Strings ending on branes from supergravity

Abstract

We study geometries produced by brane intersections preserving eight supercharges. Typical examples of such configurations are given by fundamental strings ending on Dp branes and we construct gravity solutions describing such intersections. The geometry is specified in terms of two functions obeying coupled differential equations and the boundary conditions are determined by distributions of D branes. We show that a consistency of type IIB supergravity constrains the allowed positions of the branes. The shapes of branes derived from gravity are found to be in a perfect agreement with profiles predicted by the DBI analysis. We also discuss related 1/4-BPS systems in M theory.