Towards a classification of branes in theories with eight supercharges

Abstract

We provide a classification of half-supersymmetric branes in quarter-maximal supergravity theories with scalars parametrising coset manifolds. Guided by the results previously obtained for the half-maximal theories, we are able to show that half-supersymmetric branes correspond to the real longest weights of the representations of the brane charges, where the reality properties of the weights are determined from the Tits-Satake diagrams associated to the global symmetry groups. We show that the resulting brane structure is universal for all theories that can be uplifted to six dimensions. We also show that when viewing these theories as low-energy theories for the suitably compactified heterotic string, the classification we obtain is in perfect agreement with the wrapping rules derived in previous works for the same theory compactified on tori. Finally, we relate the branes to the R-symmetry representations of the central charges and we show that in general the degeneracies of the BPS conditions are twice those of the half-maximal theories and four times those of the maximal ones.