifold
topological M5-brane	$$	C6-field on G2-manifold