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Résumé |
String theory has been known for quite a while to contain non-perturbative objects called D-branes in
addition to the fundamental strings the theory is named after. However, fairly recently, new types of
membranes in string theory are being studied: the so-called "exotic branes". These exotic branes have the
interesting feature that their spacetime is multi-valued or non-geometric; this means that when you travel
in a circle around the brane, the resulting spacetime looks different from that which you started out with!
It is of considerable interest to study and classify the possible types of such exotic branes that can exist in
string theory. To study them, we can work in a 3D theory (of maximal supergravity), where the exotic
branes are just point particles. In this theory, we can at least classify the supersymmetric point particles,
thereby gaining insight into what kind of supersymmetric exotic branes exist in string theory.
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