TY - JOUR
T1 - String theory and classical absorption by three-branes
AU - Gubser, Steven S.
AU - Klebanov, Igor R.
AU - Tseytlin, Arkady A.
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful to V. Balasubramanian, C.G. Callan, and A. Hashimoto for useful discussions. This work was supported in part by DOE grant DE-FG02-91ER40671, the NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award PHY-9157482, and the James S. McDonnell Foundation grant No. 91-48. A.A.T. also acknowledges the support of PPARC and the European Commission TMR programme ERBFMRX-CT96-0045.
PY - 1997/8/18
Y1 - 1997/8/18
N2 - Low-energy absorption cross sections for various particles falling into extreme non-dilatonic branes are calculated using string theory and world-volume field theory methods. The results are compared with classical absorption by the corresponding gravitational backgrounds. For the self-dual three-brane, earlier work by one of us demonstrated precise agreement of the absorption cross sections for the dilaton, and here we extend the result to Ramond-Ramond scalars and to gravitons polarized parallel to the brane. In string theory, the only absorption channel available to dilatons and Ramond-Ramond scalars at leading order is conversion into a pair of gauge bosons on the three-brane. For gravitons polarized parallel to the brane, scalars, fermions and gauge bosons all make leading-order contributions to the cross section, which remarkably add up to the value predicted by classical gravity. For the two-brane and five-brane of M-theory, numerical coefficients fail to agree, signaling our lack of a precise understanding of the world-volume theory for large numbers of coincident branes. In many cases, we note a remarkable isotropy in the final state particle flux within the brane. We also consider the generalization to higher partial waves of minimally coupled scalars. We demonstrate agreement for the three-brane at ℓ = 1 and indicate that further work is necessary to understand ℓ > 1.
AB - Low-energy absorption cross sections for various particles falling into extreme non-dilatonic branes are calculated using string theory and world-volume field theory methods. The results are compared with classical absorption by the corresponding gravitational backgrounds. For the self-dual three-brane, earlier work by one of us demonstrated precise agreement of the absorption cross sections for the dilaton, and here we extend the result to Ramond-Ramond scalars and to gravitons polarized parallel to the brane. In string theory, the only absorption channel available to dilatons and Ramond-Ramond scalars at leading order is conversion into a pair of gauge bosons on the three-brane. For gravitons polarized parallel to the brane, scalars, fermions and gauge bosons all make leading-order contributions to the cross section, which remarkably add up to the value predicted by classical gravity. For the two-brane and five-brane of M-theory, numerical coefficients fail to agree, signaling our lack of a precise understanding of the world-volume theory for large numbers of coincident branes. In many cases, we note a remarkable isotropy in the final state particle flux within the brane. We also consider the generalization to higher partial waves of minimally coupled scalars. We demonstrate agreement for the three-brane at ℓ = 1 and indicate that further work is necessary to understand ℓ > 1.
KW - Coincident membranes
KW - Extremal black holes
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U2 - 10.1016/S0550-3213(97)00325-8
DO - 10.1016/S0550-3213(97)00325-8
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0031577431
SN - 0550-3213
VL - 499
SP - 217
EP - 240
JO - Nuclear Physics B
JF - Nuclear Physics B
IS - 1-2
ER -