Effective actions and charges of D-branes in curved space-time / by P. Dawson.

Abstract

This thesis firstly investigates K-invariant and supersymmetric actions of D-branes in curved space-time. Following this, research into charges of D-branes in a group manifold are studied. In particular, the charge groups are determined for the symmetry preserving (or untwisted) D-branes on a compact, simple, connected, simply connected group manifold. The purpose of this research is to determine these charge groups in order that they can be compared to the charge groups predicted by twisted K-theory for D-branes in a group manifold, thus providing a future important check to the theorem that D-brane charges are determined by twisted K-theory, one of the most important recent ideas in string theory.