nLab massive type IIA string theory

Idea

What is called massive type IIA string theory is a deformation of type IIA string theory which contains the RR-field flux forms $F_0$ and/or Hodge dually $F_{10}$, which couple to D8-branes.

This is the UV-completion of massive type IIA supergravity in analogy to how plain type IIA string theory is the UV-completion of plain type IIA supergravity.

Properties

Black D8-branes

It is (only) massive type IIA string theory where D8-branes exist as actual black branes (BdRGPT96 96, Chamblin-Perry 97, Janssen-Meessen-Ortin 99) Similarly for D6-D8-brane bound states (Singh 02a, Singh 02b).

This is because the normal n-sphere around a D8-brane (with its 9-dimensional worldvolume) in 10-dimensional spacetime is a 0-sphere, D8-brane charge is measured by the RR-field 0-flux form $F_0$, or else by its Hodge dual 10-form $F_{10}$. These behave like a cosmological constant in the corresponding D=10 supergravity (“Romans supergravity”) and causes the mass term for the B-field.

Lift to M-theory?

The massive version of the duality between type IIA string theory and M-theory is more subtle, since D=11 supergravity does not admit a corresponding mass deformation (BDHS 97, Deser 97, Tsimpis 05).

In AJTZ10 it was argued that a massive strong-coupling limit may just not exist.

But in Hull 98 an embedding of massive IIA into M-theory was claimed, and a corresponding BFSS matrix model compactification was claimed in Lowe-Nastae-Ramgoolam 03).

More concretely, Henneaux, Jamsin, Kleinschmidt & Persson 2009 find a sector of massive type IIA supergravity in the E10 U-duality-covariant sigma-model formulation of, conjecturally, M-theory.

Related concepts

• massive type IIA supergravity

• D8-brane, D(-2)-brane

References

General

An early hint is in

• Joseph Polchinski, p. 8,9 of: Dirichlet-Branes and Ramond-Ramond Charges, Phys. Rev. Lett. 7 5 (1995) 4724-4727 [arXiv:hep-th/9510017]

Serious development 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)

See also:

• Michael Haack, Jan Louis, Harvendra Singh, Massive Type IIA Theory on K3, JHEP 0104:040, 2001 (arXiv:hep-th/0102110)

• Harvendra Singh, Romans type IIA theory and the heterotic strings, Phys.Lett.B545:403-410, 2002 (arXiv:hep-th/0201206)

• Tom Banks, K. van den Broek, Massive IIA flux compactifications and U-dualities, JHEP 0703:068, 2007 (arXiv:hep-th/0611185)

Black branes

D8-branes

As a black brane the D8-brane was identified as a solution to Romans supergravity/massive type IIA string theory in

• Bergshoeff-de Boo-Green-Papadopoulos-Townsend 96

See also

• A. Chamblin, Malcolm Perry, Dynamic D8-branes in IIA string theory (arXiv:hep-th/9712112)

• Bert Janssen, Patrick Meessen, Tomas Ortin, The D8-brane tied up: String and brane solutions in massive type IIA supergravity, Phys. Lett. B453 (1999) 229-236 (spire:494174, doi:10.1016/S0370-2693(99)00315-9)

D6-D8-brane bound states

On D6-D8-brane bound states in massive type IIA string theory:

• Harvendra Singh, Duality symmetric massive type II theories in $D=8$ and $D=6$, JHEP 0204:017, 2002 (arXiv:hep-th/0109147)

• Harvendra Singh, Note on (D6,D8) Bound State, Massive Duality and Non-commutativity, Nucl. Phys. B661 (2003) 394-408 (arXiv:hep-th/0212103)

• Fabio Apruzzi, Marco Fazzi, Dario Rosa, Alessandro Tomasiello, All $AdS_7$ solutions of type II supergravity, JHEP 04 (2014) 064 (arxiv:1309.2949)

• Marco Fazzi, Higher-dimensional field theories from type II supergravity (arxiv:1712.04447)

With emphasis on charge quantization of the RR-field flux forms via bundle gerbes:

• Jussi Kalkkinen, Gerbes and Massive Type II Configurations, JHEP 9907 :002, 1999 (arXiv:hep-th/9905018)

D6-D8-brane bound states with D2-D4-brane defects

On black$\;$D6-D8-brane bound states in massive type IIA string theory, with defect D2-D4-brane bound states inside them realizing AdS3-CFT2 “inside” AdS7-CFT6:

• Giuseppe Dibitetto, Nicolò Petri, 6d surface defects from massive type IIA, JHEP 01 (2018) 039 (arxiv:1707.06154)

• Nicolò Petri, section 6.5 of: Supersymmetric objects in gauged supergravities (arxiv:1802.04733)

• Nicolò Petri, Surface defects in massive IIA, talk at Recent Trends in String Theory and Related Topics 2018 (pdf)

• Giuseppe Dibitetto, Nicolò Petri, $AdS_3$ vacua and surface defects in massive IIA, PoS CORFU2018 (2019) 142 (arxiv:1904.02455, doi:10.22323/1.347.0142)

• Yolanda Lozano, Niall T. Macpherson, Carlos Nunez, Anayeli Ramirez, $1/4$ BPS $AdS_3/CFT_2$ (arxiv:1909.09636)

• Yolanda Lozano, Niall T. Macpherson, Carlos Nunez, Anayeli Ramirez, Two dimensional $N=(0,4)$ quivers dual to $AdS_3$ solutions in massive IIA (arxiv:1909.10510)

• Yolanda Lozano, Niall T. Macpherson, Carlos Nunez, Anayeli Ramirez, $AdS_3$ solutions in massive IIA, defect CFTs and T-duality (arxiv:1909.11669)

• Kostas Filippas, Non-integrability on $AdS_3$ supergravity (arxiv:1910.12981)

D4-D8-brane bound states with D2-D6-brane defects

On black$\;$D4-D8-brane bound states in massive type IIA string theory, with defect D2-D6-brane bound states inside them realizing AdS3-CFT2 “inside” AdS7-CFT6:

• Giuseppe Dibitetto, Nicolò Petri, Surface defects in the D4 − D8 brane system, JHEP 01 (2019) 193 (arxiv:1807.07768)

• Giuseppe Dibitetto, Nicolò Petri, $AdS_3$ vacua and surface defects in massive IIA (arxiv:1904.02455)

KK-Monopole

On the KK-monopole in massivel IIA and its relation to some form of massive D=11 supergravity:

• Eduardo Eyras, Yolanda Lozano, The Kaluza-Klein Monopole in a Massive IIA Background, Nucl. Phys. B546 (1999) 197-218 [arXiv:hep-th/9812188, doi:10.1016/S0550-3213(99)00098-X]

M-Theory/Strong coupling limit

Discussion of impossibility of a mass-deformation of D=11 supergravity

• K. Bautier, S. Deser, Marc Henneaux, D. Seminara, No Cosmological $D=11$ Supergravity, Phys. Lett. B406:49-53, 1997 (arXiv:hep-th/9704131)

• S. Deser, Uniqueness of $D=11$ Supergravity (arXiv:hep-th/9712064)

Speculation that strong-coupling limit of massive type IIA does not exist:

• Ofer Aharony, Daniel Jafferis, Alessandro Tomasiello, Alberto Zaffaroni, Massive type IIA string theory cannot be strongly coupled, JHEP 1011:047, 2010 (arXiv:1007.2451)

Lift to M-theory

Discussion of possible lift of massive type IIA string theory to M-theory (in view of the duality between type IIA string theory and M-theory):

• Paul S. Howe, Neil D. Lambert, Peter C. West, A New Massive Type IIA Supergravity From Compactification, Phys. Lett. B 416 (1998) 303-308 [arXiv:hep-th/9707139, doi:10.1016/S0370-2693(97)01199-4]

• Eric Bergshoeff, Yolanda Lozano, Tomas Ortin, Massive Branes, Nucl. Phys. B 518 (1998) 363-423 [arXiv:hep-th/9712115, doi:10.1016/S0550-3213(98)00045-5]

• Chris Hull, Massive String Theories From M-Theory and F-Theory, JHEP 9811:027 (1998) [arXiv:hep-th/9811021, doi:10.1088/1126-6708/1998/11/027]

Our purpose here is to argue that although the Romans supergravity theory may not be derivable from 11-dimensional supergravity, or any covariant massive deformation thereof, the massive IIA superstring, whose low energy limit is the Romans theory, can be obtained from M-theory.

The type IIB supergravity theory also cannot be obtained from 11-dimensional supergravity, but the type IIB string theory can be obtained from M-theory by compactifying on a 2-torus and taking a limit

• D. A. Lowe, Horatiu Nastase, Sanyaje Ramgoolam, Massive IIA String Theory and Matrix Theory Compactification, Nucl. Phys. B 667 (2003) 55-89 (cern:609880, doi:10.1016/S0550-3213(03)00547-9)

  (corresponding BFSS matrix model)

• Marc Henneaux, Ella Jamsin, Axel Kleinschmidt, Daniel Persson: On the $E_{10}$/Massive Type IIA Supergravity Correspondence, Phys. Rev. D 79 (2009) 045008 [arXiv:0811.4358, doi:10.1103/PhysRevD.79.045008]

  (realization in the E10 U-duality-covariant sigma-model formulation)

• Maria P. Garcia del Moral, Alvaro Restuccia, 10D Massive Type IIA Supergravities as the uplift of Parabolic M2-brane Torus bundles, Forthsch. d. Phys. 64 4-5 (2016) [arXiv:1511.04784, doi:10.1002/prop.201500087]

• Maria P. Garcia del Moral, P. Leon, Alvaro Restuccia, Wordsheet description of a massive type IIA superstring in 10D, J. High Energ. Phys. 2023 104 (2023) [arXiv:2306.16620, doi:10.1007/JHEP11(2023)104]