On the Orientifolding of Type II NS-Fivebranes

Abstract

Dualities between certain supersymmetric gauge field theories in three and four dimensions have been studied in considerable detail recently, by realizing them as geometric manipulations of configurations of extended objects in type II string theory. These extended objects include `D-branes' and `NS-(five)branes'. In constructing the brane configurations which realize dualities for orthogonal and symplectic gauge groups, an `orientifold' was introduced, which results in non-orientable string sectors. Certain features of orientifolded NS-branes -such as their existence- were assumed in the original construction, which have not been verified directly. However, those features fit very well together with the properties of the relevant field theories, and subsequently yielded the known dualities. This letter describes how orientifolded NS-branes can exist in type II string theory by displaying explicitly that the assumed combinations of world-sheet and space-time symmetries do indeed leave the NS-brane invariant and therefore can be gauged. The resulting orientifolded NS-brane can be described in terms of background fields, and furthermore as an exact conformal field theory, to exactly the same extent as the standard NS-brane.

13 pages, harvmac.tex, epsf.tex for decoration (revision 22/5/97: references considerably improved)

References in corpus (3)

• Type IIB Superstrings, BPS Monopoles, And Three-Dimensional Gauge Dynamics
• Branes and N=1 Duality in String Theory
• Rotated Branes and N=1 Duality

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• On Orientifolds of WZW Models and their Relation to Geometry
• An orientifold of the solitonic fivebrane
• D-branes on a Deformation of SU(2)
• M Theory Fivebrane and Confining Phase of N=1 $SO(N_c)$ Gauge Theories
• Sp(N_c) Gauge Theories and M Theory Fivebrane
• Closed superstring moduli tree-level two-point scattering amplitudes in Type IIB orientifold on $T^6/(Z_2\times Z_2)$
• Probing Orientifold Behavior Near NS Branes