Supermembranes and domain walls in $\mathcal{N}=1$, $D=4$ SYM

Abstract

We construct a manifestly supersymmetric and kappa-symmetry invariant worldvolume action describing the coupling of a dynamical membrane to an $\mathcal{N}=1$, $D=4$ $SU(N)$ super-Yang-Mills multiplet. Worldvolume scalar fields in this action are a Goldstone and a Goldstino associated with spontaneous breaking, by the membrane, of half of $\mathcal{N}=1$, $D=4$ supersymmetry. When the Goldstone fields are set to zero, the model reduces to an $\mathcal{N}=1$, $d=3$ $SU(N)$ Chern-Simons theory induced by the SYM coupling. We show that, when the membrane couples to the Veneziano-Yankielowicz (VY) effective theory of the $\mathcal{N}=1$ SYM, it sources VY bulk field equations, separates two distinct SYM vacua and provides the missing contribution to the tension of BPS saturated domain-wall configurations, for which the membrane serves as a core. As a result, we obtain explicit BPS domain-wall solutions in the Veneziano-Yankielowicz theory. We also briefly discuss a supersymmetric system of an open membrane having a string attached to its boundary and coupled to a massive extension of the Veneziano-Yankielowicz model.

39 pages, 5 figures, v2: comments, figure and references added; v3: further comments and references added, typos corrected, in subsection 6.3 found an inconsistency of the |k|=N BPS domain wall which was therefore removed from the list of the solutions