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We consider gravity in the system consisting of the Bogomol'nyi-Prasad-Sommerfield (BPS) $D3$-brane embedded in a flat background geometry, produced by the solutions of supergravity. The effective action for this system is represented by the sum of the Hilbert-Einstein and Dirac-Born-Infeld actions. We derive the Wheeler-DeWitt equation for this system and obtain analytical solutions in some special cases. We also calculate the tunneling probability from the Planckian size of the $D3$-brane to the classical regime.

Recently a Born-Infeld action for dark energy and dark matter that uses additional affine connections was proposed. At background level, it was shown that the new proposal can mimic the standard cosmological evolution. In Bianchi cosmologies, contrary to the scalar field approach (e.g., Chaplygin gas), the new approach leads to anisotropic pressure, raising the issues of stability of the isotropic solution under anisotropic perturbations and, being it stable, how the anisotropies evolve. In this work, the Eddington-Born-Infeld proposal is extended to a Bianchi type I scenario and residual post-inflationary anisotropies are shown to decay in time. Moreover, it is shown that the shears decay following a damped oscillatory pattern, instead of the standard exponential-like decay. Allowing for some fine tuning on the initial conditions, standard theoretical bounds on the shears can be avoided., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. v2: ref. added, v3: figs. improved, new paragraph in the Conclusions. Accepted in PRD

The advent of explicit Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) inflationary models within string theory has drawn renewed interest to the cosmological role of unusual scalar field dynamics, usually referred to as k-inflation. In this situation, the standard method used to determine the behavior of cosmological perturbations breaks down. We present a generic method, based on the uniform approximation, to analytically derive the power spectra of scalar and tensor perturbations. For this purpose, a simple hierarchy of parameters, related to the sound speed of the cosmological fluctuations and its successive derivatives, is introduced in a k-inflation analogue of the Hubble flow functions. The scalar spectral index and its running are obtained up to next to next to leading order for all k-inflationary models. This result relies on the existence of a well-motivated initial state, which is not trivial in the present context: having the wavelength of the Fourier mode smaller than the sonic horizon is indeed not enough and some conditions on the dynamics of the sound speed are also required. Our method is then applied to various models encountered in the literature. After deriving a generic slow-roll trajectory valid for any DBI model, simple formulae for the cosmological observables are obtained. In particular, the running, as the spectral index, for the so-called UV and IR brane inflationary models is found to be uniquely determined by the 't Hooft coupling. Finally, the accuracy of these cosmological predictions is assessed by comparing the analytical approximations with exact numerical integrations., Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, uses RevTeX. References added, misprints corrected, matches published version

Waveguides can be employed to test non-linear effects in electrodynamics. We solve Born-Infeld equations for TE waves in a rectangular waveguide. We show that the energy velocity acquires a dependence on the amplitude, and harmonic components appear as a consequence of the non-linear behavior., Comment: 3 pages. To appear in PRL

Dirac-Born-Infeld scalar field theories which appear in the context of inflation in string theory in general have a field dependent speed of sound. It is however possible to write down DBI models which possess exact solutions characterized by a constant speed of sound different from unity. This requires that the potential and the effective D-brane tension appearing in a DBI action have to be related in a specific way. This paper describes such models in general and presents some examples with a constant speed of sound $c_s, V3: Extended and improved discussion, some new results, and additional references. V4: small improvements; same as the version published in JCAP

Null Energy Condition (NEC) requires the equation of state (EoS) of the universe $w_u$ satisfy $w_u\geq-1$, which implies, for instance in a universe with matter and dark energy dominating $w_u=w_m\Omega_m+w_{de}\Omega_{de}=w_{de}\Omega_{de}\geq-1$. In this paper we study constraints on the dark energy models from the requirement of the NEC. We will show that with $\Omega_{de}\sim0.7$, $w_{de}, Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures

A class of spinning magnetic string in 4-dimensional Einstein-dilaton gravity with Liouville type potential which produces a longitudinal nonlinear electromagnetic field is presented. These solutions have no curvature singularity and no horizon, but have a conic geometry. In these spacetimes, when the rotation parameter does not vanish, there exists an electric field, and therefore the spinning string has a net electric charge which is proportional to the rotation parameter. Although the asymptotic behavior of these solutions are neither flat nor (A)dS, we calculate the conserved quantities of these solutions by using the counterterm method. We also generalize these four-dimensional solutions to the case of (n + 1)-dimensional rotating solutions with k ? [n / 2] rotation parameters, and calculate the conserved quantities and electric charge of them. © 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved., Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman

We show that the use of higher dimensional wrapped branes can significantly extend the inflaton field range compared to brane inflation models which use D3-branes. We construct a simple inflationary model in terms of 5-branes wrapping a 2-cycle and traveling towards the tip of the Klebanov-Strassler throat. Inflation ends when the branes reach the tip of the cone and self-annihilate. Assuming a quadratic potential for the brane it is possible to match the CMB data in the DBI regime, but we argue that the backreaction of the brane is important and cannot be neglected. This scenario predicts a strong non-Gaussian signal and possibly detectable gravitational waves., 13 pages, 2 figures; v2 typos corrected, minor additions, added references

We study properties of non-BPS D(p+1)-brane in the background of k NS5-branes, with one transverse direction compactified on a circle, from the point of view of Dirac-Born-Infeld action. We present the analysis of two different embedding of non-BPS D(p+1)-brane in given background and study the classical solutions of given world-volume theory. We argue for the configuration of a non-BPS D(p+1)-brane which allows us to find solutions of the equations of motion that give unified descriptions of G and U-type branes., 24 pages, minor changes

We perform a systematic analysis of the conditions under which \textit{generalized} gauge field theories of compact semisimple Lie groups exhibit electrostatic spherically symmetric non-topological soliton solutions in three space dimensions. By the term \textit{generalized}, we mean that the dynamics of the concerned fields is governed by lagrangian densities which are general functions of the quadratic field invariants, leading to physically consistent models. The analysis defines exhaustively the class of this kind of lagrangian models supporting those soliton solutions and leads to methods for their explicit determination. The necessary and sufficient conditions for the linear stability of the finite-energy solutions against charge-preserving perturbations are established, going beyond the usual Derrick-like criteria, which only provides necessary conditions., Comment: 6 pages, revtex4

We assume that universe is dominated by non-relativistic matter and tachyon field and reconstruct the potential of tachyon field directly from the effective equation of state (EOS) of dark energy. We apply the method to four known parametrization of equation of state and discuss the general features of the resulting potentials., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, accepted by MPLA

We study a two-parameter family of exactly solvable inflation models with variable sound speed, and derive a corresponding exact expression for the spectrum of curvature perturbations. We generalize this expression to the slow roll case, and derive an approximate expression for the scalar spectral index valid to second order in slow roll. We apply the result to the case of DBI inflation, and show that for certain choices of slow roll parameters, the Bunch-Davies limit (a) does not exist, or (b) is sensitive to stringy physics in the bulk, which in principle can have observable signatures in the primordial power spectrum., Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX; V2: version submitted to PRD. References added, minor error in text corrected

In this note we present global string solutions which are a generalization of the usual field theory global vortices when the kinetic term is DBI. Such vortices can result from the spontaneous symmetry breaking in the potential felt by a D3-brane. In a previous paper (0706.0485), the DBI instanton solution was constructed which develops a "wrinkle" for stringy heights of the potential. A similar effect is also seen for the DBI vortex solution. The wrinkle develops for stringy heights of the potential. One recovers the usual field theory global string for substringy potentials. As an example of the symmetry breaking, we consider a mobile D3-brane on the warped deformed conifold. Symmetry breaking can occur if the structure of the vacuum manifold of the potential for the D3-brane changes as it moves through the throat region., Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures. New section with a comparison of DBI vortices and k-defects

In this paper, we wish to investigate certain observable effects in the recently obtained wormhole solution of the Eddington-inspired Born–Infeld (EiBI) theory, which generalizes the zero-mass Ellis–Bronnikov wormhole of general relativity. The solutions of EiBI theory contain an extra parameter κ having the inverse dimension of the cosmological constant Λ, and which is expected to modify various general relativistic observables such as the masses of wormhole mouths, tidal forces and light deflection. A remarkable result is that a non-zero κ could prevent the tidal forces in the geodesic orthonormal frame from becoming arbitrarily large near a small throat radius (${r}_{0}\sim 0$) contrary to what happens near a small Schwarzschild horizon radius ($M\sim 0$). The role of κ in the flare-out and energy conditions is also analyzed, which reveals that the energy conditions are violated. We show that the exotic matter in the EiBI wormhole cannot be interpreted as a phantom ($\omega =\frac{{p}_{{\rm{r}}}}{\rho }\lt -1$) or ghost field ϕ of general relativity due to the fact that both ρ and p (r) are negative for all κ.

We analyze an integrable sector of the space of solutions of the four dimensional (super) membrane theory, where the target space is locally Minkowskian and hence a solution of the Supergravity equations. By performing a duality transformation we relate it to the 1+1 Born-Infeld integrable equation.

We explore the dynamics of dark energy models based on a Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) tachyonic action, studying a range of potentials. We numerically investigate the existence of tracking behaviour and determine the present-day value of the equation of state parameter and its running, which are compared with observational bounds. We find that tachyon models have quite similar phenomenology to canonical quintessence models. While some potentials can be selected amongst many possibilities and fine-tuned to give viable scenarios, there is no apparent advantage in choosing a DBI scalar field instead of a Klein-Gordon one., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures. v2: references added, matches the published version

The cosmological evolution in Nonlinear Born-Infeld(hereafter NLBI) scalar field theory with negative potentials was investigated. The cosmological solutions in some important evolutive epoches were obtained. The different evolutional behaviors between NLBI and linear(canonical) scalar field theory have been presented. A notable characteristic is that NLBI scalar field behaves as ordinary matter nearly the singularity while the linear scalar field behaves as "stiff" matter. We find that in order to accommodate current observational accelerating expanding universe the value of potential parameters $|m|$ and $|V_0|$ must have an {\it upper bound}. We compare different cosmological evolutions for different potential parameters $m, V_0$., 18 pages, 18 figures, some references added, revised version for Int.J.Mod.Phys.A, appeared in Int.J.Mod.Phys.A

We construct some classes of electrically charged, static and spherically symmetric black hole solutions of the four-dimensional Einstein-Born-Infeld-dilaton gravity in the absence and presence of Liouville-type potential for the dilaton field and investigate their properties. These solutions are neither asymptotically flat nor (anti)-de Sitter. We show that in the presence of the Liouville-type potential, there exist two classes of solutions. We also compute temperature, entropy, charge and mass of the black hole solutions, and find that these quantities satisfy the first law of thermodynamics. We find that in order to fully satisfy all the field equations consistently, there must be a relation between the electric charge and other parameters of the system.., Comment: 15pages

A covariant version of the non-abelian Dirac-Born-Infeld-Myers action is presented. The non-abelian degrees of freedom are incorporated by adjoining to the (bosonic) worldvolume of the brane a number of anticommuting fermionic directions corresponding to boundary fermions in the string picture. The proposed action treats these variables as classical but can be given a matrix interpretation if a suitable quantisation prescription is adopted. After gauge-fixing and quantisation of the fermions, the action is shown to be in agreement with the Myers action derived from T-duality. It is also shown that the requirement of covariance in the above sense leads to a modified WZ term which also agrees with the one proposed by Myers., Comment: 18 pages. Minor alterations to the text; references added

We derive a microscopic bound on the maximal field variation of the inflaton during warped D-brane inflation. By a result of Lyth, this implies an upper limit on the amount of gravitational waves produced during inflation. We show that a detection at the level $r > 0.01$ would falsify slow roll D-brane inflation. In DBI inflation, detectable tensors may be possible in special compactifications, provided that $r$ decreases rapidly during inflation. We also show that for the special case of DBI inflation with a quadratic potential, current observational constraints imply strong upper bounds on the five-form flux., 8 pages

The non-abelian Einstein-Born-Infeld-Dilaton theory, which rules the dynamics of tensor-scalar gravitation coupled to a $su(2)$-valued gauge field ruled by Born-Infeld lagrangian, is studied in a cosmological framework. The microscopic energy exchange between the gauge field and the dilaton which results from a non-universality of the coupling to gravity modifies the usual behaviour of tensor-scalar theories coupled to matter fluids. General cosmological evolutions are derived for different couplings to gravitation and a comparison to universal coupling is highlighted. Evidences of cosmic acceleration are presented when the evolution is interpreted in the Jordan physical frame of a matter respecting the weak equivalence principle. The importance for the mechanism of cosmic acceleration of the dynamics of the Born-Infeld gauge field, the attraction role of the matter fluid and the non-universality of the gravitational couplings is briefly outlined., 31 pages, 9 figures, minor changes, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. D15

We study fluctuations of time-dependent fuzzy two-sphere solutions of the non-abelian DBI action of D0-branes, describing a bound state of a spherical D2-brane with N D0-branes. The quadratic action for small fluctuations is shown to be identical to that obtained from the dual abelian D2-brane DBI action, using the non-commutative geometry of the fuzzy two-sphere. For some of the fields, the linearized equations take the form of solvable Lam\'e equations. We define a large-N DBI-scaling limit, with vanishing string coupling and string length, and where the gauge theory coupling remains finite. In this limit, the non-linearities of the DBI action survive in both the classical and the quantum context, while massive open string modes and closed strings decouple. We describe a critical radius where strong gauge coupling effects become important. The size of the bound quantum ground state of multiple D0-branes makes an intriguing appearance as the radius of the fuzzy sphere, where the maximal angular momentum quanta become strongly coupled., Comment: 34 pages, Latex; v2: Minor correction in conformal transformation of couplings, references added

Endomorphisms algebras can replace the concept of principal fiber bundle. Gauge theories are reformulated within this algebraic framework and further generalized to unify ordinary connections and Higgs fields. A "noncommutative Maxwell" model is built starting from non trivial fiber bundles thus requiring the development of the notion of Riemannian structure. The tools involved in the study of associative algebras are presented and an algebraic method to characterize the usual Chern-Weil morphism is proposed. Then, current results on symmetric fiber bundles are generalized to noncommutative connections and an extension of the Witten ansatz is given. Finally, a generalization of the Born-Infeld action for noncommutative connections is proposed. The corresponding Lagrangians are non-polynomial and the existence of solitonic solutions is shown on several examples.; Les algèbres d'endomorphismes peuvent remplacer la notion de fibré principal. Dans ce cadre algébrique, les théories de jauge sont reformulées et généralisées, unifiant ainsi connexions ordinaires et champs de Higgs. Un modèle de "Maxwell non commutatif" est construit pour des fibrés non triviaux nécessitant le développement de la notion de structure Riemannienne. Les techniques de la géométrie non commutative utiles à l'étude des algèbres associatives sont présentées et une nouvelle méthode permettant d'obtenir le morphisme de Chern-Weil usuel est développée. Ensuite, les résultats d'une étude sur les connexions non commutatives généralisent ceux connus sur les fibrés symétriques; une extension de l'ansatz de Witten est énoncée. Enfin, une action est proposée pour généraliser le modèle de Born-Infeld à des connexions non commutatives. Les Lagrangiens obtenus sont non polynomiaux et on étudie l'existence de solutions de type solitonique sur quelques exemples explicites.

Endomorphisms algebras can replace the concept of principal fiber bundle. Gauge theories are reformulated within this algebraic framework and further generalized to unify ordinary connections and Higgs fields. A "noncommutative Maxwell" model is built starting from non trivial fiber bundles thus requiring the development of the notion of Riemannian structure. The tools involved in the study of associative algebras are presented and an algebraic method to characterize the usual Chern-Weil morphism is proposed. Then, current results on symmetric fiber bundles are generalized to noncommutative connections and an extension of the Witten ansatz is given. Finally, a generalization of the Born-Infeld action for noncommutative connections is proposed. The corresponding Lagrangians are non-polynomial and the existence of solitonic solutions is shown on several examples.; Les algèbres d'endomorphismes peuvent remplacer la notion de fibré principal. Dans ce cadre algébrique, les théories de jauge sont reformulées et généralisées, unifiant ainsi connexions ordinaires et champs de Higgs. Un modèle de "Maxwell non commutatif" est construit pour des fibrés non triviaux nécessitant le développement de la notion de structure Riemannienne. Les techniques de la géométrie non commutative utiles à l'étude des algèbres associatives sont présentées et une nouvelle méthode permettant d'obtenir le morphisme de Chern-Weil usuel est développée. Ensuite, les résultats d'une étude sur les connexions non commutatives généralisent ceux connus sur les fibrés symétriques; une extension de l'ansatz de Witten est énoncée. Enfin, une action est proposée pour généraliser le modèle de Born-Infeld à des connexions non commutatives. Les Lagrangiens obtenus sont non polynomiaux et on étudie l'existence de solutions de type solitonique sur quelques exemples explicites.

In this note, we investigate the homogeneous radial dynamics of (Dp, NS5) systems without and with one compactified transverse direction, in the framework of Dirac-Born-Infeld effective action. During the homogeneous evolution, the electric field on the D-brane is always conserved and the radial motion could be reduced to a one-dimension dynamical system with an effective potential. When the Dp-brane energy is not high, the brane moves in a restricted region, with the orbits depending on the conserved energy, angular momentum through the form of the effective potential. When the Dp-brane energy is high enough, it can escape to infinity. It turns out that the conserved angular momentum plays an interesting role in the dynamics. Moreover, we discuss the gauge dynamics around the tachyon vacuum and find that the dynamics is very reminiscent of the string fluid in the rolling tachyon case.

We derive exact magnetically charged, static and spherically symmetric black hole solutions of the four-dimensional Einstein-Born-Infeld-dilaton gravity. These solutions are neither asymptotically flat nor (anti)-de Sitter. The properties of the solutions are discussed. It is shown that the black holes are stable against linear radial perturbations., Comment: 11 pages, 1 figure; v2 typos corrected; v3 comments added in conclusion

We study the variation of the effective fine structure constant alpha for Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) type dark energy models. The DBI action based on string theory naturally gives rise to a coupling between gauge fields and a scalar field responsible for accelerated expansion of the universe. This leads to the change of alpha due to a dynamical evolution of the scalar field, which can be compatible with the recently observed cosmological data around the redshift $\tilde{z} \lesssim 3$. We place constraints on several different DBI models including exponential, inverse power-law and rolling massive scalar potentials. We find that these models can satisfy the varying alpha constraint provided that mass scales of the potentials are fine-tuned. When we adopt the mass scales which are motivated by string theory, both exponential and inverse power-law potentials give unacceptably large change of alpha, thus ruled out from observations. On the other hand the rolling massive scalar potential is compatible with the observationally allowed variation of alpha. Therefore the information of varying alpha provides a powerful way to distinguish between a number of string-inspired DBI dark energy models., 11 pages, 6 figures

We review some general aspects of braneworld cosmologies in which an inflationary period driven by a scalar field confined on the brane is described by a nonstandard effective Friedmann equation. The perturbation spectra, consistency equations and observational consequences of these models are considered.

Generalizations of gravitational Born-Infeld type lagrangians are investigated. Phenomenological constraints (reduction to Einstein-Hilbert action for small curvature, spin two ghost freedom and absence of Coulomb like Schwarschild singularity) select one effective lagrangian whose dynamics is dictated by the tensors g_{\mu\nu} and R_{\mu\nu\rho\sigma}(not R_{\mu\nu} or the scalar R)., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, revtex

We show that some novel physics of supertubes removes closed time-like curves from many supersymmetric spaces which naively suffer from this problem. The main claim is that supertubes naturally form domain-walls, so while analytical continuation of the metric would lead to closed time-like curves, across the domain-wall the metric is non-differentiable, and the closed time-like curves are eliminated. In the examples we study the metric inside the domain-wall is always of the G\"odel type, while outside the shell it looks like a localized rotating object, often a rotating black hole. Thus this mechanism prevents the appearance of closed time-like curves behind the horizons of certain rotating black holes., Comment: 22 pages, JHEP3 class. V2: Some corrections and clariffications, references added. V3: more corrections to formulas, results unchanged. V4: minor typos, as published in PRD

We develop a Born-Infeld type theory for gravity in any dimension. We show that in four dimensions our formalism allows a self-dual (or anti-self dual) Born-Infeld gravity description. Moreover, we show that such a self-dual action is reduced to both the Deser-Gibbons and the Jacobson-Smolin-Samuel action of Ashtekar formulation. A supersymmetric generalization of our approach is outlined., Comment: 5 pages, REVeX4, additional comments, minor typos corrected

The motivation for studying the rolling tachyon and non-commutative inflation comes from string theory. In the tachyon inflation scenario, metric perturbations are created by tachyon field fluctuations during inflation. We drive the exact mode equation for scalar perturbation of the metric and investigate the cosmological perturbations in the commutative and non-commutative inflationary spacetime driven by the tachyon field which have a Born-Infeld Lagrangian., 6 two-column pages, no figure

The consistency equations of patch inflation are considered in a next-to-leading-order slow-roll (SR) expansion. Some general aspects of braneworld degeneracy are pointed out, both with an ordinary scalar field and a Born-Infeld tachyon. The discussion is then extended to the maximally symmetric noncommutative case., Comment: 6 pages; v3: version to appear in Phys. Lett. B

We find a closed form for Seiberg-Witten (SW) map between ordinary and noncommutative (NC) Dirac-Born-Infeld actions. We show that NC Maxwell action after the exact SW map can be regarded as ordinary Maxwell action coupling to a metric deformed by gauge fields. We also show that reversed procedure by inverse SW map leads to a similar interpretation in terms of induced NC geometry. This implies that noncommutativity in field theory can be interpreted as field dependent fluctuations of spacetime geometry, which genuinely realizes an interesting idea recently observed by Rivelles., Comment: 12 pages, Latex; version to appear in Mod. Phys. Lett. A

Dirac-Born-Infeld type effective actions reproduce many aspects of string theory classical tachyon dynamics of unstable Dp-branes. The inhomogeneous tachyon field rolling from the top of its potential forms topological defects of lower codimensions. In between them, as we show, the tachyon energy density fragments into a p-dimensional web-like high density network evolving with time. We present an analytic asymptotic series solution of the non-linear equations for the inhomogeneous tachyon and its stress energy. The generic solution for a tachyon field with a runaway potential in arbitrary dimensions is described by the free streaming of noninteracting massive particles whose initial velocities are defined by the gradients of the initial tachyon profile. Thus, relativistic particle mechanics is a dual picture of the tachyon field effective action. Implications of this picture for inflationary models with a decaying tachyon field are discussed., Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure

In this paper we study the gravitational dielectric phenomena of a D2-brane in the background of Kaluza-Klein monopoles and D6-branes. In both cases the spherical D2-brane with nonzero radius becomes classical solution of the D2-brane action. We also investigate the gravitational Myers effect in the background of D6-branes. This phenomenon occurs since the tension of the D2-brane balances with the repulsive force between D0-branes and D6-branes., Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures, The argument on the stability of the spehrical D2-D0 bound state is modified and clarified in the appendix, The effect of background R-R field are included, reference added, version appeared in PRD

We study the evolution of Born-Infeld-type phantom in the second Randall-Sundrum brane scenario, and find that there exists attractor solution for the potential with a maximum, which implies a cosmological constant at the late time. Especially, we discuss the BI model of constant potential without and with dust matter. In the weak tension limit of the brane, we obtain an exact solution for the BI phantom and scale factor and show that there is no big rip during the evolution of the brane., 5 pages, 2 figures, Reference added, Phys. Rev. D in press

We give matrix and supergravity descriptions of type IIA F strings polarizing into cylindrical D2 branes. When a RR four-form field strength ${F}_{4}$ is turned on in a supersymmetric fashion (with 4 supercharges), a complete analysis of the solutions reveals the existence of a moduli space of $F\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{1}\mathrm{D}2$ polarizations for some fractional strengths of the perturbation, and of no polarization whatsoever for all other strengths of the perturbation. This is a very intriguing phenomenon, whose physical implications we can only speculate about. In the matrix description of the polarization we use the non-Abelian Born-Infeld action in an extreme regime, where the commutators of the fields are much larger than 1. The validity of the results we obtain provides a direct confirmation of this action, although it does not confirm or disprove the symmetrized trace prescription.

We consider giant gravitons on the maximally supersymmetric plane-wave background of type IIB string theory. Fixing the light-cone gauge, we work out the low energy effective light-cone Hamiltonian of the three-sphere giant graviton. At first order, this is a U(1) gauge theory on R x S^3. We place sources in this effective gauge theory. Although non-vanishing net electric charge configurations are disallowed by Gauss' law, electric dipoles can be formed. From the string theory point of view these dipoles can be understood as open strings piercing the three-sphere, generalizing the usual BIons to the giant gravitons, BIGGons. Our results can be used to give a two dimensional (worldsheet) description of giant gravitons, similar to Polchinski's description for the usual D-branes, in agreement with the discussions of hep-th/0204196., Comment: LaTeX, 32 pages, 4 eps figures; Added references

Recent analysis of the observation data indicates that the equation of state of the dark energy might be smaller than -1, which leads to the introduction of phantom models featured by its negative kinetic energy to account for the regime of equation of state $w, Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures, Reference updated, the final version will be published in Phys. Rev. D

We found a gravity solution of p+1 dimensional extended object with SO(p)xSO(9-p) symmetry which has zero pressure and zero dilaton charge. We expect that this object is a residual tachyon dust after tachyon condensation of brane and anti-brane system discussed by Sen, recently. We also discuss the Hawking temperature and some properties of this object., 14 pages, LaTeX, reference added and typos corrected

We define an iterative procedure to obtain a non-abelian generalization of the Born-Infeld action. This construction is made possible by the use of the severe restrictions imposed by kappa-symmetry. We have calculated all bosonic terms in the action up to terms quartic in the Yang-Mills field strength and all fermion bilinear terms up to terms cubic in the field strength. Already at this order the fermionic terms do not satisfy the symmetric trace-prescription., 9 pp. Latex, to appear in the proceedings of the Strings 2000 conference

Born-Infeld generalization of the Yang-Mills action suggested by the superstring theory gives rise to modification of previously known as well as to some new classical soliton solutions. Earlier it was shown that within the model with the usual trace over the group generators classical glueballs exist which form an infinite sequence similar to the Bartnik-McKinnon family of the Einstein-Yang-Mills solutions. Here we give the generalization of this result to the 'realistic' model with the symmetrized trace and show the existence of excited monopoles (in presence of triplet Higgs) which can be regarded as a non-linear superposition of monopoles and sphalerons., Comment: 2pges, LaTeX, Contribution to the 9th Marcel Grossmann meeting (MG9), Rome, July 2000

We argue that bouncing branes occur naturally when there is more than one extra-dimension. We consider three-branes embedded in space-times with a horizon and an isometry group SO(6). As soon as the brane angular momentum is large enough, a repulsive barrier prevents the branes from reaching the horizon. We illustrate this phenomenon with the case of D3-branes in an AdS_5-Schwarzschild-S_5 background and asymptotically flat space-time.

We study time-dependent solutions of Einstein-Maxwell gravity in four dimensions coupled to tachyon matter--the Dirac-Born-Infeld Lagrangian that provides an effective description of a decaying tachyon on an unstable D-brane in string theory. Asymptotically, the solutions are similar to the recently studied space-like brane solutions and carry S-brane charge. They do not break the Lorentzian R-symmetry. We study the tachyon matter as a probe in such a background and analyze its backreaction. For early/late times, the tachyon field has a constant energy density and vanishing pressure as in flat space. On the other hand, at intermediate times, the energy density of the tachyon diverges and produces a space-like curvature singularity., 15 pages, 1 figure, v2: refs added, v3: two more refs added

Regular magnetic monopoles in the non-Abelian Born-Infeld-Higgs theory are known to exist in the region of the field strength parameter $\beta>\beta_{{\rm cr}}$, bounded from below. Beyond this region, only pointlike (embedded abelian) monopoles exist, and we show that the transition from the regular to singular structure is reminiscent of gravitational collapse. Near the threshold behavior is characterized by the rapidly increasing negative pressure, which typically arises in the high density NBI matter. Another feature, shared both the NBI and gravitating monopoles, is the existence of excited states, which can be thought of as bound states of monopoles and sphalerons. These are labeled by the number $N$ of nodes of the Yang-Mills function. Their masses are greater than the mass of the ground state monopole, and they are expected to be unstable. The sequence of masses $M_N$ rapidly converges to the mass of the embedded Abelian solution with constant Higgs. The ratio of the sphaleron size to that of the monopole grows with decreasing $\beta$, and, at the same time, both fall down until the solutions cease to exist, again exhibiting collapse to the pointlike monopole. The results are presented and compared both for the ordinary and the symmetrized trace NBI actions.

We present a class of chiral non-supersymmetric D=4 field theories in which quadratic divergences appear only at two loops. They may be depicted as ``SUSY quivers'' in which the nodes represent a gauge group with extended e.g., N=4 SUSY whereas links represent bifundamental matter fields which transform as chiral multiplets with respect to different N=1 subgroups. One can obtain this type of field theories from simple D6-brane configurations on Type IIA string theory compactified on a six-torus. We discuss the conditions under which this kind of structure is obtained from D6-brane intersections. We also discuss some aspects of the effective low-energy field theory. In particular we compute gauge couplings and Fayet-Iliopoulos terms from the Born-Infeld action and show how they match the field theory results. This class of theories may be of phenomenological interest in order to understand the modest hierarchy problem i.e., the stability of the hierarchy between the weak scale and a fundamental scale of order 10-100 TeV which appears e.g. in low string scale models. Specific D-brane models with the spectrum of the SUSY Standard Model and three generations are presented., 36 pages, using JHEP3.cls, 8 figures. References updated

The spectrum of quenched Yang-Mills theory in the large-N limit displays strings and higher dimensional extended objects. The effective dynamics of string-like excitations is encoded into area preserving Schild action. In this letter, we bridge the gap between SU(N) gauge models and fully reparametrization invariant Nambu-Goto string models by introducing an extra matrix degree of freedom in the Yang-Mills action. In the large-N limit this matrix variable becomes the world-sheet auxiliary field allowing a smooth transition between the Schild and Nambu-Goto strings. The new improved matrix model we propose here can be extended to p-branes provided we enlarge the dimensionality of the target spacetime., 11pages, no figures, LateX2e; added discussion

The action for a non-BPS p=2 brane embedded in a flat N=1, D=4 target superspace is obtained through the method of nonlinear realizations of the associated super-Poincare symmetries. The brane excitation modes correspond to the Nambu-Goldstone degrees of freedom resulting from the broken space translational symmetry and the target space supersymmetries. The action for this p=2 brane is found to be an invariant synthesis of the Akulov-Volkov and Nambu-Goto actions. The dual D2-brane Born-Infeld action is derived. The invariant coupling of matter fields localized on the brane to the Nambu-Goldstone modes is also obtained., Comment: 37 pages, no figures, revised version to appear in Phys. Rev. D

We study the processes of photon-photon scattering and photon splitting in a magnetic field in Born-Infeld theory. In both cases we combine the terms from the tree-level Born-Infeld Lagrangian with the usual one-loop QED contributions, where those are approximated by the Euler-Heisenberg Lagrangian, including also the interference terms. For photon-photon scattering we obtain the total cross section in the low-energy approximation. For photon splitting we compute the total absorption coefficient in the hexagon (weak field) approximation, and also show that, due to the non-birefringence property of Born-Infeld theory, the selection rules found by Adler for the QED case continue to hold in this more general setting. We discuss the bounds on the free parameter of Born-Infeld theory that may be obtained from this type of processes., Comment: 22 pages, 7 figures, final published version (minor additions and corrections)