nLab D4-brane

This entry is about a D-brane species in string theory. For the items in the ADE-classification of name D4, see there.

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Idea

The D-brane of dimension $4+1$ in type IIA string theory.

Properties

Worldvolume theory

Khovanov homology has long been expected to appear as the observables in a 4-dimensional TQFT in higher analogy of how the Jones polynomial arises as an observable in 3-dimensional Chern-Simons theory. For instance for $\Sigma : K \to K'$ a cobordism between two knots there is a natural morphism

$$\Phi_\Sigma : \mathcal{K}(K) \to \mathcal{K}(K')$$

between the Khovanov homologies associated to the two knots.

In (Witten11) it is argued, following indications in (GukovSchwarzVafa) that this 4d TQFT is related to the worldvolume theory of the image in type IIA of D3-branes ending on NS5-branes in type IIB after one S-duality and one T-duality operation:

$$(D3 - NS5) \stackrel{S}{\mapsto} (D3 - D5) \stackrel{T}{\mapsto} (D4-D6) \stackrel{IIA/M}{\mapsto} (M5 - MK6) \,.$$

Earlier indication for this had come from the observation that Chern-Simons theory is the effective background theory for the A-model 2d TCFT (see TCFT – Worldsheet and effective background theories for details).

Notice that after the above T-duality operation the $(D4-D6)$-system wraps the $S^1$ (circle) along which the T-duality takes place.

Lifting that configuration to 11-dimensional supergravity gives M5-branes (the erstwhile D4-branes) on Taub-NUT ($\times S^1$). The M5-branes wrap the circle-fiber of Taub-NUT space, which shrinks to zero size at the origin (the MK6, the location of the erstwhile D6, which is where the D4s “end”). The low-energy theory, on a stack of M5-branes, is the 6d (2,0)-susy QFT.

Bound states

bound states/brane intersections involving D4-branes:

• D0-D4 brane bound state

• D2-D4 brane bound state

• D4-D6 brane bound state

• D4-D8 brane bound state

Related concepts

$d$	$N$	superconformal super Lie algebra	R-symmetry	black brane worldvolume superconformal field theory via AdS-CFT
$\phantom{A}3\phantom{A}$	$\phantom{A}2k+1\phantom{A}$	$\phantom{A}B(k,2) \simeq$ osp$(2k+1 \vert 4)\phantom{A}$	$\phantom{A}SO(2k+1)\phantom{A}$
$\phantom{A}3\phantom{A}$	$\phantom{A}2k\phantom{A}$	$\phantom{A}D(k,2)\simeq$ osp$(2k \vert 4)\phantom{A}$	$\phantom{A}SO(2k)\phantom{A}$	M2-brane D=3 SYM BLG model ABJM model
$\phantom{A}4\phantom{A}$	$\phantom{A}k+1\phantom{A}$	$\phantom{A}A(3,k)\simeq \mathfrak{sl}(4 \vert k+1)\phantom{A}$	$\phantom{A}U(k+1)\phantom{A}$	D3-brane D=4 N=4 SYM D=4 N=2 SYM D=4 N=1 SYM
$\phantom{A}5\phantom{A}$	$\phantom{A}1\phantom{A}$	$\phantom{A}F(4)\phantom{A}$	$\phantom{A}SO(3)\phantom{A}$	D4-brane D=5 SYM
$\phantom{A}6\phantom{A}$	$\phantom{A}k\phantom{A}$	$\phantom{A}D(4,k) \simeq$ osp$(8 \vert 2k)\phantom{A}$	$\phantom{A}Sp(k)\phantom{A}$	M5-brane D=6 N=(2,0) SCFT D=6 N=(1,0) SCFT

(Shnider 88, also Nahm 78, see Minwalla 98, section 4.2)

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	$\,$	$\,$
D(-2)-brane	$\,$	$\,$
D0-brane	$\,$	$\,$	BFSS matrix model
D2-brane	$\,$	$\,$	$\,$
D4-brane	$\,$	$\,$	D=5 super Yang-Mills theory with Khovanov homology observables
D6-brane	$\,$	$\,$	D=7 super Yang-Mills theory
D8-brane	$\,$	$\,$
$(D = 2n+1)$	type IIB	$\,$	$\,$
D(-1)-brane	$\,$	$\,$	$\,$
D1-brane	$\,$	$\,$	2d CFT with BH entropy
D3-brane	$\,$	$\,$	N=4 D=4 super Yang-Mills theory
D5-brane	$\,$	$\,$	$\,$
D7-brane	$\,$	$\,$	$\,$
D9-brane	$\,$	$\,$	$\,$
(p,q)-string	$\,$	$\,$	$\,$
(D25-brane)	(bosonic string theory)
NS-brane	type I, II, heterotic	circle n-connection	$\,$
string	$\,$	B2-field	2d SCFT
NS5-brane	$\,$	B6-field	little string theory
D-brane for topological string			$\,$
A-brane			$\,$
B-brane			$\,$
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
M9-brane/O9-plane			heterotic string theory
M-wave
topological M2-brane	topological M-theory	C3-field on G₂-manifold
topological M5-brane	$\,$	C6-field on G₂-manifold
S-brane
SM2-brane, membrane instanton
M5-brane instanton
D3-brane instanton
solitons on M5-brane	6d (2,0)-superconformal QFT
self-dual string		self-dual B-field
3-brane in 6d

References

General

As a Green-Schwarz sigma-model:

• Mina Aganagic, Jaemo Park, Costin Popescu, John Schwarz, Section 6 of Dual D-Brane Actions, Nucl. Phys. B496 (1997) 215-230 (arXiv:hep-th/9702133)

• Makoto Sakaguchi, IIB-Branes and New Spacetime Superalgebras, JHEP 0004 (2000) 019 (arXiv:hep-th/9909143)

Double dimensional reduction from M5-brane

The relation of the M5-brane to the D4-brane and the D=5 super Yang-Mills theory in its worldvolume theory by double dimensional reduction:

• Eric Bergshoeff, Mees de Roo, Tomas Ortin, The Eleven-dimensional Five-brane, Phys. Lett. B 386 (1996) 85-90 [arXiv:hep-th/9606118, doi:10.1016/0370-2693(96)00913-6]

• Mina Aganagic, Jaemo Park, Costin Popescu, John Schwarz, Section 6 of World-Volume Action of the M Theory Five-Brane, Nucl.Phys. B496 (1997) 191-214 (arXiv:hep-th/9701166)

• APPS 97b, Section 6

• Neil Lambert, Constantinos Papageorgakis, Maximilian Schmidt-Sommerfeld, M5-Branes, D4-Branes and Quantum 5D super-Yang-Mills, JHEP 1101:083 (2011) (arXiv:1012.2882)

• Chong-Sun Chu, Sheng-Lan Ko, Non-abelian Action for Multiple Five-Branes with Self-Dual Tensors, (arXiv:1203.4224) JHEP05(2012)028

• Neil Lambert, Miles Owen, Charged Chiral Fermions from M5-Branes (arXiv:1802.07766)

D4-D8 intersection

On D4-D8 bound states?:

With an eye towards holographic QCD:

• Horatiu Nastase, On Dp-Dp+4 systems, QCD dual and phenomenology (arXiv:hep-th/0305069)

String phenomenology / intersecting D4-brane models

intersecting D-brane models with intersecting D4-branes:

Only D4-branes (possibly on O4-plane orientifolds):

• D. Bailin, G. V. Kraniotis, A. Love, Standard-like models from intersecting D4-branes, Phys. Lett. B530 (2002) 202-209 (arXiv:hep-th/0108131)

• H. Kataoka, M. Shimojo, $SU(3) \times SU(2) \times U(1)$ Chiral Models from Intersecting D4-/D5-branes, Progress of Theoretical Physics, Volume 107, Issue 6, June 2002, Pages 1291–1296 (arXiv:hep-th/0112247, doi:10.1143/PTP.107.1291)

• D. Bailin, Standard-like models from D-branes, J Phys (2003) 60: 199 (arXiv:hep-th/0210227)

• D. Bailin, G. V. Kraniotis, A. Love, New Standard-like Models from Intersecting D4-Branes, Phys. Lett. B547 (2002) 43-50 (arXiv:hep-th/0208103)

D4-branes that intersect D8-branes:

• Witten-Sakai-Sugimoto model for non-perturbative quantum chromodynamics

Matrix model

The nuclear matrix? model describes D4-branes bound to flavour D8-branes in the WSS-model:

• Koji Hashimoto, Norihiro Iizuka, Piljin Yi, A Matrix Model for Baryons and Nuclear Forces, JHEP 1010:003, 2010 (arXiv:1003.4988)

• Si-wen Li, Tuo Jia, Matrix model and Holographic Baryons in the D0-D4 background, Phys. Rev. D 92, 046007 (2015) (arXiv:1506.00068)

• Koji Hashimoto, Yoshinori Matsuo, Takeshi Morita, Nuclear states and spectra in holographic QCD, JHEP12 (2019) 001 (arXiv:1902.07444)

• Yasuhiro Hayashi, Takahiro Ogino, Tadakatsu Sakai, Shigeki Sugimoto, Stringy excited baryons in holographic QCD, Prog Theor Exp Phys (2020) (arXiv:2001.01461)

Relation to Khovanov homology

The relation to Khovanov homology

• Edward Witten, Fivebranes and knots (arXiv:1101.3216)