Revolving D-branes and spontaneous gauge-symmetry breaking

Abstract

We propose a new mechanism of spontaneous gauge-symmetry breaking in the world-volume theory of revolving D-branes around a fixed point of orbifolds. In this paper, we consider a simple model of the T6/Z3 orbifold on which we put D3-branes, D7-branes, and their anti-branes. The configuration breaks supersymmetry, but the Ramond-Ramond tadpole cancellation conditions are satisfied. A set of three D3-branes at an orbifold fixed point can separate from the point, but, when they move perpendicular to the anti-D7-branes put on the fixed point, they are pulled back due to an attractive interaction between the D3- and anti-D7-branes. In order to stabilize the separation of the D3-branes at nonzero distance, we consider revolution of the D3-branes around the fixed point. Then the gauge symmetry on the D3-branes is spontaneously broken, and the rank of the gauge group is reduced. The distance can be set at will by appropriately choosing the angular momentum of the revolving D3-branes, which should be determined by the initial condition of the cosmological evolution of the D-brane configurations. The distance corresponds to the vacuum expectation values of brane moduli fields in the world-volume theory and, if it is written as M/M2s in terms of the string scale Ms , the scale of gauge-symmetry breaking is given by M. Angular momentum conservation of revolving D3-branes assures the stability of the scale M against Ms.