nLab
D7-brane

Idea

The D7-brane is the D-brane in type IIB string theory with worldvolume of dimension $7+1$, hence of codimension $10 - (7+1) = 2$. This is the prototypical defect brane.

In F-theory these are the degenration loci of the axio-dilaton elliptic fibration, where the discriminant $\Delta$ of the elliptic curve fibers vanishes and the fiber degenrates to the nodal curve (e.g. Sen 97, Blumenhagen 10, (11)).

Properties

Bound states

• D1-D7 brane bound state

• D3-D7 brane bound state

Relation to other branes

from M-branes to F-branes: superstrings, D-branes and NS5-branes

M-theory on $S^1_A \times S^1_B$-elliptic fibration	KK-compactification on $S^1_A$	type IIA string theory	T-dual KK-compactification on $S^1_B$	type IIB string theory	geometrize the axio-dilaton	F-theory on elliptically fibered-K3 fibration	duality between F-theory and heterotic string theory	heterotic string theory on elliptic fibration
M2-brane wrapping $S_A^1$	double dimensional reduction $\mapsto$	type IIA superstring	$\mapsto$	type IIB superstring	$\mapsto$	“	$\mapsto$	heterotic superstring
M2-brane wrapping $S_B^1$	$\mapsto$	D2-brane	$\mapsto$	D1-brane	$\mapsto$	“
M2-brane wrapping $p$ times around $S_A^1$ and $q$ times around $S_B^1$	$\mapsto$	$p$ strings and $q$ D2-branes	$\mapsto$	(p,q)-string	$\mapsto$	“
M5-brane wrapping $S_A^1$	double dimensional reduction $\mapsto$	D4-brane	$\mapsto$	D5-brane	$\mapsto$	“
M5-brane wrapping $S_B^1$	$\mapsto$	NS5-brane	$\mapsto$	NS5-brane	$\mapsto$	“	$\mapsto$	NS5-brane
M5-brane wrapping $p$ times around $S_A^1$ and $q$ times around $S_B^1$	$\mapsto$	$p$ D4-brane and $q$ NS5-branes	$\mapsto$	(p,q)5-brane	$\mapsto$	“
M5-brane wrapping $S_A^1 \times S_B^1$	$\mapsto$		$\mapsto$	D3-brane	$\mapsto$	“
KK-monopole/A-type ADE singularity (degeneration locus of $S^1_A$-circle fibration, Sen limit of $S^1_A \times S^1_B$ elliptic fibration)	$\mapsto$	D6-brane	$\mapsto$	D7-branes	$\mapsto$	A-type nodal curve cycle degeneration locus of elliptic fibration (Sen 97, section 2)		SU-gauge enhancement
KK-monopole orientifold/D-type ADE singularity	$\mapsto$	D6-brane with O6-planes	$\mapsto$	D7-branes with O7-planes	$\mapsto$	D-type nodal curve cycle degeneration locus of elliptic fibration (Sen 97, section 3)		SO-gauge enhancement
exceptional ADE-singularity	$\mapsto$		$\mapsto$		$\mapsto$	exceptional ADE-singularity of elliptic fibration	$\mapsto$	E6-, E7-, E8-gauge enhancement

(e.g. Johnson 97, Blumenhagen 10)

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	$\,$	$\,$
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

See also F-theory.

References

General

As a black brane the D7 is identified in

• Eric Bergshoeff, Mees de Roo, Michael Green, George Papadopoulos, Paul Townsend, Duality of Type II 7-branes and 8-branes, Nucl. Phys.B470:113-135, 1996 (arXiv:hep-th/9601150)

The Green-Schwarz sigma-model description of $(p,q)$-7-branes via cocycles on extended super Minkowski spacetimes is obtained in

• Makoto Sakaguchi, section 2 of IIB-Branes and New Spacetime Superalgebras, JHEP 0004 (2000) 019 (arXiv:hep-th/9909143)

See also

• Oliver DeWolfe, Tamas Hauer, Amer Iqbal, Barton Zwiebach, Uncovering Infinite Symmetries on [p,q] 7-branes: Kac-Moody Algebras and Beyond (arXiv:hep-th/9812209)

• Ashoke Sen, Orientifold Limit of F-theory Vacua (arXiv:hep-th/9702165)

• Blumenhagen, Basics of F-theory from the Type IIB Perspective (arXiv:1002.2836)

In

• P. Meessen, T. Ortin, An $Sl(2,\mathbb{Z})$ Multiplet of Nine-Dimensional Type II Supergravity Theories (arXiv:hep-th/9806120)

it is argued that 7-branes in type II string theory form not just a doublet, but a triplet under S-duality.

In M-theory

A lift of D8-branes to M-theory M-branes, by generalized Scherk-Schwarz reduction, relating to D7-branes in F-theory, is proposed in:

• Chris Hull, Massive String Theories From M-Theory and F-Theory, JHEP 9811:027, 1998 (arXiv:hep-th/9811021)