On Tensionless Strings in $3+1$ Dimensions

Abstract

We argue for the existence of phase transitions in $3+1$ dimensions associated with the appearance of tensionless strings. The massless spectrum of this theory does not contain a graviton: it consists of one $N=2$ vector multiplet and one linear multiplet, in agreement with the light-cone analysis of the Green-Schwarz string in $3+1$ dimensions. In M-theory the string decoupled from gravity arises when two 5-branes intersect over a three-dimensional hyperplane. The two 5-branes may be connected by a 2-brane, whose boundary becomes a tensionless string with $N=2$ supersymmetry in $3+1$ dimensions. Non-critical strings on the intersection may also come from dynamical 5-branes intersecting the two 5-branes over a string and wrapped over a four-torus. The near-extremal entropy of the intersecting 5-branes is explained by the non-critical strings originating from the wrapped 5-branes.

latex, 16 pages; version to appear in Nucl. Phys. B

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Cited by in corpus (20)

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• Black Hole Greybody Factors and Absorption of Scalars by Effective Strings
• Composite BPS configurations of p-branes in 10 and 11 dimensions
• A Picture of D-branes at Strong Coupling
• Axion Monodromy Inflation on Warped Throats
• Vortices on the Higgs Branch of the Seiberg-Witten Theory
• (De)constructing Intersecting M5-branes
• Composite M-branes
• Black Composite M-branes
• AdS/CFT and BPS Strings in Four Dimensions
• Dirichlet Joyce Manifolds, Discrete Torsion and Duality
• Relating Conifold Geometries to NS5-branes
• Intersecting Branes, Defect Conformal Field Theories and Tensionless Strings
• Confinement Near Argyres-Douglas Point in N=2 QCD and Low Energy Version of AdS/CFT Correspondence
• On the Entropy of Matrix Black Holes
• Matrix Theory Description of Schwarzschild Black Holes in the Regime N >> S
• Worldsheet Instantons and a Null String Limit of Born-Infeld Theory
• SL(2,Z) tensionless string backgrounds in IIB string theory
• Black Holes and D-branes