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# String Theory on Dp-plane waves

## 1 Introduction

According to , gauge theories at large N can often be rephrased in terms of holographically related string theories on $`AdS\times S`$ spaces pierced by RR fluxes. The typical example relates $`𝒩=4`$ SYM to type IIB string theory on $`AdS_5\times S^5`$. Superstring theories on such backgrounds are still far from being tractable, obstructing a more quantitative study of the correspondence beyond the classical supergravity level. An unexpected handle for this physics comes from , where a solvable string theory was proposed as an effective description of the bulk physics in the nearby of null geodesics of $`AdS_5\times S^5`$. The geometry is defined by a Penrose limit along a generic null geodesic of $`AdS_5\times S^5`$ and is given in terms of a pp-wave metric supported by a self-dual five-form . In the gauge theory side, the limit corresponds to isolate composite operators with large $``$-charge.

Plane wave geometries are exact solutions of string theory (see  and references therein). Under certain conditions they lead to exactly solvable string models where the spectrum and simple correlation functions can be computed much in the same way as in flat space. We are interested in plane waves arising as Penrose limits of p-brane geometries. The rich isometry group of near horizon p-brane solutions relates most of the choices for null geodesics leaving only few independent possibilities. In case one starts with a pure $`AdS\times S`$ solution, the two independent possibilities lead to either a pp-wave or a flat space-time .

In , the Penrose limits of non-conformal Dp brane geometries were considered. The limit along a generic null geodesic results again into a pp-wave solution, but now with running dilaton, masses and RR-fluxes. Remarkably, as first noticed in , the geometries display a “critical radius” which acts as a fixed point in the radial evolution of a particular class of null geodesics. The physics along such “critical” geodesics is accurately described by a solvable string theory with constant masses, dilaton and RR fluxes and will be the main subject of our study.

Following the BMN ideas, it is natural to consider string theories on these solvable pp-wave vacua as the holographic duals of states with large $``$-charge in the SYM theories leaving on the branes. The worldvolume theories leaving on Dp-branes are defined via dimensional reduction from $`𝒩=1`$ SU(N) SYM in $`D=10`$ down to $`d=p+1`$. For $`p3`$, they are non-conformal gauge theories and preserve sixteen supercharges. Before taking the Penrose limit they are described by warped $`AdS`$ supergravities. Various aspects of these correspondences have been studied in  and more recently in . The Penrose limit, we are considering here, correspond to a very special limit where $``$-charges in the SYM theory are taken to be large while keeping fixed the working energy scale. This is of course the closest analog of the “conformal” pp-wave versions of the correspondence. The physical meaning of this “critical energy” in the SYM side remains to be fully clarified.

The aim of this paper is to study the spectrum of string theory on general Dp-waves. We would like to stress that solvable Dp-wave string models are interesting by itself. They provide the simplest string vacua with sixteen supercharges and non-trivial RR fluxes. In the absence of a better understanding of string theory on more general RR backgrounds, pp-wave solvable models constitute the unique tractable examples. In the same spirit, string-string dualities in the presence of RR-fields are fully unexplored and Dp plane waves provide a simplified setting where a deeper study of this physics can be addressed.

In this paper we mainly focus on D1-waves in type IIB/type I theory. Besides the duality with 2D SYM theories, these models are interesting because they can be reformulated entirely in terms of NSNS F1-plane waves in the S-dual type IIB/heterotic string respectively. The S-dual pairs are associated to Penrose limits along critical null geodesics of the corresponding p-brane solutions in the low energy supergravities. Type I descendants are constructed by introducing a consistent set of D9-O9 planes in the type IIB D1-wave. It is important to notice that D9-O9 systems are allowed in the D1-wave unlike in the more familiar D3-wave geometry where they were excluded by the selection rules derived in .

The paper is organized as follows: In Section 2 we review and adapt the results of  in order to derive pp-wave solutions as “critical” Penrose limits of Dp-brane near horizon geometries. Section 3 is devoted to the study of the spectrum of KK harmonics in $`𝒩=1,2`$ supergravity on the D1/F1 plane wave. In section 4, we compute one-loop modular invariant helicity supertraces counting multiplicities and charges of string excitations in the Dp-waves. The formulas encode in a unifying way the resulting spectrum of S-dual pairs of F1/D1 plane waves in 10D superstrings. The Klein, Annulus and Moebius amplitudes defining open descendants of D1-waves are also discussed. In section 5 we summarize the results and comment on interesting directions for future research.

## 2 Penrose limits of Dp-branes

Penrose limits of non-conformal brane solutions have been recently studied in . For $`p3`$ and a generic choice of null geodesics the limit results into a pp-wave with $`x^+`$-dependent dilaton, masses and RR-fluxes. However, as noticed in , to any given ratio $`\mathrm{}\frac{J}{E}`$ of the energy and angular momentum eigenvalues, there exists a critical radius $`r_0`$, in the nearby of which, physics is effectively described by a solvable string theory. We are interested in Penrose limits along geodesics starting near $`r_0`$. In this section we review (and slightly adapt) the results of  focusing on this particular class of geodesics. For reasons that will become evident later, we choose to work in the Einstein frame.

Dp-brane solutions involve, besides the metric, non-trivial profiles for the dilaton and RR $`(p+2)`$-form. In the Einstein frame the solution can be written as :

$`ds^2`$ $`=`$ $`H^{\frac{p7}{8}}(dt^2+d\stackrel{}{x}^2)+H^{\frac{p+1}{8}}(dr^2+r^2d\psi ^2+r^2\mathrm{sin}^2\psi d\mathrm{\Omega }_{7p}^2)`$
$`F_{p+2}`$ $`=`$ $`d\mathrm{vol}(𝐄^{1,p})dH^1`$
$`e^{\varphi \varphi _{\mathrm{}}}`$ $`=`$ $`H^{\frac{3p}{4}}`$ (2.1)
with $`H`$ the harmonic function in the transverse space :

$$H=1+\frac{Q_p}{r^{7p}}\frac{Q_p}{r^{7p}}Q_p=c_pg_{\mathrm{YM}}^2N(\alpha ^{})^{5p}$$
(2.2)
Throughout this paper we restrict ourselves to near horizon regions $`r^{7p}Q_p`$, where the one in $`H`$ can be discarded.

We are interested in the physics along the null geodesics:

$$r=r(x^+)\psi =b(x^+)t=\mathrm{}\psi a(x^+)$$
(2.3)
with $`r(x^+)`$, $`a(x^+)`$, $`b(x^+)`$, functions of the affine parameter $`x^+`$ defined through the null geodesics and (J,E)-eigenvalue conditions

$`g_{tt}\dot{t}=1g_{\psi \psi }\dot{\psi }=\mathrm{}g_{tt}\dot{t}^2+g_{\psi \psi }\dot{\psi }^2+g_{rr}\dot{r}^2=0`$ (2.4)
Dots stand for the derivatives with respect to $`x^+`$. The first eq. in (2.4) fixes the normalization of the affine parameter by setting the energy $`E=1`$, while $`\mathrm{}=J/E`$ parametrizes the angular momentum. Eqs (2.4) are solved by111Solutions can be written in terms of hypergeometric functions, but the explicit form will not be needed here .:

$`\dot{r}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\omega }{AB^2r}}\dot{a}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{A^2}}{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}^2}{B^2r^2}}\dot{b}={\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{}}{B^2r^2}}`$ (2.5)
with $`A^2H^{\frac{p7}{8}}`$, $`B^2H^{\frac{p+1}{8}}`$ and $`\omega (x^+)\sqrt{B^2r^2\mathrm{}^2A^2}`$. All functions in (2.5) carry an implicit dependence on $`x^+`$ through $`r(x^+)`$.

In order to define the Penrose limit it is convenient to introduce the following change of coordinates:

$`\stackrel{}{x}`$ $``$ $`\mathrm{\Omega }𝐱/A\stackrel{}{y}\mathrm{\Omega }𝐲/(Br)rr(x^+)\psi b+\mathrm{\Omega }z/\omega `$
$`t`$ $``$ $`a\mathrm{}\psi +\mathrm{\Omega }^2\left[x^{}+{\displaystyle \frac{_+\omega }{2\omega }}z^2+{\displaystyle \frac{_+A}{2A}}𝐱^2+{\displaystyle \frac{_+(Br\mathrm{sin}b)}{2Br\mathrm{sin}b}}𝐲^2\right]`$ (2.6)
which reduces at $`\mathrm{\Omega }0`$ to the null geodesics (2.3). We parametrize by $`\stackrel{}{y}`$ the coordinates on the unitary sphere $`S^{7p}`$. In the limit $`\mathrm{\Omega }0`$ they describe a point in $`𝐑^{7p}`$ with coordinates $`𝐲`$. By plugging (2.6) into (2.1) and keeping only the leading terms in $`\mathrm{\Omega }0`$ one finds:

$`\mathrm{\Omega }^2ds^2`$ $`=`$ $`2dx^+dx^{}(m_x^2𝐱^2+m_z^2z^2+m_y^2𝐲^2)dx^{+2}+dz^2+d𝐱^2+d𝐲^2`$
$`\mathrm{\Omega }^{(p+1)}F_{p+2}`$ $`=`$ $`2\widehat{f}dx^+d\mathrm{vol}(𝐄^p)dz`$ (2.7)
with $`e^{\varphi \varphi _{\mathrm{}}}=\left(\frac{Q_p}{r^{7p}}\right)^{\frac{3p}{4}}`$ and

$`m_x^2`$ $`=`$ $`m_z^2={\displaystyle \frac{(7p)^2}{256}}Q_p^{\frac{p+1}{4}}r^{\frac{(p3)^2}{4}}\left[\mathrm{}^2(312pp^2)+(p3)^2Q_pr^{p5}\right]`$
$`m_y^2`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{(7p)}{256}}Q_p^{\frac{p+1}{4}}r^{\frac{(p3)^2}{4}}\left[\mathrm{}^2(25+19p5p^2+p^3)+(p3)^2(7p)Q_pr^{p5}\right]`$
$`2\widehat{f}`$ $`=`$ $`(7p)\mathrm{}Q^{\frac{11+4pp^2}{16}}r^{\frac{(3p)^2(5p)}{16}}`$ (2.8)
For $`p=3`$ one recovers the familiar pp-wave solution with masses $`m_x^2=m_y^2=m_z^2=\mathrm{}^2/Q_p`$. On the other hand, for $`p3`$, the solution (2.7) involves non-trivial $`x^+`$-dependent dilaton, masses and RR-fluxes. A simple inspection of (2.5) reveals however that for $`p5`$ the radial evolution equation has a fixed point at the critical radius 222The case $`p=5`$ should be treated independently and it will be omitted here (see  for discussions on this case)

$$r_0^{5p}\frac{Q_p}{\mathrm{}^2}$$
(2.9)
where $`\dot{r}=0`$. Geodesics starting near this critical radius keeps close to it along $`x^+`$-evolution leading to a pp-wave solution with constant masses, dilaton and RR-fluxes . Evaluating (2.8) at $`r_0`$ we are finally left with

$`m_x^2`$ $`=`$ $`m_z^2=\frac{1}{32}(7p)^2(5p)m^2`$
$`m_y^2`$ $`=`$ $`\frac{1}{32}(7p)(114p+p^2)m^2`$
$`e^{\frac{a_p\varphi _0}{2}}\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}\widehat{f}`$ $`=`$ $`(7p)m`$ (2.10)
with $`m^2=\mathrm{}^{\frac{2910p+p^2}{2(5p)}}Q_p^{\frac{7p}{2(p5)}}`$ and constant dilaton $`e^{a_p\varphi }=e^{a_p\varphi _0}=(Q_p\mathrm{}^{p7})^{\frac{(3p)^2}{4(5p)}}`$.

One can directly verify that (2.7) is indeed a solution of the ten dimensional Einstein equations. The only non-trivial component of the Einstein-Hilbert system:

$$R_{++}=\frac{e^{a_p\stackrel{̊}{\varphi }}}{2n!}\left(nF_{+A_2\mathrm{}.A_n}F_+^{A_2\mathrm{}.A_n}\frac{n1}{8}g_{++}F^2\right)$$
(2.11)
requires

$$\underset{i}{}m_i^2=(p+1)m_x^2+(7p)m_y^2=2e^{a_p\varphi _0}\widehat{f}^2$$
(2.12)
which is verified by (2.10)333 In the following we will always reabsorve the $`e^{\frac{a_p\varphi _0}{2}}`$ factor in the definition of $`\widehat{f}`$ setting $`e^{a_p\varphi _0}=1`$. Notice that the expressions (2.10) for the pp-wave masses differ substantially from those obtained in  using the string frame metric. This is not surprising since the two frames are related by a non-trivial $`x^+`$-dependent redefinition. We should stress that our choice here of working in the Einstein frame is not “ad hoc”. Of course solutions coming from the Penrose limit (at the critical radius) using the string metric also fulfill the Einstein equations but due to the non-canonical kinetic term $`e^{2\varphi }`$, a bit more care should be taken in discarding $`_+^2\varphi `$ terms.

For $`p3`$ the solutions (2.7) preserve half of the supersymmetries. Killing spinors equations can be solved in terms of spinor components $`ϵ`$ satisfying $`\mathrm{\Gamma }^+ϵ=0`$ . This matches the number of supersymmetries of the SYM theories living on the Dp-branes.

## 3 KK supergravity harmonics

In this section we compute the bosonic spectrum of type II,I supergravities in the F1/D1-wave geometry. We follow closely  where similar results were derived in the D3-wave case. The KK spectra found here should correspond to contractions of those in , where the type IIB/I linearized equations were solved in the warped $`AdS_3\times S^7`$ near horizon geometries. It would be nice to have a more concrete realization of this idea.

For definiteness we focus on the F1-pp wave case. $`SL(2,)`$ invariance of type IIB supergravity makes this vacuum indistinguishable from that of the D1-pp wave and therefore the two spectra are identical. States will be classified according to the $`SO(6)`$ R-symmetry group acting on the transverse $`𝐑^\mathrm{𝟔}`$. This group is identified with the subgroup of the $`SO(8)`$ $``$-symmetry group in the two-dimensional gauge theory that survives the large R-charge BMN limit. In addition states will come in groups of $`256`$ states at each level of the KK tower. This was also the case in the warped geometry  before taking the Penrose limit.

The spectrum of KK harmonics is determined by solving the linearized type IIB equations of motion in the pp-wave geometry. To linear order in the fluctuations around (2.7), type IIB supergravity fields can be written as (we borrow the notations of ):

$`g_{MN}`$ $`=`$ $`\stackrel{̊}{g}_{MN}+h_{MN}`$
$`P_M`$ $`=`$ $`i{\displaystyle \frac{_M\tau }{2\tau _2}}={\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}_M\mathrm{\Phi }`$
$`q_M`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{_M\tau _1}{2\tau _2}}={\displaystyle \frac{e^{\varphi _0}}{2}}_MC_0`$
$`G_{MNP}`$ $`=`$ $`\stackrel{̊}{G}_{MNP}+𝒢_{MNP}={\displaystyle \frac{\phi }{2}}\stackrel{̊}{G}_{MNP}+3_{[M}a_{NP]}`$
$`f_{MNPQR}`$ $`=`$ $`5_{[M}a_{NPQR]}+\frac{5}{4}\left(a_{[MN}^1_Pa_{QR]}^2a_{[MN}^2\stackrel{̊}{G}_{PQR]}\right)`$ (3.1)
where we have introduced the complex notation

$`\mathrm{\Phi }`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Phi }_1+i\mathrm{\Phi }_2=\phi +ie^{\varphi _0}\chi `$
$`a_{MN}`$ $`=`$ $`a_{MN}^1+ia_{MN}^2=e^{\frac{\varphi _0}{2}}a_{MN}^{NS}+ie^{\frac{\varphi _0}{2}}a_{MN}^R`$ (3.2)
for fluctuations of the dilaton-axion and two-form systems respectively. In addition we will impose the light cone gauge conditions:

$$h_M=a_M=a_{MNP}=0$$
(3.3)
to get rid of gauge degrees of freedom in the metric, two and four form. We will start by collecting the equations of motion for the various fields, which upon diagonalization reduce to a set of second order differential equations of the kind

$$\left(\mathrm{}+i\lambda _s^+\right)\mathrm{\Phi }_s=0$$
(3.4)
with

$$\mathrm{}g^{MN}_M_N=2_+_{}+_I^2m_I^2y^{I\mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}2}}_{}^2.$$
(3.5)
The index $`s=1,..,256`$ running over the 10D type IIB supergravity modes. We collect in $`y^I=\{𝐱,z,𝐲\}`$, $`I=1,\mathrm{}8`$, the transverse to the light-cone coordinates and denote by $`m_I`$ their associated masses. Identifying as in  our Hamiltonian by $`H=i^{}`$, eq. (3.4) reduces to a system of eight harmonic oscillators with masses $`m_I`$ and energies

$$E_s=\lambda _sa+\underset{I=1}{\overset{8}{}}m_In_I$$
(3.6)
with $`n_I`$ the oscillator occupation number and $`a`$ the zero point energy. $`\lambda _s`$ determine the shift in energy of the field $`\mathrm{\Phi }_s`$ respect to other components at the same level in the KK-tower. The main task is to determine the spectrum of $`\lambda `$’s by diagonalizing the linearized supergravity equations. Readers that are not interested in the details of this derivation can skip the next subsections directly to table 1, where the final results are summarized.

### 3.1 Type IIB supergravity

We start by considering the linearized equations of motion for type IIB supergravity around the F1-wave.

Scalar Equation:
The dilaton-axion equation of motion in the plane wave background reads:

$$\stackrel{̊}{D}{}_{}{}^{M}P_{M}^{}=\frac{1}{4}\stackrel{̊}{G}{}_{}{}^{IJ}𝒢_{IJ}^{}$$
(3.7)
In the light-cone gauge one has $`𝒢_{IJ}=^+a_{IJ}`$ and (3.7) can be rewritten as:

$$\mathrm{}\mathrm{\Phi }\frac{1}{2}c^{IJ}^+a_{IJ}=0$$
(3.8)
with $`c_{IJ}=\stackrel{̊}{G}_{+IJ}`$ the three-form flux.
Three-form Equation:
The linearized equations for the complex three-form equations read:

$$\delta D^P\stackrel{̊}{G}_{MNP}+\stackrel{̊}{D}{}_{}{}^{P}𝒢_{MNP}^{}=P^P\stackrel{̊}{G}{}_{MNP}{}^{}\frac{2}{3}if_{MNPQR}\stackrel{̊}{G}^{MNP}$$
(3.9)
As in  it is enough to solve for the components $`(I)`$ and $`(IJ)`$. The $`(I)`$-component eqs:

$$\stackrel{̊}{D}^P𝒢_{IP}=0^Pa_{PI}=0$$
(3.10)
can be used to rewrite

$`\stackrel{̊}{D}{}_{}{}^{P}𝒢_{IJP}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{}a_{IJ}+\frac{1}{2}c_{IJ}^+\phi `$
$`\delta D^P\stackrel{̊}{G}_{IJP}`$ $`=`$ $`\frac{i}{2}c_{IJ}^+\mathrm{\Phi }_2+2^+h_{K[I}c_{J]K}`$ (3.11)
By plugging this in (3.9) and after some simple algebra one finds

$$\mathrm{}a_{IJ}+^+(c_{IJ}\mathrm{\Phi }+2h_{K[I}c_{J]K}+2ic^{KL}\widehat{a}_{IJKL})=0$$
(3.12)
with $`\widehat{a}_{I_1..I_4}a_{I_1..I_4}+a_{[I_1I_2}^1a_{I_3I_4]}^2`$.
Metric Equations:
The linearized graviton equations around the pp-wave geometry can be writen as

$$r_{MN}=\frac{1}{8}(\stackrel{̊}{G}_M{}_{}{}^{PQ}𝒢_{NPQ}^{}+\stackrel{̊}{G}_N{}_{}{}^{PQ}𝒢_{MPQ}^{}\frac{1}{6}\stackrel{̊}{g}_{MN}\stackrel{̊}{G}{}_{}{}^{PQR}𝒢_{PQR}^{}+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.)$$
(3.13)
As in  the components $`r_{}=r_I=0`$ gives $`h_{II}=D^mh_{mI}=0`$. This allows us to rewrite $`r_{IJ}=\frac{1}{2}\mathrm{}h_{IJ}`$ and (3.13) reads:

$$\mathrm{}h_{IJ}+\frac{1}{2}^+(c_{IK}a_{JK}^{}+c_{JK}a_{IK}^{}\frac{1}{4}\delta _{IJ}c_{KL}a_{KL}^{}+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.)=0$$
(3.14)
Five-form equations
Self-duality of the $`(I_1\mathrm{}I_4)`$ components gives

$$\widehat{a}_{I_1..I_4}=\frac{1}{4!}ϵ_{I_1..I_4J_1..J_4}\widehat{a}_{J_1..J_4}$$
(3.15)
Using the self-duality of the five-form and the definition (3.1) one writes

$$\stackrel{̊}{D}{}_{}{}^{P}f_{PM_1..M_4}^{}=\frac{1}{\mathrm{2\hspace{0.17em}3}!^2}ϵ_{M_1\mathrm{}.M_{10}}F_1^{M_5M_6M_7}F_2^{M8M_9M_{10}}$$
(3.16)
In particular for the $`(I_1..I_3),(I_1,\mathrm{}I_4)`$ components one has:

$`\stackrel{̊}{D}{}_{}{}^{P}f_{PI_1..I_3}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`0^P\widehat{a}_{PI_1..I_3}=0`$
$`\stackrel{̊}{D}{}_{}{}^{P}f_{PI_1..I_4}^{}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}ϵ_{I_1..I_4J_1..J_4}F_1^{J_1J_2}F_2^{+J_3J_4}`$ (3.17)
Plugging in (3.16) one finally finds:

$$\mathrm{}\widehat{a}_{I_1..I_4}\frac{1}{2}^+\left[c_{[I_1I_2}a_{2I_3I_4]}+\frac{1}{4!}ϵ_{I_1\mathrm{}J_4}c^{[J_1J_2}a_2^{J_3J_4]}\right]=0$$
(3.18)
Spectrum of KK States:

We now specify to a NSNS two-form flux $`c_{12}=2\widehat{f}`$ along the $`(12)`$ plane. We split capital indices $`I`$ into $`\alpha ,\beta =1,2`$, $`i,j=1,\mathrm{}6`$, according to whether they are parallel or perpendicular to the flux. Collecting equations (3.8),(3.12) (3.14) and (3.18), we find upon diagonalization a system of differential equations of the kind (3.4) with $`\lambda `$-eigenvalues displayed in table 1.

We denote by $`a_{\alpha i},\chi ,h,h_{}`$ some complex linear combinations of the axion/dilaton, metric and NSNS/RR forms. We display only the quantum numbers of the $`128`$ bosonic states at the level 0 in the KK tower, i.e. in the bosonic zero mode ground state. States in the higher KK floors are still organize in groups of $`256`$ states ($`128`$ bosons and $`128`$ fermions). Energies are shifted by $`n_Im_I`$. $`SO(6)`$-representations of states in this higher KK levels can be found by tensoring the representations in the table with those of the harmonic oscillator zero modes $`a_0^I`$.

### 3.2 Type I supergravity

The analysis above can be applied “mutatis mutandis” to the study of D1/F1-waves in type I/heterotic theory. The spectrum of KK states in the heterotic F1-wave can be read from that of type IIB by simply projecting out RR states and adding the contribution of $`n_V`$ $`𝒩=1`$ vector multiplets. Similarly states in the type I D1-wave are related to those in the heterotic via S-duality.

The result of the $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$-projection is displayed in table 2.

In addition we have $`n_V`$ $`𝒩=1`$ vector multiplets with vector equations

$$D_MF^{MN}\frac{1}{2}\stackrel{̊}{G}_{NPQ}F^{PQ}=0,$$
(3.19)
and $`F_{MN}2e^{\frac{\stackrel{̊}{\varphi }}{2}}_{[M}A_{N]}`$. The equation for the $`()`$-component gives

$$\stackrel{̊}{D}^PF_P=0^Pa_P=0$$
(3.20)
while for $`I`$ components we find

$$\mathrm{}a_Ic_{IJ}^+a_J=0$$
(3.21)
Upon diagonalization, (3.21) reduces to our familiar differential equation with $`\lambda `$-eigenvalues given in table 3

As before, states in the higher levels of the KK tower can be found by acting with the oscillator bosonic zero modes $`a_0^I`$ and carry energies shifted by $`n_Im_I`$. Notice that now at each KK level, states are organized in groups of $`128=64_B+64_F`$ uncharged components and adjoint multiplets containing each $`16=8_B+8_F`$ physical degrees of freedom.

## 4 String theory on Dp-plane waves

In this section we compute the helicity supertrace of string theory on Dp-waves (2.7) with masses $`m_I`$ and RR/NSNS fluxes $`\widehat{f}`$. We follow closely , where similar techniques were applied in the six-dimensional context (see also  for related discussions). For definiteness we focus on type IIB. The general coupling of strings moving in a plane wave with NSNS/RR constant fluxes can be summarized in the following worldsheet Lagrangian:

$$=_0+_R+_{NS}$$
(4.1)
where

$`_0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}(_+Z^i_{}\overline{Z}^i\mu _i^2Z^i\overline{Z}^i+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.)+S^a_+S^a+\stackrel{~}{S}^a_{}\stackrel{~}{S}^a`$
$`_R`$ $`=`$ $`2ifS^a\mathrm{\Pi }_{ab}\stackrel{~}{S}^b`$
$`_{NS}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{f_i}{2}}(i\overline{Z}^i_+Z^i\overline{Z}^i_{}Z^i+\mathrm{h}.\mathrm{c}.){\displaystyle \frac{if_i}{2}}(S\gamma ^{i\overline{i}}S\stackrel{~}{S}^a\gamma _{ab}^{i\overline{i}}\stackrel{~}{S}^b)`$ (4.2)
We use the lightcone gauge $`x^+=\alpha ^{}p^+\sigma _0`$ and $`_\pm =_0\pm _1`$. Worldsheet masses are related to the spacetime variables via $`\mu _i=2p^+\alpha ^{}m_i`$, $`f=2p^+\alpha ^{}\widehat{f}`$, $`f_i=2p^+\alpha ^{}H_{2i2i1+}`$.

The Lagrangian densities $`_f`$ ($`_v`$) represent the coupling to RR(NSNS) fluxes while $`_0`$ describe a free string moving on a pp-wave. We have collected the eight real bosons into four complex ones and denote their masses by $`\mu _i`$. Sum over repeat indices $`i,j=1,\mathrm{}4`$ is implicitly understood. The RR fluxes are described by $`f`$ and couple to fermions through the mass term $`\mathrm{\Pi }=\gamma _1\mathrm{}.\gamma _{p+1}`$.

NSNS fluxes are specified by $`f_i`$’s. We have chosen $`B_{+i}=\frac{i}{2}\widehat{f}_i\overline{z}^i`$, $`B_{+\overline{i}}=\frac{i}{2}\widehat{f}_iz^i`$ such that $`H_{i\overline{i}+}=\widehat{f}_i`$. Notice that the coupling to fermions of NSNS fields are substantially different from that of RR-fields. Indeed the whole $`_{NS}`$-Lagrangian can be reabsorved by the worldsheet redefinition

$$Z^ie^{if_i\sigma _1}Z^iSe^{\frac{i}{2}f_i\sigma _1\gamma ^{i\overline{i}}}S\stackrel{~}{S}e^{\frac{i}{2}\sigma _1f_i\gamma ^{i\overline{i}}}\stackrel{~}{S}$$
(4.3)
and $`\mu _i^2\mu _i^2f_i^2`$. The new fields satisfy twisted boundary conditions specified by $`v_ia_i\tau +b_i=if_i\tau _2`$.

In the following we will restrict ourselves to RR-waves, but we will keep track of $``$-charges by computing the one-loop partition functions in a given spin structure specified by $`v_i=\overline{v}_i`$. For future references we stress that the resulting helicity traces can be used, according to our discussion above, to extract one-loop correlation functions involving an arbitrary number of insertions of the NSNS B-fields on the RR plane wave.

We start by considering oriented closed string states.

### 4.1 The torus amplitude

One-loop partition functions for type IIB on D3 pp-waves have been computed in . In this section we compute helicity supertraces for string theories on Dp-plane waves. Helicity supertraces weight states according to their R-symmetry charges and allow us to perform a more refined comparison of multiplicities and charges with gauge/supergravity descriptions. In addition, as we have discussed earlier in this section, they provide a unifying description of D1/F1 plane wave string vacua.

An important new feature of string theory on general Dp-waves is that bosons and fermions carry in general different worldsheet masses $`\mu _i,f`$. The Lorentz $`SO(8)`$ symmetry is broken by pp-masses and RR-fluxes to its $`SO(p+1)\times SO(7p)`$ subgroup. The helicity supertrace measures string multiplicities and charges under the $`SO(2)^4`$ Cartan subgroup of $`SO(p+1)\times SO(7p)`$. More precisely, we define 444We borrow the notations of .

$$Z(v_i|\tau ,\overline{\tau })=\mathrm{Tr}()^Fe^{2\pi \tau _2H+2\pi i\tau _1P+2\pi v^iJ_i}$$
(4.4)
where

$`H`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}\left(\omega _n^iN_{Bn}^i+\omega _n^fN_{Fn}\right)aa=2{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{4}{}}}(\mathrm{\Delta }_f\mathrm{\Delta }_{\mu _i})`$
$`P`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}nN_n\omega _n^i=\sqrt{\mu _i^2+n^2},\omega _n^f=\sqrt{f^2+n^2}`$
$`v_iJ^i`$ $`=`$ $`\pm {\displaystyle \underset{n}{}}\left(v_iN_{Bn}^i+\stackrel{~}{v}_iN_{Fn}^i\right).`$ (4.5)
We have built with $`𝐱,z,𝐲`$ four complex bosons and assigned them masses $`\stackrel{}{\mu }`$ according to (2.10). In addition we have introduced the quantities $`\stackrel{~}{v}_i`$ defined through:

$`\stackrel{~}{v}_1`$ $`=`$ $`\frac{1}{2}(v_1+v_2+v_3+v_4)`$
$`\stackrel{~}{v}_2`$ $`=`$ $`\frac{1}{2}(v_1+v_2v_3v_4)`$
$`\stackrel{~}{v}_3`$ $`=`$ $`\frac{1}{2}(v_1v_2v_3+v_4)`$
$`\stackrel{~}{v}_4`$ $`=`$ $`\frac{1}{2}(v_1v_2+v_3v_4)`$ (4.6)
which characterize the $`SO(8)`$ spinor representation under which worldsheet fermions transform.

The presence of the extra v-term twists the boundary conditions of worldsheet bosons and fermions by $`v_i`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{v}_i`$ respectively. The twist is now along $`\sigma _0`$ in contrast with that in (4.3). The result follows with minor modifications from that in :

$$Z(\stackrel{}{v}|\tau ,\overline{\tau })=\underset{i=1}{\overset{4}{}}\frac{\mathrm{\Theta }_{0,\stackrel{~}{v}_i}(f|\tau ,\overline{\tau })}{\mathrm{\Theta }_{0,v_i}(\mu _i|\tau ,\overline{\tau })}$$
(4.7)
An alternative derivation of this formula using the Lagrangian formalism is presented in the Appendix. At $`v_i=0`$, (4.7) reduces to the string partition function. Notice that unlike in the more familiar D3-brane case, bosonic and fermionic determinants do not cancel against each other even in the $`\stackrel{}{v}=0`$ case.

Focusing on the zero mode part of (4.7):

$`𝒵_0(\stackrel{}{v},\tau )`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{4}{}}}e^{2\pi \tau _2(f\mu _i)}\left|{\displaystyle \frac{1q^fe^{2\pi i\stackrel{~}{v}_i}}{1q^{\mu _i}e^{2\pi iv_i}}}\right|^2`$ (4.8)
with $`q=e^{2\pi \tau }`$, one easily recognizes the spectrum of Kaluza Klein supergravity states derived in the harmonic analysis above. The expansion of the numerator in powers of $`q`$ comprises $`256`$ states out of which $`128`$ are bosonic and $`128`$ are fermionic states. More precisely besides a singlet state at level 0, we find $`8`$ states in the $`\mathrm{𝟖}_s`$ spinor of $`SO(8)`$ at level one (term $`q^f`$), $`28=\mathrm{𝟖}_s\mathrm{𝟖}_s`$ states at level two (order $`q^{2f}`$) and so on. Setting $`p=1`$, decomposing $`SO(8)`$ quantum numbers under $`SO(6)`$ and keeping only bosonic components, the spectrum in table 1 is reproduced. Different levels in the Kaluza-Klein tower are reached by expanding the denominator in (4.8). This corresponds to act with bosonic zero mode creation operators. Theses terms explicitly break the $`SO(8)`$ symmetry down to $`SO(6)`$. Degeneracies of these states are in agreement with that of the set of harmonic oscillators with masses $`\mu _i`$ found in the supergravity description.

It is also not hard to associate to each state in (4.7) a BMN operator of large $``$-charge in the dual $`p+1`$-dimensional gauge theory. The dictionary follows straight from that in  by simply reorganizing the spectrum of operators respect to $`SO(p+1)\times SO(7p)`$ rather than $`SO(4)\times SO(4)`$. The string vacuum is again identified with the $`\frac{1}{\sqrt{J}N^J}\mathrm{Tr}Z^J`$ operator. The $`256`$ operators associated with states at a given “level” in the KK tower are related by actions of the eight fermion gaugino components $`\chi _{J=\frac{1}{2}}`$ in the $`d=p+1`$-dimensional theory. The main difference with the $`p=3`$ case, is that insertions in the traces of operators $`D_\alpha Z`$ and $`\varphi ^i`$ ($`\alpha =1,..p+1`$, $`i=1,\mathrm{..7}p`$) carry different energies due to the difference in the longitudinal and transverse masses. This is related to the fact that the radii of the original $`AdS_{p+2}`$ and $`S^{8p}`$ are different. It would be nice to explain this rich structure of the energy spectrum in the gauge theory side.

Before leaving this section it is worth to spend some words in the flat space limit of our formulas. For this purpose it is useful to come back to the derivation of the helicity trace presented in the Appendix. As it has been recognized in various places in the literature (see  for example), the massless limit is far from smooth due to non-standard bosonic zero mode contributions implicitly taken into account in (4.7). More precisely, for $`\mu =0`$ the computation of the bosonic determinant (5.2) in the Appendix, should be replaced by that of $`\mathrm{det}^{}\mathrm{}_v`$ where the $`n_1=n_2=0`$ constant mode is omitted. The integration over this constant mode $`x_0`$ gives the regularized volume of the target space. A sensible comparison with flat space results is better performed in terms of the primed partition function

$$Z^{}(\stackrel{}{v}|\tau ,\overline{\tau })Z(\stackrel{}{v}|\tau ,\overline{\tau })𝒱_0(\tau _2)=Z(\stackrel{}{v}|\tau ,\overline{\tau })\tau _2^4\underset{i=1}{\overset{4}{}}|v_i+i\mu _i\tau _2|^2$$
(4.9)
where contributions coming from the constant mode are omitted and collected in $`𝒱_0^1(\tau _2)`$. Notice that both $`Z`$ and $`Z^{}`$ are modular invariant since $`𝒱_0(\tau _2)`$ is invariant by itself under the modular transformation (5.7). In particular for $`\stackrel{}{v}=0`$ the two definitions differ by powers of the modular invariant combination $`\mu _i^2\tau _2`$ 555The origin of this normalization factor can be traced in the ratio between the partition function of a 2d harmonic oscillator $`\frac{1}{\mu ^2\tau _2^2}=𝑑𝐱_0𝑑𝐩e^{\pi \tau _2(𝐩^2+\mu ^2𝐱_0^2)}`$ and its free particle limit $`\frac{V}{\tau _2}=𝑑𝐱_0𝑑𝐩e^{\pi \tau _2𝐩^2}`$.. In terms of (4.9) the torus amplitude can be written as

$$𝒯=\frac{d^2\tau }{\tau _2^2}𝑑p^+𝑑p^{}e^{2\pi i\alpha ^{}p^+p^{}\tau _2}𝒱_0(\tau _2)Z^{}(\stackrel{}{v}|\tau ,\overline{\tau })$$
(4.10)
The flat space limit is recovered by sending $`\mu 0`$:

$$\underset{\mu 0}{lim}Z^{}(\stackrel{}{v}|\tau ,\overline{\tau })=\frac{1}{\tau _2^4}\underset{i=1}{\overset{4}{}}\left|v_i\frac{\vartheta _1(\stackrel{~}{v}_i)}{\vartheta _1(v_i)}\right|^2$$
(4.11)
and replacing $`𝒱_0(\tau _2)`$ by the regularized volume $`V_0`$ of the target space. According to  integration over $`p^\pm `$ set $`p^+`$ (and therefore $`\mu ,f`$) to zero and therefore the vacuum energy vanishes at $`\stackrel{}{v}=0`$ as expected.

### 4.2 Unoriented and open strings

In this section we consider open descendants of type IIB superstrings on D1-waves. Open descendants of type IIB on D3-waves were first studied in . As in that case the open string descendant here will be constructed by adding Dp-Op worldsheet boundaries to the D1-wave type IIB vacuum. We follow standard open string descendant techniques (for a review and a complete list of references see .) Quantization of open strings moving on RR-plane waves have been studied in various contexts . The selection rules for the allowed Dp-Op systems in a D1-wave geometry follow from those been derived in . It is convenient to introduce the Dp-mass operator $`M\mathrm{\Pi }\mathrm{\Pi }_p`$ , where $`\mathrm{\Pi }=\gamma ^{12}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Pi }_p=\gamma ^{12..p1}`$ are the chirality operators along the D1-flux plane and Dp/Op plane respectively. A consistent Dp/Op system is defined roughly by requiring that $`\mathrm{Tr}M=0`$ and $`M^2=1`$ 666These two conditions ensure that the effective zero mode Hamiltonian $`HS_0^aM_{ab}S_0^b`$ reproduces the right fermionic contributions in the closed string channel . This implies that the difference between the number of NN and DD directions is $`2mod4`$. These conditions are clearly satisfied by Dp-Op systems with p=5,9 oriented along $`x^\pm `$ and parallel to the D1-plane flux. We will focus on these two cases, although our formulas are derived in a rather more general perspective. These systems are of particular interest since they should presumably provide S-dual string duals of heterotic string on F1-plane waves.

Open string amplitudes and tadpole conditions for self-dual pp-wave vacua have been worked out recently in . The extension of these results to our case is straightforward. Apart from the zero mode part the Klein and open string amplitudes are roughly the square root of (4.7):

$`𝒦`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{d^2\tau }{\tau _2^2}𝑑p^+𝑑p^{}e^{2\pi \alpha ^{}p^+p^{}\tau _2}\frac{Z^{\frac{1}{2}}(2i\tau _2)}{Z_0^{\frac{1}{2}}(2i\tau _2)}𝒦_0}`$
$`𝒜`$ $`=`$ $`N^2{\displaystyle \frac{d^2\tau }{\tau _2^2}𝑑p^+𝑑p^{}e^{2\pi \alpha ^{}p^+p^{}\tau _2}\frac{Z^{\frac{1}{2}}(\frac{i\tau _2}{2})}{Z_0^{\frac{1}{2}}(\frac{i\tau _2}{2})}𝒜_0}`$
$``$ $`=`$ $`\pm N{\displaystyle \frac{d^2\tau }{\tau _2^2}𝑑p^+𝑑p^{}e^{2\pi \alpha ^{}p^+p^{}\tau _2}\frac{Z^{\frac{1}{2}}(\frac{i\tau _2}{2}+\frac{1}{2})}{Z_0^{\frac{1}{2}}(\frac{i\tau _2}{2}+\frac{1}{2})}_0}`$ (4.12)
In (4.12) and throughout this section we have settled $`\stackrel{}{v}=0`$. By $`N`$ we denote the number of branes, while $`\pm `$ denote the possible orthogonal or symplectic choice of Moebius projections in the open string sector. Finally we have denoted by $`𝒵_0`$, $`𝒦_0`$, $`𝒜_0`$ $`_0`$ the zero mode contributions to the torus, Klein, Annulus and Moebius strip amplitudes respectively:

$`𝒵_0(i\tau _2)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{4}{}}}q^{(\mu _if)}{\displaystyle \frac{(1q^f)^2}{(1q^{\mu _i})^2}}`$
$`𝒦_0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{4}{}}}q^{(\mu _if)}{\displaystyle \frac{(1q^{2f})}{(1+ϵ_iq^{\mu _i})^2}}`$
$`𝒜_0=_0`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{4}{}}}q^{{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{4}}(ϵ_i+1)\mu _i{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{4}}f}{\displaystyle \frac{(1q^{\frac{f}{2}})}{(1q^{\frac{\mu _i}{2}})^{ϵ_i+1}}}`$ (4.13)
Here $`q=e^{2\pi \tau _2}`$ and $`ϵ_i=+,`$ for NN and DD directions respectively, i.e.

$`\mathrm{D9}/\mathrm{O9}`$ $`ϵ_1=ϵ_2=ϵ_3=ϵ_4=+1`$
$`\mathrm{D5}/\mathrm{O5}`$ $`ϵ_1=ϵ_2=+1ϵ_3=ϵ_4=1`$ (4.14)
The $`ϵ_i`$ in the Klein bottle amplitude reflects the minus eigenvalue of the $`\mathrm{\Omega }Z_2`$-projection acting on DD-bosons. The action on fermions can instead be read off from the eigenvalues under $`\mathrm{\Pi }_p=\gamma ^1\mathrm{}.\gamma ^{p1}`$, i.e. half plus and half minus. Open string zero mode contributions come on the other hand from bosonic zero modes $`a_0^{I_N}`$ along NN directions and fermions with a definite $`\mathrm{\Pi }_p`$-chirality.

The amplitudes (4.12) define (by construction) a projection of the closed and open string spectrum defined by the oriented torus and annulus amplitudes. However in order to state the consistency of the string vacuum one should ensure that worldsheet boundaries couple consistently to the bulk modes, i.e. that the sum of the three amplitudes (4.12) in the closed string channel reconstruct a complete square $`(|B+|C)^2`$. Using the modular invariance of $`Z(\tau )`$ the amplitudes (4.12) can be rewritten in the closed string channel as

$`𝒦`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑\mathrm{}𝑑\stackrel{~}{p}^+𝑑\stackrel{~}{p}^{}e^{\pi \alpha ^{}\stackrel{~}{p}^+\stackrel{~}{p}^{}}Z^{\frac{1}{2}}(i\mathrm{})\stackrel{~}{𝒦}_0}`$
$`𝒜`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{8}}{\displaystyle 𝑑\mathrm{}𝑑\stackrel{~}{p}^+𝑑\stackrel{~}{p}^{}e^{\pi \alpha ^{}\stackrel{~}{p}^+\stackrel{~}{p}^{}}Z^{\frac{1}{2}}(i\mathrm{})\stackrel{~}{𝒜}_0}`$
$``$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle 𝑑\mathrm{}𝑑\stackrel{~}{p}^+𝑑\stackrel{~}{p}^{}e^{\pi \alpha ^{}\stackrel{~}{p}^+\stackrel{~}{p}^{}}Z^{\frac{1}{2}}(i\mathrm{}+\frac{1}{2})\stackrel{~}{}_0}`$ (4.15)
By $`\mathrm{}`$ we have denoted the uniforming length, given in terms of the original variables in (4.12) via $`\mathrm{}_K=\frac{1}{2\tau _2}`$, $`\mathrm{}_A=\frac{2}{\tau _2}`$, $`\mathrm{}_M=\frac{1}{2\tau _2}`$. Although it is not explicitly indicated, amplitudes in the transverse channel are evaluated on masses $`\stackrel{~}{\mu },\stackrel{~}{f}`$ related to those in the direct channel by $`S`$ or $`ST^2ST`$ modular transformations. More precisely $`\stackrel{~}{\mu },\stackrel{~}{f}=\frac{\mu }{\mathrm{}},\frac{f}{\mathrm{}}`$ for the Klein and Annulus amplitude and $`\stackrel{~}{\mu },\stackrel{~}{f}=\frac{\mu }{2\mathrm{}},\frac{f}{2\mathrm{}}`$ for the Moebius. Finally $`\stackrel{~}{p}^+\stackrel{~}{p}^{}=\frac{p^+p^{}}{\mathrm{}}`$ for the Klein and Moebius amplitude while $`\stackrel{~}{p}^+\stackrel{~}{p}^{}=\frac{4p^+p^{}}{\mathrm{}}`$ for the annulus. Rewriting (4.15) in terms of the transverse variables we find:

$`\stackrel{~}{𝒦}_0`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{𝒦_0}{Z_0^{\frac{1}{2}}(2i\tau _2)}}={\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{4}{}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1+e^{\pi \stackrel{~}{\mu }_i}}{1e^{\pi \stackrel{~}{\mu }_i}}}\right)^{ϵ_i}`$
$`\stackrel{~}{𝒜}_0`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{𝒜_0}{Z_0^{\frac{1}{2}}(\frac{i\tau _2}{2})}}={\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{4}{}}}e^{\pi \stackrel{~}{\mu }_i}\left(1e^{2\pi \stackrel{~}{\mu }_i}\right)^{ϵ_i}`$
$`\stackrel{~}{}_0`$ $``$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{_0}{Z_0^{\frac{1}{2}}(\frac{i\tau _2}{2}+\frac{1}{2})}}={\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{4}{}}}e^{{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}\pi \stackrel{~}{\mu }_i}\left(1e^{\pi \stackrel{~}{\mu }_i}\right)^{ϵ_i}`$ (4.16)
Remarkably after summing up $`\frac{1}{2}𝒦_0+\frac{N^2}{8}𝒜_0\pm \frac{N}{2}_0`$ a complete square $`(|B+|C)^2`$ is reconstructed

$`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}\left[1\pm {\displaystyle \frac{N}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{4}{}}}e^{{\scriptscriptstyle \frac{1}{2}}\pi \stackrel{~}{\mu }_i}(1+e^{\pi \stackrel{~}{\mu }_i})^{ϵ_i}\right]^2{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{4}{}}}\left({\displaystyle \frac{1+e^{\pi \stackrel{~}{\mu }_i}}{1e^{\pi \stackrel{~}{\mu }_i}}}\right)^{ϵ_i}`$ (4.17)
For the D7-O7 system in the D3-wave $`\mu _i=f=\mu `$ one recovers the results of . It would be nice to give an interpretation of the two terms in (4.17) in terms of reflection coefficients of closed string states in front of the boundaries/crosscaps. Finally following , we can derive tadpole conditions777Notice that amplitudes (4.12) are in the odd-spin structure are therefore the tadpole (4.17) can be related to anomalies according to . by requiring that the combination inside the square in (4.17) cancels in the $`\mu 0`$ limit. This boils down to choose the orthogonal projection for the Moebius and

$$N=2^{p4}$$
(4.18)
which matches the familiar result in flat space.

In particular specifying to $`p=9`$ we conclude that 32 D9-branes are need to cancel the O9 tadpole in the D1-wave. Similarly the charge of a O5-plane is canceled by 2 D5-branes sited at the $`R^4/Z_2`$ singularity.

## 5 Summary and open questions

In this paper we applied exact CFT techniques to solvable string models on RR/NSNS plane wave geometries. Dp-waves descend from Penrose limits of non-conformal Dp-brane geometries along critical null geodesics. The solutions preserve sixteen supercharges and provide the simplest examples of string vacua in the presence of non-self dual RR fluxes. We have focused on D1-plane waves of typeIIB/type I theory. These systems are natural candidates to describe large $``$-charge sectors of the type IIA/heterotic matrix string theories . Before the Penrose limit is taken they are described by warped $`AdS_3\times S^7`$ geometries and have been recently studied in . Here we derive the bosonic KK spectrum of $`𝒩=1,2`$ supergravity on D1/F1 plane waves. KK particles organize nicely in groups of 256 (or 128 in type I case) states at each floor of the KK tower. An important difference with the case of self-dual plane waves is that excitations along or perpendicular to the RR-flux carry different energies. This is due to the fact that the radii of the $`AdS_{p+2}`$ and $`S^{8p}`$ spaces in the parent warped geometry are different.

In section 4, we computed helicity traces counting multiplicities and charges of string states in the pp-wave background. It would be nice to apply these helicity formulas to the study of correlation functions in pp-wave backgrounds. As discussed earlier in that section, the helicity trace provides an efficient description of the coupling of RR-plane waves to the NSNS B-field. By expanding the resulting modular functions one can derive one-loop correlation functions involving an arbitrary number of $`H=dB`$ insertions. This can be used to test the gauge/pp-wave correspondence beyond the planar level.

Finally in subsection 4.2 we considered open descendants built from D1-wave type IIB vacuum by adding Dp-Op branes with $`p=5,9`$. Klein, Annulus and Moebius amplitudes are computed. We test the consistency of the open string descendant by showing that after modular transformations to the closed string channel the three amplitudes combine themselves into a complete square. Op-tadpoles are shown to be canceled by the introduction $`2^{p4}`$ Dp-planes much in the same way as in flat space time.

Our results show that Dp-waves (2.7) share most of the nice integrability properties of the more familiar pp-waves supported by self-dual fluxes. Besides the applications to holography the study of these string vacua is interesting by itself since they provide the simplest string solution with non-self-dual RR fluxes and constant dilaton. D1-waves of type IIB/I are related via S-duality to pure NSNS F1-plane waves in type IIB/heterotic ten dimensional string theories. Although RR-fluxes are present, the two sides of the duality is described by a solvable string theory. String dualities in the presence of RR-fluxes are fully unexplored. The D1/F1-wave string dual pairs under consideration here can provide a handle for this physics.

Finally according to , self-dual D1-waves are related to blowing up deformations of the dual $`M^N/S_N`$ SCFT’s describing the infrared regime of D1D5 systems on $`M=T^4,K3`$. It would be nice to understand whether these results extend to the 10D D1-waves studied here. The candidate SCFT’s are in this case given in terms of second quantized type IIB/heterotic strings on $`(R^8)^N/S_N`$ .

### Acknowledgements

We wish to thank A.B. Hammou, R. Russo, H. Samtleben, M. Taylor, M. Trigiante and S. Vandoren for useful discussions. This work is partly supported by EU contract HPRN-CT-2000-00122.

## Appendix: Partition functions and generalized modular forms

In this appendix we compute, using the Lagrangian formalism, the one-loop partition function of two dimensional massive fields coupled to a $`𝑼\mathbf{(}\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{)}`$ current. We adopt the $`𝝃`$-regularization formalism .

Let us start by considering a single complex boson with two-dimensional action

$$𝓛\mathbf{=}\mathbf{}𝒁\overline{\mathbf{}}\overline{𝒁}\mathbf{}\frac{𝝅\overline{𝒗}}{𝝉_\mathrm{𝟐}}\overline{𝒁}\mathbf{}𝒁\mathbf{}\frac{𝝅𝒗}{𝝉_\mathrm{𝟐}}\overline{𝒁}\overline{\mathbf{}}𝒁\mathbf{+}𝝅^\mathrm{𝟐}\mathbf{\left(}𝝁^\mathrm{𝟐}\mathbf{+}\frac{𝒗\overline{𝒗}}{𝝉_\mathrm{𝟐}^\mathrm{𝟐}}\mathbf{\right)}\overline{𝒁}𝒁\mathbf{+}𝐡\mathbf{.}𝐜\mathbf{.}$$
(5.1)
The coupling of the boson to the $`𝑼\mathbf{(}\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{)}`$ current is described by the complex number $`𝒗`$, that will be written as $`𝒗\mathbf{=}𝒂𝝉\mathbf{+}𝒃`$. After expanding in Fourier modes

$$𝒁\mathbf{=}\underset{𝒏_\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{,}𝒏_\mathrm{𝟐}}{\mathbf{}}𝒄_{𝒏_\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{,}𝒏_\mathrm{𝟐}}𝒆^{\frac{𝝅}{𝝉_\mathrm{𝟐}}\mathbf{\left[}𝒏_\mathrm{𝟐}\mathbf{(}𝒛\mathbf{}\overline{𝒛}\mathbf{)}\mathbf{+}𝒏_\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{(}𝝉\overline{𝒛}\mathbf{}\overline{𝝉}𝒛\mathbf{)}\mathbf{\right]}}$$
(5.2)
and performing the Gaussian integrals, it results in the inverse of the determinant:

$`\mathrm{𝐝𝐞𝐭}\mathbf{}_𝒗`$ $`\mathbf{=}`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\mathbf{(}𝒏_\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{,}𝒏_\mathrm{𝟐}\mathbf{)}}{\mathbf{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{𝝅^\mathrm{𝟐}}{𝝉_\mathrm{𝟐}^\mathrm{𝟐}}}\mathbf{\left(}\mathbf{|}𝒏_\mathrm{𝟐}\mathbf{}𝒏_\mathrm{𝟏}𝝉\mathbf{}𝒗\mathbf{|}^\mathrm{𝟐}\mathbf{+}𝝁^\mathrm{𝟐}𝝉_\mathrm{𝟐}^\mathrm{𝟐}\mathbf{\right)}`$ (5.3)
$`\mathbf{=}`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\mathbf{(}𝒏_\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{,}𝒏_\mathrm{𝟐}\mathbf{)}}{\mathbf{}}}{\displaystyle \frac{𝝅^\mathrm{𝟐}}{𝝉_\mathrm{𝟐}^\mathrm{𝟐}}}\mathbf{|}𝒏_\mathrm{𝟐}\mathbf{}\mathbf{(}𝒏_\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{+}𝒂\mathbf{)}𝝉_\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{}𝒃\mathbf{+}𝒊𝝉_\mathrm{𝟐}\sqrt{\mathbf{(}𝒏_\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{+}𝒂\mathbf{)}^\mathrm{𝟐}\mathbf{+}𝝁^\mathrm{𝟐}}\mathbf{|}^\mathrm{𝟐}`$
Performing the $`𝒏_\mathrm{𝟐}`$ infinite product by means of the $`𝝃`$-regularization formulas

$$\underset{𝒏\mathbf{=}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}}{\overset{\mathbf{}}{\mathbf{}}}\mathbf{(}𝒏\mathbf{}𝒂\mathbf{)}\mathbf{=}\mathrm{𝟐}𝒊\mathrm{𝐬𝐢𝐧}𝝅𝒂\underset{𝒏\mathbf{=}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}}{\overset{\mathbf{}}{\mathbf{}}}𝒂\mathbf{=}\mathrm{𝟏}$$
(5.4)
we are finally left with

$`\mathrm{𝐝𝐞𝐭}\mathbf{}_𝒗`$ $`\mathbf{=}`$ $`𝚯_{𝒂\mathbf{,}𝒃}\mathbf{(}𝝁\mathbf{|}𝝉\mathbf{,}\overline{𝝉}\mathbf{)}\mathbf{}𝒆^{\mathrm{𝟒}𝝅𝝉_\mathrm{𝟐}𝚫_𝝁}{\displaystyle \underset{\mathbf{(}𝒏_\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{}\mathbf{+}𝒂\mathbf{)}}{\mathbf{}}}\mathbf{\left|}\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{}𝒆^{\mathbf{}\mathrm{𝟐}𝝅𝝉_\mathrm{𝟐}\sqrt{𝝁^\mathrm{𝟐}\mathbf{+}𝒏_\mathrm{𝟏}^\mathrm{𝟐}}\mathbf{+}\mathrm{𝟐}𝝅𝒊𝒏_\mathrm{𝟏}𝝉_\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{+}\mathrm{𝟐}𝝅𝒊𝒃}\mathbf{\right|}^\mathrm{𝟐}`$ (5.5)
where $`𝚫_𝝁\mathbf{}\frac{\mathrm{𝟏}}{\mathrm{𝟐}}\mathbf{}_{𝒏\mathbf{=}\mathbf{}\mathbf{}}^{\mathbf{}}\sqrt{𝝁^\mathrm{𝟐}\mathbf{+}𝒏^\mathrm{𝟐}}`$. In the massless limit $`𝝁\mathbf{}\mathrm{𝟎}`$ the generalized function (5.5) reduce to the familiar theta function:

$$\underset{𝝁\mathbf{}\mathrm{𝟎}}{𝐥𝐢𝐦}𝚯_{𝒂\mathbf{,}𝒃}\mathbf{(}𝝁\mathbf{|}𝝉\mathbf{,}\overline{𝝉}\mathbf{)}\mathbf{=}𝒆^{\mathbf{}\mathrm{𝟐}𝝅𝝉_\mathrm{𝟐}𝒂^\mathrm{𝟐}}\mathbf{\left|}\frac{\mathit{\vartheta }_\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{(}𝒂𝝉\mathbf{+}𝒃\mathbf{|}𝝉\mathbf{)}}{𝜼}\mathbf{\right|}^\mathrm{𝟐}$$
(5.6)
The modular invariance of this form can be read from (5.3), which is clearly invariant under888In proving this one uses $`_{n=\mathrm{}}^{\mathrm{}}\tau _2=1`$.:

$$𝝉\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\frac{\mathrm{𝟏}}{𝝉}𝝁\mathbf{}𝝁\mathbf{|}𝝉\mathbf{|}𝒗\mathbf{}\mathbf{}\frac{𝒗}{𝝉}𝒏_\mathrm{𝟏}\mathbf{}𝒏_\mathrm{𝟐}\mathbf{.}$$
(5.7)
According to $`𝒗^{\mathbf{}}\mathbf{=}𝒂^{\mathbf{}}𝝉^{\mathbf{}}\mathbf{+}𝒃^{\mathbf{}}\mathbf{=}\mathbf{}\frac{𝒗}{𝝉}`$, we see that spin structures transform under the modular group as $`𝒂^{\mathbf{}}\mathbf{=}𝒃\mathbf{,}𝒃^{\mathbf{}}\mathbf{=}\mathbf{}𝒂`$.

Similar manipulations hold for the fermionic determinants with the result (5.5) now coming in the numerator.


format: text

text:
# Recursion operator for stationary Nizhnik–Veselov–Novikov equation

## Acknowledgements

We are sincerely grateful to Dr E V Ferapontov and Dr M V Pavlov for stimulating discussions. This research was supported in part by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of Czech Republic under grant MSM:J10/98:192400002 (MM & AS), and by the Czech Grant Agency under grant no 201/00/0724 (AS).


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# An estimate of the time variation of the O/H radial gradient from planetary nebulae

## 1 Introduction

Radial abundance gradients in the Galaxy have been determined by a variety of objects, including HII regions, planetary nebulae (PN), B stars, open clusters and cepheids (Henry & Worthey henry (1999), Maciel maciel00 (2000), Rolleston et al. rolleston (2000)). Several elements have been investigated, especially oxygen, sulphur, neon and argon in photoionized nebulae (Maciel & Quireza mq (1999), Deharveng et al. deharveng (2000)) and iron in open cluster stars and cepheids (Friel friel (1999), Andrievsky et al. 2002a , 2002b ). In the case of the O/H ratio, recent determinations from HII regions, PN and B stars point to an average gradient in the range $`0.04`$ to $`0.07`$ dex/kpc, taking into account an average uncertainty of $`0.02`$ dex/kpc for most determinations.

Abundance gradients play a distinctive role as a constraint to chemical evolution models. In fact, several recently computed models, based on widely differing assumptions, point to the radial gradients as one of the most important constraints, especially when one takes into account not only their magnitudes, but also their space and time variations (see for example Hou et al. hou (2000), Chiappini et al. cris (2001), and Alibés et al. alibes (2001)).

Planetary nebulae are particularly useful in the study of the gradients and their variations (Peimbert mp90 (1990), Maciel & Köppen mk (1994), Maciel maciel97 (1997), maciel00 (2000), Peimbert & Carigi pc98 (1998), Maciel & Quireza mq (1999), Maciel & Costa mcosta (2002)). They usually have bright emission spectra, so that they can be observed even at large heliocentric distances. Their derived abundances are relatively accurate, with uncertainties of about 0.1 to 0.2 dex, especially regarding the elements that are not synthesized by their progenitor stars, such as neon, argon and to some extent oxygen. On the other hand, as the offspring of intermediate mass stars, with main sequence masses roughly in the interval $`1<M/M_{}<8`$, they are representative of objects spanning a relatively large age interval, so that it is expected that groups of PN of different ages may display different abundance variations, thus reflecting the time evolution of the gradients. The PN distances are a possible source of error, as they are not as well determined as in the case of B stars or HII regions, for example. However, it has been shown that the use of different distance scales, both individual and statistical, apparently compensates for this uncertainty (see for example Maciel & Köppen mk (1994)). Moreover, it should be recalled that in order to determine the PN gradients larger samples are generally used as compared with HII regions.

In this paper, we present an estimate of the time variation of the O/H radial abundance gradient based on a large sample of galactic PN with relatively accurate abundances and distances. From the observed oxygen abundances, we determine the \[Fe/H\] metallicity using a correlation based on disk stars, and the progenitor ages are obtained through an age-metallicity relation. In section 2 we describe our sample, in section 3 we discuss the \[O/H\] $`\times `$ \[Fe/H\] relation for disk stars. The ages of the objects are estimated in section 4, and we present our method to determine the abundance gradients as a function of age. Finally, Section 5 presents our results and discussion.

## 2 The data

The sample includes about 240 nebulae, most of which have oxygen abundances by number $`\mathrm{log}(\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{H})`$ and distances from the samples of Maciel & Quireza (mq (1999)) and Maciel & Köppen (mk (1994)), to which the reader is referred for details on the abundances and references. About 40 new nebulae have been included, basically from recent observations from our own group, secured at the 1.52m ESO telescope at La Silla and the 1.60m LNA telescope in Brazil (Costa et al. ccmf96 (1996), ccmf97 (1997), cmu02 (2002)). Most of the new objects belong to a project to derive accurate and homogeneous abundances of PN located near the anticentre direction. A detailed analysis of the new observational data, plasma diagnostics and abundances, as well as a study of the space variations of the abundance gradients along the galactic disk is given elsewhere (Costa et al. cmu02 (2002)). It should be mentioned that most O/H abundance determinations are based on the so-called “empirical” method, according to which the total abundances are obtained from ionic abundances with the use of ionization correction factors for the unseen species. The ionic abundances depend on the plasma diagnostic parameters, namely the electron temperature and density, which are derived from selected line ratios (see for example Peimbert mp90 (1990) and references therein). This procedure implies average uncertainties of about 0.1 to 0.2 dex for the abundances of most elements and up to 0.02 dex/kpc for the derived gradients. These uncertainties are able to accomodate any systematic variations with the galactocentric distance (see for example Martins & Viegas lucimara (2000)). In fact, the presence of abundance gradients can also be detected by considering abundances derived by other methods, such as photoionization models or detailed individual analysis, and the main discussions refer to the magnitude of the gradients.

Our sample consists only of disk nebulae, so that PN of Types IV (halo objects) according to the Peimbert (p78 (1978)) classification system, or of Type V (bulge objects, see Maciel maciel89 (1989)) are not included. Most of the objects are classified as Type II (disk objects, intermediate mass progenitors), but PN of Type I (disk objects, large mass progenitors) and III (thick disk objects, showing large deviations from the galactic rotation curve) are also included, so that the average dispersion of the oxygen abundances of the whole sample is expected to be larger than in Maciel & Quireza (mq (1999)).

There are some suggestions that Type I PN may show some effects of ON cycling in their oxygen abundances, but current evidences are not conclusive (Peimbert & Carigi pc98 (1998), Torres-Peimbert & Peimbert silvia (1997)). Furthermore, the amount of oxygen depletion from this process is expected to be much lower than the average abundance dispersion and restricted to the objects of larger masses, which make up a small fraction of the sample.

## 3 The \[O/H\] $`\times `$ \[Fe/H\] relation

The determination of the radial O/H abundance gradient was performed in a similar way as in Maciel & Köppen (mk (1994)), and simple linear fits have been obtained. The O/H abundances by number of atoms have been converted into the usual \[O/H\] abundances relative to the Sun using the solar oxygen abundance $`\mathrm{log}(\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{H})_{}+12=8.83`$ (Grevesse & Sauval grevesse (1998)), so that we have the relation

$$[\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{H}]=\mathrm{log}(\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{H})\mathrm{log}(\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{H})_{}.$$
(1)
Iron abundances are very difficult to determine from PN and their central stars, basically because the iron lines are very weak in PN spectra, and a presumably large fraction of iron is condensed in grains (see for example Perinotto et al. perinotto (1999) and Deetjen et al. deetjen (1999)). In order to convert from \[O/H\] to the iron metallicities \[Fe/H\], we have used the extensive sample of disk stars by Edvardsson et al. (edvardsson (1993)), from which we derive the relationship

$$[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]=0.0317+1.4168[\mathrm{O}/\mathrm{H}],$$
(2)
valid approximately in the range $`1.0<`$ \[Fe/H\] $`<0.5`$. The average uncertainty of the \[Fe/H\] metallicity is roughly 0.1 dex. For this relation we have determined an average uncertainty for the slope of 0.0488, and for the intercept the uncertainty is 0.0158. The correlation coefficient is $`r=0.9536`$, which reflects the good fit of Eq. 2, as can be seen in Fig. 1.

In order to test the applicability of Eq. 2 to the galactic disk as well as to the solar neighbourhood, we have made some comparison with the \[Fe/H\] $`\times `$ \[O/H\] relation as obtained for different sets of galactic objects by different authors. A convenient set has been recently analysed by Maciel (maciel02 (2002)), in a study of the use of radial abundance gradients mainly derived from young objects in the determination of the \[O/Fe\] $`\times `$ \[Fe/H\] relation in the galactic disk. The main results are shown in Fig. 2. In this figure, the solid line shows the relation given by Eq. 2. The dotted curve shows results of theoretical models by Matteucci et al. (matteucci99 (1999)), which follow models by Chiappini et al. (cris97 (1997)), and are representative of models predicting a \[O/Fe\] plateau for metallicities under solar, without a significant increase in the \[O/Fe\] ratio above 0.5 dex for \[Fe/H\] $`2`$. The dashed line is the predicted relationship on the basis of the radial gradients of young objects in the galactic disk, at galactocentric distances $`4R(\mathrm{kpc})12`$, as discussed by Maciel (maciel02 (2002)). The figure also includes some representative observational data by Barbuy & Erdelyi-Mendes (barbuy (1989)), asterisks; Boesgaard et al. (boesgaard (1999)), filled squares; Edvardsson et al. (edvardsson (1993)), crosses; Israelian et al. (israelian (1998)), solid dots; Spiesman & Wallerstein (spiesman (1991)), open circles; Spite & Spite (spite (1991)), plus signs; Takeda et al. (takeda (2002)), empty squares; Mishenina et al. (mishenina (2000)), open stars, and Cavallo et al. (cavallo (1997)), filled stars, as recomputed by Mishenina et al. (mishenina (2000)).

It can be seen from Fig. 2 that the observational data and models show a reasonable agreement, especially for metallicities close to and slightly lower than the solar value. For the lowest metallicities the spread is somewhat larger and the points lie, on the average, under the line corresponding to Eq. 2, but the relatively sparse data are still reasonably well represented by the solid line. Part of the scatter in Fig. 2 may be due to the use of different scales of stellar parameters such as effective temperatures, gravities and metallicities, to the adoption of different atomic parameters or the neglecting of NLTE effects. The relation given by the theoretical models (dotted line) is representative of the galactic disk, since the calculated variations of the \[O/Fe\] $`\times `$ \[Fe/H\] relation from galactocentric distances $`R=4`$kpc to $`R=14`$kpc are expected to be small (Matteucci matteucci96 (1996)). The gradient derived line (dashed line) was based on O/H and \[Fe/H\] gradients for young objects (HII regions, hot stars and open clusters) located at galactocentric radii roughly in the range $`R=4`$kpc to $`R=16`$kpc. On the other hand, the stellar data include objects in the thin disk, thick disk and even some metal-poor halo stars. Therefore, it can be concluded that Eq. 2 represents fairly well the average \[Fe/H\] $`\times `$ \[O/H\] relation in the disk, so that any galactocentric variation of this relation is absorbed by the expected scatter, as shown in Fig. 2.

## 4 The \[Fe/H\] $`\times `$ $`\tau `$ relation

The main difficulty in the estimate of the time variation of the abundance gradients from planetary nebulae lies in the determination of reliable ages for the central stars. One possibility is to use an average age-metallicity relation, since chemical abundances from PN are relatively well determined, and several age-metallicity relations derived recently are similar, albeit with a considerable scatter (see Rocha-Pinto et al. rp2000 (2000) for a recent discussion). In fact, there has been some discussion on the existence of such a relationship (Feltzing et al. feltzing (2001)), but a critical analysis of the available data suggests some increase in the average metallicities with time, which is expected on the basis of the current ideas on the chemical evolution of the Galaxy.

Age-metallicity relationships have been determined by a number of people (Twarog twarog (1980), Carlberg et al. carlberg (1985), Meusinger et al. meusinger (1991), Edvardsson et al. edvardsson (1993), Rocha-Pinto & Maciel rpm98 (1998), Rocha-Pinto et al. rp2000 (2000)), based on a variety of samples and techniques. In general, these relationships are similar, which is particularly true for the relations derived by Edvardsson et al. (edvardsson (1993)) and the recent results based on chromospheric ages by Rocha-Pinto et al. (rp2000 (2000)). This can be seen from Fig. 14 of Rocha-Pinto et al. (rp2000 (2000)), where the new relation is compared with the relation by Edvardsson et al. (edvardsson (1993)) adopting 1 Gyr average bins, as well as with the results by Twarog (twarog (1980)), Carlberg et al. (carlberg (1985)) and Meusinger et al. (meusinger (1991)). These results apply strictly to the solar neighbourhood, since most of the stars included in the samples are nearby objects with HIPPARCOS parallaxes. However, the observed scatter in these relationships is considerably large, amounting up to 0.26 dex for the results of Edvardsson et al. (edvardsson (1993)) and about 0.13 dex for the relation obtained by Rocha-Pinto et al. (rp2000 (2000)), so that it probably includes any differences in the corresponding relationships at different galactocentric distances. This can be seen, for example, in Fig. 14a of Edvardsson et al. (edvardsson (1993)), where the metallicity \[Fe/H\] is plotted against age using different symbols for stars at galactocentric distances $`R<7`$kpc, $`7<R(\mathrm{kpc})<9`$ and $`R>9`$kpc, spanning radii from 4 kpc to 11 kpc (see also Table 14 of Edvardsson et al. edvardsson (1993)). Even though the sample at $`7<R(\mathrm{kpc})<9`$ is the most complete statistically, it can be seen that all objects can be reasonably fit in the average age-metallicity relation, in view of the large scatter.

In order to take into account any difference in the age-metallicity relationship introduced by differente galactocentric distances, Edvardsson et al. (edvardsson (1993)) went a step further and derived an average age-metallicity-radius relation given by

$$\mathrm{log}\tau =0.8720.303[\mathrm{Fe}/\mathrm{H}]0.038R,$$
(3)
where $`\tau `$ is the stellar age in Gyr and $`R`$ is the galactocentric distance in kpc (see eq. 19 of Edvardsson et al. edvardsson (1993)), with a typical uncertainty of $`\sigma (\mathrm{log}\tau )0.10`$. This equation was based on stars with $`\mathrm{log}\tau <1.0`$, a condition fulfilled by all objects in our sample, the majority of which have $`\tau 5`$Gyr, or $`\mathrm{log}\tau 0.70.`$

We can compare the ages derived by Eq. 3 with the actual average age-metallicity relation by Edvardsson et al. (edvardsson (1993)) for different galactocentric distances as given in Table 14 of that paper. We performed this calculation for the galactocentric radii $`4<R(\mathrm{kpc})<11`$, and Fig. 3 shows representative examples for $`6<R(\mathrm{kpc})<7`$ and $`10<R(\mathrm{kpc})<11`$. The histogram data are from Table 14 of Edvardsson et al. (edvardsson (1993)) while the dashed lines are results from the application of Eq. 3, adopting $`R=6.5`$kpc and $`R=10.5`$kpc, respectively. It can be seen that the dashed lines produce similar results as the age-metallicity relation, considering that our objects have ages $`\mathrm{log}\tau <1`$Gyr, peaking at $`\tau 0.7`$Gyr, as already mentioned. Therefore, the use of Eq. 3 introduces a correction to the age-metallicity relation for the solar neighbourhood adjusting it to other galactocentric distances in the range of 4 to 11 kpc approximately. Of course, the uncertainties in the derived ages are still considerably large, irrespective of the galactocentric radius, as can be seen by the scatter in the age-metallicity relations quoted here. However, in this study we are mainly interested in the time variation of the gradients, so that, in fact, only relative ages will be important in our analysis. Finally, as a further check of our results, in section 5.2. we will discuss a totally independent way of estimating the ages of the PN central stars and its effect on the time variation of the O/H abundance gradient.

## 5 Results and discussion

### 5.1 Time variation of the O/H gradient

The PN sample has been divided into three groups of increasing ages, namely Groups I, II, and III. Since all objects have ages under 10 Gyr, we have considered initially the following groups, which we will call Case A: Group I: $`0<\tau (\mathrm{Gyr})<3`$, Group II: $`3<\tau (\mathrm{Gyr})<6`$, and Group III: $`\tau >6\mathrm{Gyr}`$.

The derived gradients are shown in Fig. 4, where we have taken $`R_0=8`$kpc for the galactocentric distance of the LSR, in agreement with the value adopted by Edvardsson et al. (edvardsson (1993)). In fact, the main results of this paper are unchanged if we adopt different values such as the IAU recommended value $`R_0=8.5`$kpc, or some recently determined result such as $`R_0=7.6`$kpc (see for example Maciel & Quireza mq (1999)). The figure shows the separation of Group I (squares), II (dots) and III (crosses), and the linear gradients of each group (dex/kpc). The values of the gradients (dex/kpc), the associated uncertainties $`\sigma _g`$, the correlation coefficients $`r`$ and the number of objects in each class are given in Table 1. We can see that Group I is underpopulated compared to the remaining groups, reflecting the lack of the most massive and presumably younger objects, which affects the derived slope. Therefore, we have alternatively defined Case B as follows: Group I: $`0<\tau (\mathrm{Gyr})<4`$; Group II: $`4<\tau (\mathrm{Gyr})<5`$, and Group III: $`\tau >5\mathrm{Gyr}`$, so that we have approximately the same number of nebulae in each age group. The corresponding results are shown in Fig. 5 and also in Table 1.

From the figures and the uncertainties in the slopes given in Table 1, it can be seen that there is a clear tendency for the O/H gradient to flatten out with time. This tendency is clear in both Cases A and B, and is particularly strong between Groups III and II (Case A) and Groups II and I (Case B). This is confirmed by the inspection of the uncertainties in the slopes as given in Table 1. For Case A, the gradients have flattened from $`0.11`$dex/kpc to $`0.06`$dex/kpc, while for Case B, we have $`0.09`$dex/kpc for the oldest group and $`0.05`$dex/kpc for the youngest one. Overall, one could conclude that the gradients flattened out from $`0.11`$dex/kpc to $`0.06`$dex/kpc in about 9 Gyr, or from $`0.08`$dex/kpc to $`0.06`$dex/kpc in the last 5 Gyr only.

### 5.2 Ages of the central stars from their main sequence masses

In view of the uncertainties involved in the estimate of the ages of the stars in our sample, which are basically due to the the adopted age-metallicity relationship, it is interesting to evaluate the time variation of the abundance gradients based on independent age estimates. This can be achieved on the basis of a correlation between the N/O abundances and the central star masses recently discussed by Cazetta & Maciel (cazetta (2000)), which is supported by recent theoretical calculations (see for example Marigo marigo (2000)). According to this relation, if N/O is the nitrogen abundance relative to oxygen by number of atoms, the core mass $`M_c`$ in solar masses is given by the relations

$$M_c0.7242+0.1742\mathrm{log}(\mathrm{N}/\mathrm{O})$$
(4)
for $`\mathrm{log}(\mathrm{N}/\mathrm{O})0.26`$ and

$$M_c0.825+0.936\mathrm{log}(\mathrm{N}/\mathrm{O})+1.439[\mathrm{log}(\mathrm{N}/\mathrm{O})]^2$$
(5)
for $`\mathrm{log}(\mathrm{N}/\mathrm{O})>0.26`$. These relationships are valid in the approximate range $`1<\mathrm{log}(\mathrm{N}/\mathrm{O})<0.2`$. The main sequence mass $`M_{ms}`$ can be obtained through a initial mass-final mass relation given by

$$M_c0.5+0.1M_{ms}.$$
(6)
This set of equations characterizes the so-called low-mass calibration (see a detailed discussion in Cazetta & Maciel cazetta (2000) and Maciel maciel01 (2001)), and shows a better agreement with the recent discussions on the PN central star masses by Stasińska et al. (stasinska (1997)), Zhang (zhang (1993)), with the mass-N/O abundance relation by Marigo et al. (marigo96 (1996)) and the initial mass-final mass relations by Groenewegen & de Jong (groenewegen (1993)) and Blöcker & Schönberner (blocker (1990)).

From Eqs. 4-6 above the main sequence mass can be estimated from the N/O abundances. The stellar age can then be derived using the average lifetimes based on stellar evolutionary models for Population I stars given by Bahcall & Piran (bahcall (1983)), that is

$$\mathrm{log}t(M_{ms})=10.03.6\mathrm{log}M_{ms}+(\mathrm{log}M_{ms})^2$$
(7)
where $`t(M_{ms})`$ is given in years and $`M_{ms}`$ again in solar masses. This relation has an estimated uncertainty of about 10% according to Bahcall & Piran (bahcall (1983)) or somewhat larger according to Scalo (scalo (1986)), but in any case it is expected to produce reliable relative ages.

We have applied the procedure described above to the PN central stars in our sample, using revised N/O abundances listed by Cazetta & Maciel (cazetta (2000)) and Maciel & Chiappini (maciel94 (1994)). Again dividing the objects into Groups I, II and III, we obtained the results shown in Fig. 6, where the symbols have the same meaning as in Fig. 4. The slopes are given in the figure, and the corresponding uncertainties and correlation coefficients are in the range $`\sigma _g0.013`$ to 0.021 and $`|r|0.67`$ to 0.88. Although the available sample is smaller than in the case of the previous figures, and some superposition can be observed in the different classes, it is clear that the same pattern is observed here, that is, the youngest objects display flatter gradients, as can be seen from the slopes given on the top of the figure. Since the adopted procedures to estimate the ages in the case of Fig. 4 and Fig. 6 are totally independent from each other, we have a further evidence that the relative behaviour of the gradients is indeed reflected by the results shown in Figs. 4 and 5.

### 5.3 Discussion

A schematic plot of the results of Section 5.1. is shown in Fig. 7, where the solid lines refer to Case A and B, and the dotted line is a reference line at $`0.07`$dex/kpc. This reference line is usually considered as an average value for the younger population, comprising HII regions and B stars, but this should be regarded with caution in view of the recent discussions on these objects as well as on open cluster stars and cepheids (see references in the Introduction). A realistic uncertainty for the slope of the young population can be roughly taken as 0.02 dex/kpc. For comparison purposes, we also include in the figure the results of the theoretical models by Hou et al. (hou (2000)) based on an inside-out scenario for the formation of the disk with metallicity dependent yields (dashed line). The agreement is remarkable, especially during the last 5 Gyr, which include most of our objects, and for which the derived ages are relatively more accurate. From these data, we can estimate an average flattening rate of $`0.002`$dex kpc<sup>-1</sup> Gyr<sup>-1</sup> (Case A) or a rate of about $`0.004`$dex kpc<sup>-1</sup> Gyr<sup>-1</sup>, considering both cases in the last 5 Gyr, suggesting that the O/H gradient has not changed more than 30% in average during the last few Gyr. At earlier times, however, our results are consistent with a steeper rate, although the corresponding uncertainties are larger.

It is interesting to compare these results with earlier estimates based on planetary nebulae. Maciel & Köppen (mk (1994)) found some evidences for a steepening of the gradients, especially those of Ne, Ar and S, while for the O/H ratio some steepening could be obtained for PN of Peimbert types II and III only. However, the average ages attributed to the different PN types were very approximate, and no effort was made to establish individual ages. These average values have also been used by Maciel & Quireza (mq (1999)), leading to the conclusion that the gradients steepen out in time at a ratio of about 0.004 dex kpc<sup>-1</sup> Gyr<sup>-1</sup> in the Galaxy, a result which is not confirmed by the present paper. The main difference between the present work and these early attempts, apart from our larger and more accurate sample, refers to the definition of the age groups. Maciel and Köppen (mk (1994)) adopted literally the Peimbert classification scheme, which, strictly speaking, attributes different and increasing ages for the progenitor stars of PN of types I, II and III, respectively. In this work, we have not assumed any correlation between the PN type and the progenitor age, and made an effort to derive individual ages, so that we expect the present results to be more reliable. We notice that most Type I PN in our sample belong to age Group II, most Type II PN are spread between Groups I and II, while PN of Type III belong either to Groups II or III. Finally, most of the objects in Group III are indeed Type III PN (Case A). We can then conclude that within the disk PN of a given type there are objects with a reasonable age span. In other words, there seems to be some overlapping in the progenitor masses – and ages – within the Peimbert types, which was not accounted for by the earlier attempts to estimate the time variation of the gradients, and probably explains the different results presented here as compared with the earlier work. In fact, as recently discussed by Peimbert & Carigi (pc98 (1998)), some overlapping occurs in the masses of the progenitors of PN of types II and III, which supports our present views.

###### Acknowledgements.

This work was partially supported by CNPq and FAPESP.


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# A quantum mechanical model of spherical supermembranes

## 1 Introduction

Spherical supermembranes are a topic which have received much attention lately. First quantized in light-front gauge by de Wit, Hoppe and Nicolai , they have become relevant in the study of holography on $`AdS_n\times S^m`$ spaces . Recent studies of Matrix theory on pp-wave backgrounds has also resulted in studying supermembranes , although the results are somewhat obfuscated by the large-component spinors arising from dimensional reduction. Thus a simple model, capturing the essentials of the supermembrane dynamics, would be useful.

In this paper we present a simplified model of spherical supermembranes, based on the quantum mechanics of 3 superfields and 2 or 4 supercharges. In the classical approximation, where quantum-mechanical instanton tunneling effects are negligible, there are 2 supersymmetric vacua present. In the $`𝒩=2`$ case, the vacua have opposite statistics, allowing instanton tunneling. We then identify the instanton responsible for lifting these vacua to massive states. Thus we are left with no supersymmetric vacua. In the $`𝒩=4`$ case, the vacua have similar statistics, preventing instanton tunneling.

We finally discuss the significance of these vacua, and their possible relation to Matrix theory compactification on pp-waves.

## 2 Matrix theory membranes

Our starting point is the result obtained by de Wit et al  and Kabat and Taylor  that a $`N\mathrm{}`$ matrix model could be used to study M2-branes of spherical topology, or “spherical supermembranes”. The membrane action is111The spacetime metric used initially is $`\eta _{\mu \nu }=(+\mathrm{}+)`$. Light-front coordinates are $`X^\pm \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(X^0\pm X^{10})`$. $`X^+`$ is light-front time; the conjugate energy is $`p^{}=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(Ep^{10})`$. The coordinate $`X^{}`$ is compactified, $`X^{}X^{}+2\pi R`$, and the conjugate momentum $`p^+=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}(E+p^{10})`$ is quantized, $`p^+=N/R`$. The tension of the membrane is $`T_2=1/(2\pi )^2l_P^3`$.

$$S=\frac{T_2}{2}d^3\zeta \sqrt{g}\left(g^{\alpha \beta }_\alpha X^\mu _\beta X^\nu \eta _{\mu \nu }1\right)$$

where the $`\zeta ^\alpha =(t,\sigma ^a)`$ are coordinates on the membrane worldvolume, $`g_{\alpha \beta }`$ is an auxiliary worldvolume metric, and $`X^\mu (\zeta )`$ are embedding coordinates. The light-front gauge-fixing of this action is performed in , making use of $`N\times N`$ hermitean matrices to approximate the Lie algebra of area-preserving diffeomorphisms on the sphere. Specifically, consider the three cartesian coordinate functions $`x_1,x_2,x_3`$ on the unit sphere. The Poisson brackets of these functions are given by

$$\{x_A,x_B\}=ϵ_{ABC}x_C.$$

From this we can produce the equations of motion for the transverse coordinates $`X^i`$:

$$\ddot{X}^i=\frac{4}{N^2}\{\{X^i,X^j\},X^j\}$$

which follow from the hamiltonian

$$H=\frac{N}{2\pi R}d^2\sigma \left(\frac{1}{2}\dot{X}^i\dot{X}^i+\frac{1}{N^2}\{X^i,X^j\}\{X^i,X^j\}\right).$$

We can then make a correspondence between these coordinate functions on $`S^2`$ with the generators of $`SU(2)`$:

$$x_A\frac{2}{N}J_A$$

where $`J_1,J_2,J_3`$ are generators of the $`N`$-dimensional representation of $`SU(2)`$ satisfying

$$i[J_A,J_B]=ϵ_{ABC}J_C.$$

Then completing the matrix correspondence with

$$\{,\}\frac{iN}{2}[,],\frac{N}{4\pi }d^2\sigma Tr,$$

we produce the hamiltonian of Matrix theory,

$$H=\frac{1}{R}Tr\left(\frac{1}{2}\dot{𝐗}^i\dot{𝐗}^i\frac{1}{4}[𝐗^i,𝐗^j][𝐗^i,𝐗^j]\right)$$
(1)
where $`𝐗^i(t)=\varphi _i(t)J_i`$, $`i=1,2,3`$ as the (noncommutative) $`i`$-coordinate of a supermembrane in light-cone gauge. The equations of motion are then:

$`\ddot{\varphi }_1`$ $`=`$ $`\varphi _1(\varphi _2^2+\varphi _3^2),`$
$`\ddot{\varphi }_2`$ $`=`$ $`\varphi _2(\varphi _1^2+\varphi _3^2),`$
$`\ddot{\varphi }_3`$ $`=`$ $`\varphi _3(\varphi _1^2+\varphi _2^2),`$
It was found in  that the membranes are unstable, and the only vacuum configuration is $`\varphi _1=\varphi _2=\varphi _3=0`$. This has a clear interpretation that the tension of the brane is forcing it to contract to zero size.

In subsequent work, Myers  found there was a term coupling the membrane to the four-form field strength found in supergravity,

$$V_1=\frac{i}{6R}F_{0ijk}Tr𝐗^i𝐗^j𝐗^k.$$
(2)
As might be hoped, this can stabilize the membrane by stretching it, the membrane being charged under this gauge field. However, there was no analysis of the supersymmetry of the membrane in this background field.

At this point we should clarify what we mean by $`\varphi _i`$ as the cartesian coordinates of the membranes. We define $`\varphi _i`$ such that a *membrane* will have radii $`\varphi _i>0`$. As $`\varphi _i0`$ for one coordinate, we see the membrane is compressed along that dimension until it resembles a disk. We can then continue to $`\varphi _i<0`$ if we interpret it as an *antimembrane* with radius $`\varphi _i`$; the intuition behind this is that the membrane has now turned inside-out, and so we would expect to have opposite charge to all gauge fields (its internal orientation is now reversed). A similar situation exists if several $`\varphi _i<0`$, so that a membrane can be defined as $`\varphi _1\varphi _2\varphi _3>0`$ and an antimembrane has $`\varphi _1\varphi _2\varphi _3<0`$. In fact, many solutions which appear distinct are actually equivalent because the $`𝐗^i`$ are defined only up to a unitary transformation,

$$𝐗^iU^{}𝐗^iU.$$

For example, the two solutions

$$\varphi _1,\varphi _2,\varphi _3\text{and}\varphi _1,\varphi _2,\varphi _3$$
(3)
are related by $`U=\mathrm{exp}i\pi J_3`$.

## 3 Constructing the toy $`𝒩=2`$ superpotential

The simplest model of the supermembrane would constitute 3 real bosonic fields $`\varphi _i`$ representing the cartesian coordinates, depending only on time, and their fermionic partners $`\psi _i`$. Thus this is a quantum mechanical system of 3 real superfields $`\mathrm{\Phi }_i`$,

$$\mathrm{\Phi }_i=\varphi _i+i\theta \psi _ii\psi _i^{}\theta ^{}+\theta \theta ^{}D_i$$

where $`\theta ,\theta ^{}`$ are Grassmann variables and $`D_i(t)`$ is an auxiliary function. In order to produce a superpotential capable of producing $`V_1`$, we found it was necessary for a second potential to be added, equivalent to a $`𝐗^i`$ mass term:

$$V_2=\frac{1}{2R}m^2\underset{i}{}𝐗^i𝐗^i.$$

As explained in , this matrix theory potential term is physically realized by modifying the background metric $`g_{++}`$ component,

$$g_{++}=m^2\underset{i}{}𝐗^i𝐗^i.$$

By choosing

$$F_{0ijk}=3mϵ_{ijk}$$

the entire system can be recast in the superfield formalism,

$`S`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{R}}{\displaystyle d^2\theta 𝑑t\left(\underset{i}{}|D_\theta \mathrm{\Phi }_i|^2W\right)}`$ (4)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{R}}{\displaystyle 𝑑t\underset{i}{}\left\{\frac{1}{2}\dot{\varphi }_i\dot{\varphi }_i+i\psi _i^{}\dot{\psi }_i\frac{1}{2}\left|\frac{W}{\varphi _i}\right|^2+\underset{j}{}\frac{^2W}{\varphi _i\varphi _j}\psi _i^{}\psi _j\right\}},`$ (5)
$`W`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{\Phi }_1\mathrm{\Phi }_2\mathrm{\Phi }_3{\displaystyle \frac{m}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\mathrm{\Phi }_i^2.`$ (6)
This superpotential is similar to that studied in $`𝒩=1^{}`$ theories . In what follows we derive equations of motion from this superpotential and show that they are the same equations of motion found for the Matrix hamiltonian in the previous section. After identifying the classical vacua of this potential, we then calculate the Witten index, suggesting the breaking of supersymmetry. Finally, we describe instanton tunneling between the bosonic and fermionic vacua, confirming that supersymmetry is broken.

We first derive the potential,

$`V(\varphi _i)`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{i=1}{\overset{3}{}}}\left|{\displaystyle \frac{W}{\varphi _i}}\right|^2`$ (7)
$`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{ij}{}}\varphi _i^2\varphi _j^2+{\displaystyle \frac{m^2}{2}}{\displaystyle \underset{i}{}}\varphi _i^23m\varphi _1\varphi _2\varphi _3.`$ (8)
The equations of motion are then

$`\ddot{\varphi _1}`$ $`=`$ $`\varphi _1\left(\varphi _2^2+\varphi _3^2\right)m^2\varphi _1+3m\varphi _2\varphi _3,`$
$`\ddot{\varphi _2}`$ $`=`$ $`\varphi _2\left(\varphi _3^2+\varphi _1^2\right)m^2\varphi _2+3m\varphi _3\varphi _1,`$
$`\ddot{\varphi _3}`$ $`=`$ $`\varphi _3\left(\varphi _1^2+\varphi _2^2\right)m^2\varphi _3+3m\varphi _1\varphi _2.`$ (9)
These are precisely the same as the Matrix equations of motion obtained in the previous section for a spherical membrane in background fields $`g_{\mu \nu }`$ and $`F_{0ijk}`$, producing potentials $`V_1`$ and $`V_2`$. And because we obtained this from a superpotential, we may easily determine the supersymmetric properties of the vacuum .

### 3.1 Calculation of the Witten index

We will first locate the classical vacua satisfying $`V=0`$, neglecting any quantum-mechanical tunneling which might raise the vacuum energy. From this we can determine the Witten index $`\mathrm{\Delta }`$,

$$\mathrm{\Delta }N_+N_{}$$

where $`N_+`$ is the number of bosonic vacua and $`N_{}`$ is the number of fermionic vacua. A remarkable property of the Witten index is that it does not change under deformation of parameters, so we expect this will be the index value even when tunneling effects are included.

The superpotential has the following two distinct classical vacua, whose labeling will become apparent shortly:

$$\begin{array}{cccccc}& & \varphi _1& \varphi _2& \varphi _3& \\ |F& |& 0,& 0,& 0& ,\\ |B& |& m,& m,& m& .\end{array}$$
(10)
In listing these vacua we have neglected all physically identical vacua which may be obtained via unitary transformations, as explained previously. Note that for $`|B`$, $`\varphi _1\varphi _2\varphi _3=m^3`$, and so this is a membrane (as opposed to an antimembrane). Physically this arises because a certain $`F_{0ijk}`$ charge is required to balance the tension and metric potentials possessing membrane-antimembrane symmetry. By definition, membranes have this charge, antimembranes having the opposite charge, so we require a membrane.

To determine the type of vacua (bosonic or fermionic) each of these are, we investigate the fermion mass term of the supersymmetric action,

$$\frac{^2W}{\varphi _i\varphi _j}=\left(\begin{array}{ccc}m& \varphi _3& \varphi _2\\ \varphi _3& m& \varphi _1\\ \varphi _2& \varphi _1& m\end{array}\right).$$
(11)
When the matrix is evaluated for a particular vacuum, its eigenvalues indicate the energy cost of the presence of a fermion in that ground state. A negative eigenvalue implies that the ground state contains a fermion. If an odd number of eigenvalues are negative, the ground state is fermionic. For example, the vacuum at the origin $`|F`$ is fermionic:

$$\lambda =\{m,m,m\},$$
(12)
and the extended solution $`|B`$ is bosonic:

$$\lambda =\{m,2m,2m\}.$$
(13)
The Witten index is therefore

$$\mathrm{\Delta }=11=0.$$

A non-zero Witten index implies that SUSY may or may not be broken. Although we obtained this answer by studying the vacua individually, in the $`m\mathrm{}`$ limit, the index should not change as we reduce $`m`$ and “turn on” quantum mechanical interactions.

### 3.2 Instanton tunneling

The value of the Witten index can be confirmed and elucidated by considering the instanton tunneling that lifts certain linear combinations of these vacua. Instanton effects in supersymmetric quantum mechanics have been well-studied .

We seek the instanton solution with the following properties. At euclidean time $`t\mathrm{}`$, it begins at the vacuum $`|F=|0,0,0`$. As time progresses it moves towards the vacuum $`|B=|m,m,m`$, arriving there as $`t\mathrm{}`$. Since the solution should be symmetric in all $`\varphi _i`$, we may use the following action to derive the instanton solution:

$$S_E=\frac{3}{2}𝑑t\left(\dot{\varphi }^2+V(\varphi )+\mathrm{}\right)$$
(14)
where $`\mathrm{}`$ indicate the fermion terms, which play no role in our calculation, and the potential is given by

$$V(\varphi )=\varphi ^2(\varphi m)^2.$$

The instanton solution then satisfies

$$\dot{\varphi }_I=\varphi _I(\varphi _Im).$$

Choosing $`t_I`$ as the time at which the instanton is half-way between the two vacua, this is easily solved to yield

$$\varphi _I(t)=\frac{m}{1+e^{m(tt_I)}}.$$
(15)
Plugging this back into (14), we produce the classical action

$$A_0=\frac{m^3}{2}.$$

Hence these classical vacua each acquire a mass $`e^{m^3/\mathrm{}}`$.

## 4 Constructing the toy $`𝒩=4`$ superpotential

We now extend the number of supercharges to 4 simply by complexifying the superfields $`\mathrm{\Phi }_i`$ and parameter $`m`$. In particular, the superpotential (6) and its vacua are identical. And again, unitary transformations may be used to bring all extended solutions to the form $`|m,m,m`$ where the basis $`|\varphi _1,\varphi _2,\varphi _3`$ is now complex. The membrane will then have radius $`|m|`$, with the phase of $`m`$ determining the complex basis.

For the special case $`m=0`$, this model reproduces the ‘rotating ellipsoidal membrane’ analysis in , where the membrane was stabilized by adding angular momentum to the complex fields. For $`m0`$, our potential does not have this $`U(1)\times U(1)\times U(1)`$ symmetry.

We may choose the convention that the six mass eigenvalues for the state $`|m,m,m`$,

$$\lambda =\{Rem,Imm,2Rem,2Imm,2Rem,2Imm\}$$

constitute a bosonic state. The point-size solution $`|0,0,0`$ now has mass eigenvalues

$$\lambda =\{Rem,Imm,Rem,Imm,Rem,Imm\},$$

which makes it also a bosonic state. Since there cannot be tunneling between vacua of like statistics, these vacua remain massless.

## 5 Discussion

We have presented a quantum mechanical model of the spherical supermembrane. For either 2 or 4 supercharges, it possesses two supersymmetric vacua, but in the former case the vacua acquire mass when instanton effects are included.

This situation is similar to that believed to occur in the study of giant gravitons . In fact, the instanton solution (15) we obtained using quantum mechanics is identical to the exact field theory result obtained in . Perhaps our model could be modified to include a second extended membrane vacua, as is the case in giant gravitons.

The most interesting aspect of the model is that the background fields required for our toy model bear a striking resemblence to Matrix theory compactified on a pp-wave background with our parameter $`m`$ equivalent to the parameter $`\mu /3`$ found in  (in particular, the metric and field strengths are identical). Ours differs only in that we limit ourselves to the 3 relevant bosonic fields (playing the role of the cartesian coordinates), our fermions are Grassmann numbers and carry no spinor indices arising from dimensional reduction, and our supercharges commute with the hamiltonian. It would be very interesting to determine whether our model can be obtained as a special case of supersymmetric Matrix theory compactification.

###### Acknowledgments.

We would like to thank D. Berenstein, R. Friedman, B. Greene, N. Iizuka, K. Schalm, A. Weltman and especially D. Kabat. This work was supported by the VIGRE program. M.G.J. is supported by a Pfister Fellowship.