On BPS Branes

Abstract

We study supersymmetric BPS branes (BPS-B) in supergravity theories. Some of these states are anticipated by BPS black-brane (BPS-BB) solutions of supergravity. In particular, we define and distinguish the cone generated by BPS branes from the subcone of charges that admit BPS black-brane attractor solutions in the infrared limit of the supergravity effective field theory. We denote these cones by $C_{\mathrm{BPS}-\mathrm{B}}$ and $C_{\mathrm{BPS}-\mathrm{BB}}$, respectively. We conjecture that, in any supersymmetric theory of quantum gravity, every integrally charged state lying in $C_{\mathrm{BPS}-\mathrm{BB}}$ is realized by a BPS state in the spectrum. Furthermore, we conjecture and present evidence that when $C_{\mathrm{BPS}-\mathrm{B}}$ is moduli independent, it can be determined as the cone dual to the $C_{\mathrm{BPS}-\mathrm{BB}}$ under the electric-magnetic pairing.

69 pages, 14 figures, 3 tables